About HWPL

Our group concentrates on two significant renewables that are augmenting the energy demand of the world. Hydro and wind energy are both clean energies and help in reducing environmental pollution. Hydropower already contributes significantly to the electrical grid, and developments in wind energy harnessing are making it a promising source of energy. Researchers are constantly trying to improve the technologies associated with Vertical axis wind turbines for urban areas.

Hydropower is foreseen to be a great asset for electrical grid stability. The intermittency of variable renewables like solar and wind causes fluctuating demands on the electrical grid. To meet this requirement, hydraulic turbines are operated in off-design conditions. This presents us with the problem of unstable flow with fluctuating pressure in hydraulic machinery. We are trying to address this issue, particularly for Francis Turbine.

The other main problem that arises in Francis turbines is the erosion of mechanical components. Erosion can be due to two reasons, first is due to solid particles present in the stream of water and the second is due to cavitation. Both these phenomena are harmful for turbine life. Through our research, we wish to minimize the erosion in Francis turbine power plants.

The Team

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself"

- Henry Ford

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Prof. Rahul Goyal

Group Lead/Principal Investigator of HWPL

MEMBER/COORDINATOR

Member of International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research-IAHR
Member of Americal Society of Mechanical Engineers-ASME
Life Member National Society of Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power
Principle Member of Wind Turbines Sectional Committee (ETD-42) of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)
Coordinator, MoU between THDC India Ltd. and IIT Delhi
Coordinator, MoA between NHPC Ltd. and IIT Delhi
Member of Reviewer Committee for Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award
Coordinating Committee, Francis-99 workshop (NTNU Norway and LTU Sweden)
Scientific Committee Member IAHR 32nd Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, September 11-14, 2024

INVITED LECTURE/TALK

“Advances in Energy Storage Technology (March 9-13, 2020)” on “Pump storage needs and role of pump storage plants in largescale RE integration.” at IIT Delhi (Offline)
"Hydropower Need, Role and Challenge of Hydropower in Large Scale RE integration" Online AICTE Approved Quality Improvement Program-Short Term Course on Bioenergy: A hope for future and global energy security" during March 01-05,2021 at IIT BHU (Online)
Renewable Energy: Pathways and Technologies (RPET-2022),31st Oct. - 4th Nov. 2022 at NIT Uttarakhand (Online)
"CFD and Its Applications to Renewable Energies (Hydro and Wind" Emerging Technologies in Thermo-Fluids and Energy Systems (ETTES-2023), April 11-16, 2023, at NIT Delhi
"Wind Energy-Onshore and Offshore "Renewable Energy Technologies: Recent Advancements and Techno-Economic Aspects, Sept 26-2023 at GAIL, Noida (Offline)

Educational Background

Dr. Rahul Goyal is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He received his Ph.D. in 2017 from Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Roorkee and Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics, Fluid and Experimental Mechanics, LTU Sweden. He also received his M.Tech. degree from IIT Roorkee in 2013. During his Ph.D., he worked as a Guest Researcher at Waterpower Laboratory of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway to conduct the transient flow measurements on model Francis turbine. After PhD, he worked as a Project Fellow at Department of Mechanical Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee from August, 2017 to March, 2018. Dr. Rahul has also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Laboratoire des Écoulements Géophysiques et Industriels (Laboratory of Geophysical and Industrial Flows), Grenoble-INP, France from April, 2018 to October, 2018. Then, he worked as an Assistant Professor Grade-II in Mechanical Engineering Department of National Institute of Technology, Patna from November, 2018 to June 2019.

Awards/Recognition/Chair

Nominated as member, R&D Council of NIWE, MNRE (GoI)
Young Faculty Institute Fellowship (IIT Delhi)
Chair of session in 49th National Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power (FMFP 2021), IIT Roorkee, Dec. 2022.
Chair of session in International Conference on Computational Heat, Mass, and Momentum Transfer (ICCHMT 2023), 4–8 September 2023, in Düsseldorf, Germany