The focus of this study is to develop a design for a zero-head turbine for hydro-power generation at flow and zero-head operating conditions. Two key simulations were applied to evaluate the hydro performance and structural integrity of the proposed design which are computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) Based on the simulation results the turbine performance was optimized to work in low water stream circumstances. The findings were encouraged to adopt such solutions to support sustainability. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.