Poster seminar 1 17

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ULTRA LOW

HEAD SIMPLE REACTION WATER TURBINE

Student: Abhijit Date

Supervisor: Prof. Aliakbar Akbarzadeh

Motivation for research

• Growing energy demand

• Growing CO2 emission (global warming)

• World Hydropower potential survey published in Hydropower & Dams World Atlas 2001 & 2005

World Hydropower scenario (HDW Atlas 2005)

– Technically exploitable potential 16000 TWh/year– Economically exploitable potential 8800 TWh/year– Present hydro power generation 2840 TWh/year– World electricity production 18580 TWh/year

TWh – Trillion Watt Hour

Hydropower is strategically important worldwide

Actual generation in 2005

− North America 675 TWh/yr

− South America 596 TWh/yr

− Europe 705 TWh/yr

− Asia 717 TWh/yr

− Australia 15 TWh/yr

− New Zealand 23 TWh/yr

Technically exploitable potential

– North America 3000 TWh/yr

– South America 3010 TWh/yr

– Europe 2714 TWh/yr

– Asia 5259 TWh/yr

– Australia 100 TWh/yr

– New Zealand 37 TWh/yr

Aim of this research project is to develop a low cost water turbine for producing electricity from ultra low head water sources.

Objectives:

– To investigate the simple reaction water turbine to improve its

performance

– To develop a simple design which would allow use of common

and easily available material

Ultra Low head potentials (small rivers, streams, creeks, canals) are worth exploring which will not have any adverse effect on the surrounding environment.

– Low-head energy sources have a low specific energy, which

requires large and expensive machines which can handle large

volumetric flow rate.

– Conventional hydro turbines such as Kaplan, Francis and Pelton

are expensive for micro-hydro installations and are not

economically suitable for ultra low head micro-hydro applications.

– A simple hydro-machine which can be locally manufactured and

installed (i.e. simple design) with very low cost is needed.

Kaplan(High efficiency and

High cost)

KaplanPropeller

FrancisKaplan

Reaction

Crossflow(Banki)

(Low efficiency and medium cost)

Multi-Jet PeltonCrossflow

(Banki)

PeltonTurgo

Crossflow(Banki)

PeltonTurgo

Impulse

Ultra low( < 5m)

Low (5m to 20m)

Medium(20m to 100m)

High (>100m)Head (meter of water head)

Turbine Type

Groups of impulse and reaction turbines(Resource: Micro-hydro Design Manual, by Adam Harvey)

Turgo RotorPelton Rotor Francis Rotor Kaplan Rotor Crossflow Rotor

Turbine selection table

Simple reaction water turbine also known as Hero’s turbine or Barkers mill is the most simplest reaction turbine.

Simple reaction water turbine and a garden water sprinkler works on same reaction principle.

The drawbacks of Barkers mill design are:

– Power is lost due to air drag.

– Power is also lost due to high fluid velocity in the arms.

Barkers Water Mill

Garden Sprinkler

The “split reaction water turbine” design developed from this research has been influenced by design of the Savonius wind

turbine

Savonius wind turbine

Steps to build a split reaction water turbine

Prototype 1: Split reaction water turbine(turbine diameter 255mm, total exit nozzle area 0.00127m2)

Prototype 2: Split reaction water turbine(turbine diameter 125mm, total exit nozzle area 0.00127m2)

Water Turbine Test Unit

Tachometer

Pressure Gauge

Electric Generator(D.C. Motor)

Flow meter

Water Pump

Water Turbine

Flow ControllerFrequency controller

for water pump electrical power input

Hydraulic input power control and measurement Input power = mgH

.

gH = Gauge pressure reading in

kPa

m = mass flow rate (kg/sec)

.