Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 2 | Page 71

CIVIL INSIGHT 2018
PROJECTS
71
PERFORMANCE TEST OF THE ULTRA LOW-HEAD
HYDROPOWER TURBINE
Group Members
Nitesh Shrestha, Shradhye Shrestha, Rushit Shrestha, Sunil Shrestha, Sarina Shrestha, Bikash Sudhakar
Supervisor
Dr.-Ing. Ramesh Kumar Maskey
INTRODUCTION
Hydropower technology has been around for
more than a century. Water is released from the
reservoir fl owing through a turbine which in turn
activates a generator to produce electricity. In
Nepal, many people are suffering from energy crisis
due to inadequate power plants. Ultra low-head
hydropower turbine has the potential to become
a renewable and sustainable resource through
technical innovation and cost reduction. This system
can use the site of low head and low discharge for the
purpose of power generation. It is a simple structure
with limited hydraulic and mechanical components,
and can be installed in irrigation canal, navigation
canal, waste-water treatment plant and manmade
water fl owing system.
MODEL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF
THE TURBINE
The components of the turbine built were:
1. Turbine hub: Polyvinyl pipe of thickness 0.2cm
was used for the preparation of the turbine hub
of diameter 7cm and length 10cm.
2. Blades: Blades of the turbine were prepared by
using polyvinyl pipe, which were attached to the
hub using M-seal.
Two different blades profi le were constructed as
follows
1. At an angle 0° with the hub axis
OBJECTIVES
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Fabrication of turbine as per design.
To build test setup that can facilitate the
testing of the turbine
To measure various parameters (i.e.
discharge through orifi ce, torque, etc.)
To study hydraulic jump at the exit of
turbine
To calculate the effi ciency of the turbine
model with specifi c blade profi le
METHODOLOGY
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Literature review
Analysis of the working principle
Design of testing canal
Fabrication of the turbine
Model construction and test
preparation
Experimental testing
Calculation and testing
setup
2. At an angle of 20° with the hub axis