FYP Title:

 FABRICATION OF HYDRO-ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION SYSTEM

USING ULTRA-LOW HEAD ARCHEMEDIAN SCREW TURBINE TO
INCREASE EFFICIENCY BY VARYING DIFFERENT PARAMETERS LIKE:
PITCH, INCLINATION AND BY CONTROLLING THE WATER LOSSES (BY
DECREASING THE GAP BETWEEN BLADES OF TURBINE & OUTER DIAMETER OF COVER)

o OBJECTIVE #1: Research Paper

1) Experimental study of screw turbine performance based on
different angle of inclination:

 Published: 13-08-2017
 Authors: 1) Erinofiardi (a,b)
2) Agus Nuramal (b)
3) Putra Bismantolo (b)
4) Abhijit Date (a)
5) Aliakbar Akbarzadeh (a)
6) Afdhal Kurniawan Mainil (b)
7) Ahmad Fauzan Suryono (b)
A) School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000, Australia
B) Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bengkulu,
Bengkulu 38371A, Indonesia.

INTRODUCTION: Renewable energy getting too much attraction these days due to environment
friendly and doesn’t have any kind of negative effect on surroundings , one of the examples of
renewable energy is HYDRO-POWER and also known as Green energy. Screw turbine is just basically
like screw and cylindrical type place as some angle of inclination. In hydro-power different turbines
are being used these days. This research paper is on the study of Archimedean Screw Turbine, which
can be used on ultra-low head of available water for small power generation in Remote areas.

LITERATURE REVIEW:
o Around the year 2000 in Europe, the research was started on screw Turbine and used as pump
to throw water from lower head to high head.
o Then in 2004 and 2005 further research was done on it and used as turbine by flowing water
from high head to low head to rotate it in United Kingdom.
o In 2009 Muller and Senior created a simplified model for Archimedes screw turbine, based on
idealization & comparison is made between hydrostatic pressure of water and moving blades.
o In 2013 Nurenberg and C. Rorres derived analytical model for water inflow of Archimedes screw
turbine to get the optimal value of the inflow parameters.
o In 2015, there was an article about usage of Archimedes screw in application as a pump and as a
turbine by S. Waters & G.A. Aggidis.
o J. Rohmer et al (2016) did research about modeling and experimental results of an Archimedes
screw turbine.

ADVANTAGES: Fish friendly, Enviroment friendly, Low maintenance about every 20 years, High life-time approx.

30 years.

RESEARCH ISSUES: Only issue occurred in Design & Maintenance of Gear Box of Screw Turbine because Screw

Turbine rotates on low rpm and very complicated gear-box is required.

MOTIVE OF AUTHOR: The consumption of Fossil fuel energy should be decreased and replaced
sources renewable energy resources reduce the cost of electricity.

METHODOLOGY: In this research paper the working of Screw Turbine is defined as follows;
 Water enters the inlet part of Screw Turbine and goes down to outlet due to inclination
& gravity force and cause the rotation of turbine.
 The hydrostatic pressure from water on the screw surface causes it to turn. Rotation of
screw shaft can generate electricity by connecting to a generator.\
 In this experiment, the screw turbine consists of a cylindrical shaft wrapped with helical
blade (N=1) orthogonally, fastened with glue and covered with cylindrical casing.
 The shaft was made up of PVC pipe and blade was made up of Aluminum, which are
generally local available materials.
 The size of diameter shaft, screw, and housing were selected according to available tools
and materials.
 The upper and lower housings of turbine were supported by Ball Bearings.
 The dimensions of screw turbine are given below:

PARAMETERS VARIABLES VALUES

Slope B 22o, 30o, 40o
Outer Diameter Do 140mm
 Inner Diameter DI 32mm
Pitch P 54mm
Number of Screw N 1
Gap Width Gw 5mm
Screw Length L 646mm
Flow Rate Q 1.21 liters/sec
Casing Diameter Dt 152mm

 The maximum power produced can be determined by the formula: Pw= ρgQh
 Where: “ρ” is density of water (kg/m 3)
“g” is gravitational force of earth = 9.81 m/s 2

“Q” is the volumetric flow-rate of water ( m 3/sec)

“h” is the the available head of water source (m).

The mechanical power (Ps) available at the turbine shaft can be determined by measuring the
torque (T) at a corresponding angular speed (ω). The torque is found by measuring the
tangential force (F) on a pony brake with moment arm radius of pulley (r).

2 πN
T= Fr Ps= Tω= T 60

The mechanical efficiency of the turbine shows how effectively the available kinetic energy of
Ps
the water is transformed into turbine motion and it becomes: ɳm = Pw

 A Ponny brake system is used to determine the torque, which is made from two springs,
which fits on the pulley of turbine shaft, apply a frictional force on the turbine shaft.
  A DC motor is used to throw back water from lower reservior to upper reservior as
shown in figure given above.

 CHALLANGES FACED DURING RESEARCH: Water loses between Blades of turbine and outer
casing.

 RESULTS: The results are given below:

 Efficiency was decreasing by increasing the inclination because by the level of available water is
still same but inclination is increased and water needs extra source of energy to enter the outlet
of turbine and efficiency is decreased, however the Revolutions per Minute (rpm) is increased.

CONCLUSION: Lowest slope has highest efficiency.

FUTURE RESEARCH: It includes the impact of varying some parameters such as:
1) Number of blades
2) Pitch
3) More installed slope.
4) Leakage and losses will also be controlled.

LIMITATIONS: Inclination slope should be less than level of available water head to get
higher efficiency because there will be no need to invest extra energy to put water in the inlet
of Turbine.

RESEARCH PAPER: 2
Project title (research paper)
Modeling and experimental results of an Archimedes screw turbine

Julien Rohmer

Dominique Knittel

Guy Sturtzer

Damien Flieller

Jean Renaud

Article history:
Received 19 October 2015

Received in revised form

19 February 2016

Accepted 9 March 2016

Available online 23 March 2016

Research Objectives:
Archimedes screw

Small hydropower plant

Very low head hydropower

Modeling

Experimental results

Research Methodology:
The pitch p = 0.21

Flow rate Q=0.53 m3 /s,

Number of blades N = 3,

Inner radius IR = 0.36 m

Angle from surface and angle between tank and turbine B=30’

Efficiency n = 0.86

Hight = 1301mm

Constant k= 10.36

Thered pitch p= 0.96

Problem faced:
Leackages losses Q between the blades 5%

Conclusion

The most common field application for Archimedes screw turbines ranges from 1 to 6.5 m for the head
and a flow rate between 0.25 and 6.5 m3/s. The power capacity of such a plant can be estimated to be
between 1.7 and 300 kW for an overall efficiency of 72%.

The optimal geometric parameters of an Archimedes screw were calculated using sizing charts. These
charts include mechanical efficiency for an Archimedes screw turbine operation. These calculated
parameters were then used for the manufacturing of the Archimedes screw prototype elaborated at
INSA Strasbourg, France.

A numerical model was developed to determine the mechanical efficiency of the Archimedes screw
according to the river flow rate Q and the rotational speed U for the prototype's sizing. The various
losses were included such as leakage losses QLS, overfilling losses QLZR and friction losses expressed
from experimental data.

A second numerical model was developed to determine the inflow level as a function of the rotational
speed and the flow rate.

Singularities were taken into account such as the protection grid and bifurcations. For this model, the
friction losses in the upstream were neglected.
RESEARCH PAPER: 3