e-ISSN: 2582-5208

International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

Volume:02/Issue:05/May-2020 www.irjmets.com

DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF PICO HYDRO POWER PLANT USING A

IMPULSE TURBINE
Vivek Viswanadha*1, P.H.J.Venkatesh*2
*1
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vignan’s Institute of Information Technology
(A),Visakhapatnam, A.P., India.
*2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vignan’s Institute of Information Technology (A),
Visakhapatnam, A.P., India.

ABSTRACT
The practical design of pelton wheel and analysis is made to measure the flow rate of rain water entering into a
small Pond by using a V-Notch wier .It was performed in a rural area with 50 houses. Every year during rainy
season the amount of water used to go waste into the ponds with out any utility for the people living in the rural
areas with less population,the water during the rainy season flowing into the pond from the small drains into a
large single connected single drain.In this paper A practical attempt is made to utilize the rain water by
measuring the total flow rate of the rain water and after measuring based on the discharge obtained a small Pico
hydropower plant is constructed using pelton wheel and the amount of power is estimated.
KEYWORDS: V-notch , Flow Rate ,Discharge ,Pico hydro plant, Pelton wheel.

I. INTRODUCTION
The V-notch is a triangular shaped open channel section measurement and they are used for measurement of
small flow discharge value. The upper part of the section is above the water level, and the channel is always
triangular shaped , the cross-sectional area can be determined easily.V-notches is used for low discharge values
and the head above the weir is most sensitive to changes in the flow compared to any other type of notches

Fig-1:Triangle shaped Notch weir

The Hydro power plant uses the energy from flowing water to generate electrical energy or mechanical energy.
In power plants the kinetic energy from the falling water is used to produce electricity. A coupling of turbine
and a generator with a shaft is used to convert the energy from the water to mechanical and then to electrical
energy.
The classifications of hydro power plants based on the power generation capacity:
 Large hydropower > 100 MW
 Medium hydropower 15 -100 MW
 Small hydropower 1 MW-10 MW
 Mini hydropower 100 kW-1MW
 Micro hydropower 5-100 kW
 (vi) Pico hydropower up to 5kW

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International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science
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The Micro hydro power plants are suitable in remote areas for power supplies and rural isolated communities, as
an economic option for extending the electricity grid. The hydro power plants are cheapest and not harmful to
the environment.
Types of hydraulic turbines:
The turbine is a rotational mechanical machine which extracts energy from a flow of fluid and converts it into
work .The amount of work produced by a turbine can be used for generating electricity when coupled with the
shaft to the generator.Turbines are divided by their principle of operation and can be divided into to two types
they are impulse and reactions turbine. The impulse turbine uses the velocity of the water to move the runner
and discharges to atmospheric pressure. Reaction turbines are pressure type turbines that depend on the pressure
difference between either sides of the turbine blades. For micro-hydro,mini applications, Pelton turbines can be
used effectively at head down to about 10m to 20m. Draft tubes are not required for impulse turbine because the
runnerto be located above the maximum tail water to permit the operation at atmospheric pressure.Impulse
turbines are usually cheaper than reaction turbines because there is no need for a specification,they can be
manufactured easily.
Selection of turbine:
The choice of water turbine depends on the environmental conditions and , depends on the head of the water H
and the flow rate Q.

Fig-2:Specific speed vs Design Head

The figure-2 indicates which turbine is most suitable for any particular combination of head and flow rate.
Reaction turbines suited for low head and high flow rate. Pelton turbine is suitable for high head and low flow
rate
Working principle of turbine:
Pelton turbines is a reaction hydraulic turbine which is widely used for large scale power generation. A micro
hydel pelton turbine is model of actual pelton turbine which can be used for small scale power generation. This
type of turbine converts potential energy of water at height into kinetic energy by allowing the water to fall
freely on the pelton runner. This water impact provides necessary torque required for the rotation the runner by
overcoming its inertia forces. The rotation of runner develops a mechanical energy which is coupled to the
alternator which converts it into electrical energy

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Fig-3: Working of pelton wheel

II. METHODOLOGY
Discharge Calculation using V-notch:
The Discharge value is obtained for a simple flow of V-notch by applying Bernoulli equation or Conservation of
Energy

8 
Q= C d   2  g  Tan  H 5 / 2
15 2
Where , Cd:Coefficient of discharge ,ɵ:Notch angle ,H:Height above the base
V-Notches are used in seapage measurement of irrigation dams and toe drains. Discharge in V-Notches can
measure from 0.006 m3/sec to 0.12m3/sec .the advantage with V-notch, is the head over crest is large and the
flow remains unaffected by the surface tension and viscosity. V-Notch is having a small discharge range
The discharge is calculated from the following relation

8 
Q= C d   2  g  Tan  H 5 / 2
15 2
Ɵ=600 , consider Cd =0.467

8 60
Q= 0.467   9.81  Tan  0.07 5 / 2
15 2
Q = 0.025m3/sec
Similar way the other calculations are done and tabulated

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Table-1: Discharge Values for V-notch

S.NO TIME HEAD IN m DISCHARGE Q IN m3/sec

1 11:15 0.070 0.00250

2 11:45 0.078 0.00340

3 12:15 0.085 0.00414

4 12:45 0.090 0.00478

5 01:15 0.096 0.00562

From the above calculations the average value 0.0041m3/sec is choosen as a discharge through the notch.
Design of pelton turbine:
The effective head available of this Pelton turbine is considered at 10 m and the discharge is ,Q= 0.0041m3/sec ,
ρ=1000kg/m3 ,g=9.81m/sec2 ,ηo =80%(Assumed)
1. Calculation for power developed by Pelton Turbine
P = ηo × ρ× g× Q× H For , Q = 0.0041m3/sec and 10m of Head ,ηo =80%
P = 0.8 × 1000× 9.81× 0.0041× 10=0.321kw, nearly taken as a value of 0.4KW
P = 0.4KW
2. Calculation for Speed of the Pelton Turbine

N= 147.7  H
= 470rpm
3. Calculation for Specific Speed of the Pelton Turbine

P
Ns= N  5/ 4
H

0.4
= 470  = 16.7
10 5 / 4
4. Calculation for the absolute velocity of water at inlet of the pelton turbine
Take CV =0.99,

V1 =CV× 2  g  H =3.6m/sec
Therefore, u = u1 = u2 . For the maximum efficiency, the tangential velocity of wheel at pitch circle, u is equal to
u=0.5V1
u=6.8m/sec
5. Calcualtion for the Mean Diameter of the Pelton turbine
From u=π×D×N/60
D=0.276m
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6. Calculation for the Diameter of the Jet for the pelton wheel

Q
Diameter of the Jet,d0 = 0.595  =0.01962m
Z0  H
For single jet Z0 =1

d0
7. Jet Ratio, m= =14
D
8. No of Buckets will be
Z=15+0.5m=22
9. Inlet and oulet velocity triangles for the pelton wheel

Fig-4:Velocity Triangle of outlet and inlet of pelton wheel

Relative velocity of water at inlet Vr1 = V1 - u1=13.68-6.8=6.8m
Whirl velocity of water at inlet and outlet
Vw1 = V1 ,
Vw2 = Vr2 cosΦ - u2,
Vr2=Vr1
Vr1=Vw1-u1 = 6.78m/sec
Vw2=0.3m/sec,Vr2<u2
10. Jet Force on the runner F = ρaV1 (Vw1+Vw2),F=56.908N

11. Jet force on the bucket= Q(V1  u )  (1  cos  ) =0.473N

2

V1

Bucket Design:
In a Pelton turbine design, two important parameters are essential,
(i) The ratio of the bucket width to the jet diameter
(ii) The ratio of the wheel diameter to the jet diameter
The dimensions of the Pelton wheel bucket are

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Bucket length, L = 3.3 d0 = 0.0627m
Bucket width, B = 4 d0 = 0.136m
Notch depth, S = 0.625 d0 = 0.02125m
Notch width, M = 1.6 d0 = 0.0544m
Bucket depth, E = 1.2 d0 = 0.0228m
Bucket height, A = 2.5 d0 = 0.0475m

Fig-5: Pelton wheel Bucket dimensions

Figure.6.Pelton wheel Runner Figure.7.Petlon wheel Figure.8.CFL Bulbs

1.77  10 6  P
12. Shaft diameter ds= 3 =0.0106m
N
Based on these dimensions the pelton wheel is designed and the Pico hydropower plant is devloped and the as
per the calculations the obtained power is 0.4KW, but after performing the experiment the power obtained to a
value of 0.29 KW there are many reasons for the loss of output power such as but For power 0.4kw total of 27
CFL bulbs required and it consumes 0.675kw/hr
1. The bucket width is small compared to the jet diameter, the fluid is may not deflect smoothly by the buckets
and this may lead to energy dissipated lead to the efficiency drop.
2. The Discharge is not same for every rainfall and the flow through drains are also not constant as the drains
not only carry water but also solid waste due to this the flow of water is varied, the same amount of water cannot
be maintained constant as the rain fall is not constant it changes time to time and the amount of water depends
on millimetre of rain fall.
3. The placement of the pelton wheel and the Head also important for the power out put.

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III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table-1: Calculated Values of important parameters for Pelton wheel

Q ,discharge 0.0041m3/sec

N,Speed 470rpm

P,Power 0.41Kw

Z,No of Buckets 22

Jet Ratio,m 14

Shaft diamete 0.0106m

Absolute velocity 3.6m/sec

Specific Speed 16

IV. CONCLUSION
The Discharge value and the power value shows that the out put which is obtained is depend on the amount of
rainfall and the flow of water into the drain and for the power of 0.4kw total no of 27 CFL bulbs can be used
and each bulb consumes 0.675kw/hr as per calculation, but as per experiment for 0.29 KW, total no of 19 CFL
bulbs can be used when it consumes 0.675kw/hr as this is a Practical attempt is made to develop the power plant
and if the same pelton wheel is designed for the 2 times of the existing dimensions which are used after the
energy and other losses the better out put power can be obtained and the designed dimensions can be used for
simulation analysis and the flow variation with the different losses can be estimated properly. By establishment
of these kind of Pico hydropower plant in rural areas more amount of power can be generated and more over the
plant is not harmful to the environment and for power generation natural resources are used. The application of
V-notch and pelton turbine are used to design the hydro plant.

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