Design and Development of Gravitational Vortex Turbine for Rural Areas of Southern Punjab
This project concerns about the build, modelling and designing an efficient micro hydroelectric power system design i.e. Gravitational Vortex turbine. To design this model, the actual parameters of micro hydroelectric plant such as the water flows, types of turbine, head and other parameters wil
2025-06-28 16:31:23 - Adil Khan
Design and Development of Gravitational Vortex Turbine for Rural Areas of Southern Punjab
Project Area of Specialization Shared EconomyProject SummaryThis project concerns about the build, modelling and designing an efficient micro hydroelectric power system design i.e. Gravitational Vortex turbine. To design this model, the actual parameters of micro hydroelectric plant such as the water flows,
types of turbine, head and other parameters will be found and designed accordingly.
All around the globe Electricity and power requirements are increasing exponentially.Large scale MW hydro, nuclear or coal powered plants demand high initial as well as maintenance costs. It is time to shift to small scale and efficient indigenous production for a community or a single household. This projects aims to use available water
resources in rural areas of Punjab with minimal natural heads to produce electricity.
The gravitational vortex turbine is best suited for such types of head. This project will identify various ways to increase the efficiency by varying design parameters like Blade angle, blade design, head, notch angle and basin design to achieve the desired output.
For clean and sustainable development, we need to develop renewable energy sources. At this time, many countries energy policy sets out measures for developing renewable energy technologies to solve the global problems.
Gravitational water vortex power plant is one of such renewable low head turbines in which the mechanical energy of free surface flowing water is converted to kinetic energy by tangentially passing the water to a basin, which forms a water vortex. Development and implications of low head turbines similar thus may be a good alternative to light up such areas where the marginal cost of grid extension is greatly increased in rural areas by physical isolation, lower electricity loads, and with scattered low-income consumers.
This study is for the development of efficient turbine blade and basin design. Different geometric models are developed by using creo & solidworks software and simulation is done with the help of Commercial CFD code ANSYS Fluent. Mathematical relationships among these design parameters with the water velocity will be established. Thus formed mathematical model is optimized using different optimization tool which is followed by experimental verification by measuring the power output. We will optimize the conical basin of this plant by changing the four design parameters of basin such as: notch angle, canal height, notch inlet width, & amp; cone angle.
After designing, building and testing the Gravitational vortex turbine we will be able to reach our design objectives based on project goals and constraints. After completing background research we will be able to determine that the benefits of a GVT turbines represent the one of the most efficient option for power generation.
Software Analysis by AutoCAD, Creo and Computational fluid dynamics will render us results by varying different parameters for an optimized solution and efficient
turbine, the blade designs will be varied in foil shape and solidity.
We will be able identify issues with GVT that should be resolved for testing new turbines. We will explore environmental, safety, maintenance, legal, and ecological
risks associated with our turbine prototypes in parallel.
It will be a low head turbine to be used in areas where electricity shortage is an immense issue and people would hence be able to fulfill their energy requirements like charging their mobile phones, laptops, flashlights, fans, led’s in short running a complete household .
- Terrace Farming Areas
- Backward Rural Area
- Agriculturists
- Army Camps
- Campers and Adventurers
- Energy Crisis ridden site located and Site Survey is conducted where site evaluation on multiple factors is conducted , Such areas where water is an abundance but electricity is short or not available is selected and studied for physical , implementation , financial and technical feasibility is made.
- Runner Characteristics: The runner is the heart of the turbine. This is where water power is transformed into the rotational force that drives the generator. Regardless of the runner type, its buckets or blades are responsible for capturing the most possible energy from the water. The curvature of each surface, front and rear, determines how the water will push its way around until it falls away. Also that any given runner will perform most efficiently only at a specific Head and Flow. The runner will be closely matched to the site characteristics
- .Penstock design: Penstock is a closed conduit, various methods are available for optimum design of penstock. These methods are either based on empirical relations or derived analytically by optimizing the friction loss and head loss in the penstock. By using such designs, diameter and annual cost of penstocks for Hydro Electric plants of varying capacity decreased overall cost is observed.
- Turbine Selection: Hydropower turbines use water pressure to rotate its blades and generate energy. Selecting the appropriate type of turbine depends primarily on available head and so on available flow rate. The three primary types of turbines are: the Pelton turbine, for high heads; the Francis turbine, for low to medium heads; and the Kaplan turbine for a wide range of heads.
- Blade Design: Based upon the actual change in the waters pressure as it used by the turbines wheel, modern water turbine designs are designed by varying blade angles , shape ,size etc
- Generator Selection: A generator is a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy. The mechanical energy from the rotating blades from the water pressure is converted to electrical energy via a rotor that is connected to the turbine by a shaft that rotates in the stator field and induces electricity through the faradays electromagnetic induction principle.
- Power Transmission & Storage: Transmission lines conduct electricity from the hydropower plant to homes and businesses far away and to storage houses. Electricity from turbine can be stored in various forms for example Pumped hydroelectric, Compressed air, Flywheel, Batteries, Thermal Energy storage etc. But in this case we will be using Lithium ion batteries for conserving electrical energy.
- Turbine Testing: The turbine will be tested in real practical site as well as laboratories test beds for power outputs, efficiency, optimum design parameters etc. for different flow rates and heads.
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 58500 | |||
| Generator | Equipment | 1 | 10000 | 10000 |
| Turbine Blade | Equipment | 4 | 5000 | 20000 |
| Turbine Basin Design | Equipment | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |
| Batteries | Equipment | 1 | 5000 | 5000 |
| Hub | Equipment | 1 | 1000 | 1000 |
| Bearings | Equipment | 1 | 500 | 500 |
| Turbine Runner | Equipment | 1 | 2000 | 2000 |
| Circuit Connectors | Equipment | 1 | 500 | 500 |
| Power Measuring Device | Equipment | 1 | 2500 | 2500 |
| Raw Material | Miscellaneous | 1 | 3000 | 3000 |
| Labour | Miscellaneous | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |
| Prints | Miscellaneous | 1 | 500 | 500 |
| Flex | Miscellaneous | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| flywheel | Equipment | 1 | 4000 | 4000 |