Design and Construction of a Mini Hydro Turbine Model

Abstract

This research is aimed at design and construction of a mini hydro turbine generator that can be made available at the consumer level, so as to improve the generation and availability of power at lower rate without pollution to the environment so as to help boost power generation, quality of power to its power consumers in developing countries. Pelton’s wheel design was used for the turbine research. Water stored in a tank or reservoir at a three meter height contains potential energy, this water is allowed to fall on the turbine wheel which drives the turbine. The potential and kinetic energy available in the water is converted to mechanical energy by rotating the runner connected to the turbine blade. The runner is connected to the rotor part of the alternator (containing the permanent magnet) and the stator (containing the windings) which is kept at permissible air gap to the rotor for effective induction. The voltage is tapped out from the stator as a single phase output, which is used to power household utilities and other machineries which need power supply. The result obtained was gotten from the various tests carried out on this research the tests includes water flow rate test, stator coil resistance test, output voltage test, power quality test and rotational speed test. The output power result shows that domestic power could be generated at individual residential level this will help improve and stabilize the power in the national grid.