LYCEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES UNIVERSITY - CAVITE

Development of Mini Hydroelectric Powerplant for LPU C Mechanical

Engineering Laboratory
Chapter 1

Introduction

In this chapter, the researchers introduce the background and statements that led

on the conduction of the study. This chapter show the foundation, the formulated

theoretical scheme of the research study. The objective, scopes and significance of the

study are also stated in this chapter.

Background of the Study

According to an article published in the website of National Geographic, humans

have been harnessing the energy of river currents for centuries, using water wheels spun

by rivers initially to process grains and cloth. Today, hydropower provides about 16

percent of the world's electricity, generating power in all but two U.S. states.

In the 1870s, Lester Allan Pelton invented the Pelton turbine, the Pelton wheel

extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like

the traditional overshot water wheel. Another type of impulse water turbine is the Turgo

turbine, it was designed in 1919 by Gilkes as a modification of the Pelton wheel, the

Turgo has some advantages over Francis and Pelton designs for certain applications.

First, the runner is less expensive to make than a Pelton wheel. Second, it doesn't need an

airtight housing like the Francis. Third, it has higher specific speed and can handle a

greater flow than the same diameter Pelton wheel, leading to reduced generator and

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installation cost. And lastly, The Crossflow turbine, developed by the Australian Anthony

Michell, the Hungarian Donát Bánki and the German Fritz Ossberger. Michell obtained

patents for his turbine design in 1903, and the manufacturing company Weymouth made

it for many years. Ossberger's first patent was granted in 1933 and he manufactured this

turbine as a standard product.

Hydropower plants works by capturing the energy of falling water to generate

electricity. A turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy.

Then a generator converts the mechanical energy from the turbine into electrical energy.

(Wisconsin Valley Improvement Company)

One of the possible careers that graduates from Mechanical Engineering can take

is by working in a Powerplant so to be able to work in this kind of industry it is must to

learn how a Powerplant works.

A miniature hydroelectric power plant must be available in the engineering

laboratory for the students to be able to fully understand how hydropower plant works in

the industry.

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Objectives of the Study

General Objective

The main objective of this study is to develop an equipment that can help the LPU

engineering students enrolled to understand how Hydroelectric Power Plant.

Specific Objectives

1. To provide an equipment that will be used by LPU - C engineering

students to demonstrate the process of hydroelectric power plant with
three different turbines.

2. To compare the three types of impulse turbine in terms of power

generated.

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Theoretical Framework

Output
Input Process

Development of
Impulse turbines Fabrication Mini Hydroelectric
Dam
Testing and Power Plant
Intake
Demonstrating
Penstock Evaluation
Three types of
Generator Formulation Impulse Turbines
Transformer
Computation for LPU-C
Outflow
Engineering
Pump
Laboratory

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Significance of the Study

This study will help students understand more about Hydroelectric Power plant

and how it functions. It will also give ideas to the readers on how to build a miniature yet

fully functional hydroelectric power plant.

Lyceum of the Philippines University – Cavite. The hydroelectric power plant

that we will made will be an additional educational equipment for the engineering

laboratory of LPU and will used for demonstration.

Faculty. The study will benefit the faculties that will teach about hydroelectric

power plant, its parts and how it functions.

Students. The prototype will help the students to easily understand how

hydroelectric power plant works.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

The scope of the Study focuses only on Development of Mini Hydroelectric

Power Plant Demonstrating Three types of Impulse Turbines for LPU C Engineering

Laboratory, up to the development of the system on how this device will work properly.

Other factors affecting the prototype other that what have mentioned above, will

be subjected to further studies.

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Definition of Terms

Crossflow turbine - is a type of turbine that tends to be used in smaller hydroelectric sites

with power outputs between 5-100 kW.

Electrical energy - Electrical energy is a form of energy resulting from the flow of

electric charge.

Francis turbine - is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow

concepts.

Hydropower - Hydropower or waterpower is power derived from the energy of falling or

fast-running water, which may be harnessed for useful purposes.

Impulse turbine - is a turbine that is driven by high velocity jets of water or steam from a

nozzle directed on to vanes or buckets attached to a wheel.

Kinetic energy - It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass

from rest to its stated velocity.

Mechanical energy - is the sum of kinetic and potential energy in an object that is used to

do work. In other words, it is energy in an object due to its motion or position, or both.

Pelton turbine - is tangential flow impulse turbine. The water strikes the bucket along the

tangent of the runners. The energy available at the inlet of the turbine is only kinetic

energy the pressure at the inlet and outlet of the turbine is atmospheric.

Turbine - is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and

converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating

electrical power when combined with a generator.

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Turgo turbine - is an impulse water turbine designed for medium head applications.

Operational Turgo Turbines achieve efficiencies of about 87%.

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