Abstract

A detailed design of an Archimedes Screw Generator is being illustrated in the said project. The team
is making the design that works on the principle of traditional Archimedes screw. Archimedes screw
is one of the oldest machines, still in use, a device for lifting water for irrigation and drainage
purposes. The emphasis in our project is being laid on making a device that takes water as its input
and give output in the form of electricity as much as to light a bulb. Its sole purpose is to work in the
direction of energy saving because it involves no running cost and utilising the energy of flowing
water that is otherwise being wasted.

Despite the long history of Archimedes Screw, there is very little on the dynamics of these devices
when used for power generation. A sincere effort is to be made in this project for a successful
outcome from this device. The team has scrutinized various parameters of construction of
Archimedes Screw Generator such as pitch and number of blades required, length and slope of
screw, etc, the details of which is well described in the project.
Introduction

One of the oldest machines still in use is the Archimedes Screw, a device for lifting water for
irrigation and drainage purposes. Its invention has traditionally being credited to ARCHIMEDES ( circa
287-212 BC). Archimedes' screw consists of a screw (a helical surface surrounding a central
cylindrical shaft) inside a hollow pipe. The screw is turned usually by a windmill or by manual labour.
As the shaft turns, the bottom end scoops up a volume of water. This water will slide up in the spiral
tube, until it finally pours out from the top of the tube and feeds the irrigation systems. The screw
was used mostly for draining water out of mines or other areas of low lying water.
The contact surface between the screw and the pipe does not need to be perfectly watertight, as
long as the amount of water being scooped at each turn is large compared to the amount of water
leaking out of each section of the screw per turn. Water leaking from one section leaks into the next
lower one, so that a sort of mechanical equilibrium is achieved in use.
In some designs, the screw is fixed to the casing and they rotate together instead of the screw
turning within a stationary casing. A screw could be sealed with pitch resin or some other adhesive
to its casing, or cast as a single piece in bronze. Some researchers have postulated this as being the
device used to irrigate the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient
World. Depictions of Greek and Roman water screws show them being powered by a human
treading on the outer casing to turn the entire apparatus as one piece, which would require that the
casing be rigidly attached to the screw.

“The design of the everyday Greek and Roman water screw, in contrast to the heavy bronze
device of Sennacherib, with its problematic drive chains, has a powerful simplicity. A double or
triple helix was built of wood strips (or occasionally bronze sheeting) around a heavy wooden
pole. A cylinder was built around the helices using long, narrow boards fastened to their
periphery and waterproofed with pitch.”
Reverse action

When used as a hydro turbine the principle is the same but acts in reverse. The water enters the
screw at the top and the weight of the water pushes on the helical flights, allowing the water to fall to
the lower level and causing the screw to rotate. This rotational energy can then be extracted by an
electrical generator connected to the main shaft of the screw.
Archimedean screws for hydropower are used on low head / high flow sites. They can work efficiently
on heads as low as 1 metre, though are not generally used on heads less than 1.5 m (more for
economic reasons than technical ones). Single screws can work on heads up to 8 metres, but above
this multiple screws are generally used, though in many cases for heads above 8 metres there may
be more appropriate turbines available with much smaller footprints
Principle
COMPONENTS OF ARCHIMEDES SCREW GENERATOR:-

 ARCHIMEDES SCREW- It is one of the major component of the system.

Archimedes' screw consists of a screw (a helical surface surrounding a central
cylindrical shaft) inside a hollow pipe. The screw is turned usually by a windmill or
by manual labour. As the shaft turns, the bottom end scoops up a volume of water.
This water will slide up in the spiral tube, until it finally pours out from the top of the
tube and feeds the irrigation systems. The screw was used mostly for draining water
out of mines or other areas of low lying water.

 CASING- The screw sits in (and in some cases has fixed to it) a cylindrical trough.
This trough may be a tube that encircles the screw, or it may only extend around the
lower half of the screw.It is made of acrylic plastic for long use.A fixed trough
(casing) design is more efficient and more tolerant to changing flow conditions.

FIGURE: TROUGH ENCIRCLING THE LOWER HALF OF THE SCREW

 CYLINDRICAL SHAFT- An Archimedes screw consists of an inner cylindrical

shaft, around which one or more helical surfaces (flights) are wrapped orthogonal to
the cylinder surface.

 TRASH CAN- It is used to filter the water.

 GENTRY- It is used to control flow of water .Generally gating system is used to

control the flow of water. Sluice gating system is used to control the flow of water.
 TAIL RACE RESERVOIR-It consists of tank which is used to collect water. It is
placed at the bottom of the Archimedes screw. It is used to collect water coming out
from Archimedes screw. This water is used when needed.
  HEAD RACE RESERVOIR-It is placed at the top of Archimedes’ screw .It is used
to supply water to Archimedes screw.

 PUMP- It is used to lift water from groud level to top of head race reservoir.

 MOTOR/GENERATOR- It is used for energy conversion. It is used to convert

hydropower of water to electric power. 24V motor is required for this.

MATERIALS/TOOLS NEEDED:-
Materials:-

 Wood
 Wooden dowel (100mm Diameter)
 1mm – 2.5mm thick sheet steel
 1.5m steel rod (25.4mm Outer Diameter)
 1.25m plastic downpipe (100mm Inner Diameter)
 Bracket for downpipe
 Gearbox (not mandatory)
 12V Motor/Generator
 Ball bearings
 Tin sheet
 PVC pipe
 Electric pump

Tools:-

 Wood lathe
 Metal lathe
 Abrasive cutter
 Bench Grinder
 Hand Grinder
 Handheld drill
 Gas/Arc Welder
 Bench Vice

Procedure

1. Calculations
 2. Making templates

In order to make the screw more efficient, we wanted all of the blades to be of equal size and pitch.
To make the blades of equal size we simply cut a template out of wood by turning a cylinder of wood
on a wood lathe, slicing it into discs then drilling through the centre.

For the pitch we created a template using a CNC machine. We know that a lot of people don't have
access to a CNC machine so the discs can also just be bent into shape during the welding process
using a hammer
3. Making the discs
Cutting
Each disk is cut out of a sheet of steel using a plasma cutter. The
template [made in Step 3] is clamped to the sheet of steel then the
plasma cutter is run round the template cutting the disk.

Grinding
The edges of the discs are then ground to the right size using a bench
grinder [our discs were 64mm diameter]. This also removes the burr left
by the plasma cutter. The surface of the discs are also ground down
using an angle grinder to remove any burr from the surface and improve
the aesthetic.

Bending
Each disc is then clamped in the CNC template [made in Step 1] in the
bench vice to bend it to the correct pitch.
4. Welding and refining the screw
then weld each disc to the central pole using a gas welder, it is found
from making prototypes that the gas welder gave a much cleaner finish
than arc welding. This created the blades of the screw.

The welding caused the central pole to warp slightly so we had to

manually bend the pole back so that it was as straight as possible. This
took some time! We made supports for the screw to sit in so that it was
held at one level and span it using a drill to see where the warping was,
we then had to bend it by hand.

Also at this stage when we tried fitting the screw in the downpipe it was
too tight a fit so we had to grind down some of the blades using an
angle grinder. To find out which blades needed grinding we forced the
screw in the pipe and ran it off the drill, this made the screw cut the
inside of the pipe and when we pulled the screw out, the blades that
had lots of plastic on them, and therefore had been cutting into the pipe
most, were the ones that needed ground down.
5. Sealing the screw
Traditionally an Archimedes Screw would rotate inside the pipe while
the pipe stayed stationary. However we decided, after a lot of testing,
with our pump it would be more efficient if the screw was sealed inside
 the pipe and the pipe rotated along with it so really now it is a variation
on the coil pump.

The screw fits tightly into the pipe anyway but in order to make it sealed
we first had to run silicon sealant [any bathroom sealant should work,
we used multipurpose silicone sealant from the pound shop] round the
central pole so that there were no gaps between it and the blades. We
then put a generous line of sealant round the outsides of the blades and
then forced the screw into the pipe and left it to dry over the weekend
[we recommend leaving it for at least 24 hours]. This sealed the screw
to the pipe and this way hopefully no water will run back down the pipe
like it would in a traditional Archimedes Screw.

6. Assembly, attachment of generator and casing is done at last. Fabrication is done

DESIGN LAYOUT
The purpose of this design analysis is to examine the optimal design of an Archimedes screw.
By this is meant that geometry that will maximize the amount of water delivered to the lower
reservoir in one turn of the screw. This optimization will be performed under the assumption
that the outer radius of the screw is specified, for clearly the amount of water lifted in each
revolution can be continually increased by continually increasing this radius.

All the given data is calculated using Vitruvius’s screw configuration handbook:

Outer diameter- 110mm (optimal radius ratio = .5356 for N =10)

Shaft diameter- 2”=50.8mm

Length of shaft- 1.5m

Length of casing pipe-1m

A handbook on the design and operation of Archimedes screws (Nagel 1968) states that the
rotational velocity of a screw in revolutions per minute (rpm) should be no larger than
50/D2/3, where D is the diameter of the outer cylinder in meters.

Nmax <=50/D2/3

As we proposing to use a generator with max.100 rpm so the Archimedes screw should rotate
close to this value .By taking account the loss of accuracy and frictional factors we calculate
the diameter using N= 214.6 rpm

We get D= .11m=110mm (outer dia. of casing pipe)

Assuming clearance = 2mm

Dia. of screws =106mm

Diameter of shaft

We are using a standard commercial steel pipe of dia. 1” or 25.4mm.

Pitch of screws
P = pitch (or period) of one blade (m) (0 < P< 2 πR0 /K)

We are assuming pitch=100mm (data may vary during fabrication of model)

45<k<60 (k = slope of screw)

No. of blades

As we are using steel for making blades so reduce the weight and increase the efficiency we
limit the no. of blade upto 10.

Volume contained by screws in one cycle

‘‘chute’’ is meant a region of the screw bounded by two adjacent blades and the inner and
outer cylinders. The region between the inner and outer cylinders of the screw consists of N
disjoint congruent chutes separated by the N blades.

The volume of each chute is 2π (R02-Ri2)L/N(L=Length of screw )

By calculating volume of each chute is .747ltr

Other dimensions of reservoir tank and lower tank are to be determined

during actual fabrication of project.
 Material Cost (in Rs.)
S.No
1. Steel sheet 700
2. Tin sheet 500
3. Electric motor/gen 200
4. Steel shaft 200
5. Ball bearing 400
6. Pump 200
7. Casing Pipe 150
8. Others 350
Total 2700
Archimedean screws are a new type of turbine in this country, and they have a number of
advantages over conventional turbines-

 It is one of the future renewable energy resource .

 It is well suited for low head sites. ASGs are relatively tolerant to changes in flow and
varying water levels, maintaining reasonably high efficiency over relatively wide
ranges of these parameters. This characteristic is an additional advantage for ASGs
utilized in small-scale run-of-river applications.
 There are few moving parts, so less parts to get damaged and go wrong.
 Their installation costs can be lower than comparable Kaplan turbines.
 They are mechanically simple – less to go wrong.
 Installation can be relatively simple, and costs can tend to be lower on low head sites,
for instance on the many river weirs which exist.
 Unlike nearly all turbines, you can see the water doing the work. It takes in only
hydraulic energy giving out the highest form of energy means that it is highly efficient
system.
 It is easy to build.
 It requires less maintenance.
 They require very little fish and debris screening.
 There are no trapping points for the fish and no pressure discontinuities which can
upset them also.
 They have good visibility – people can see the water generating the power.

APPLICATIONS:-

 It can be used in ponds and lakes. It can be used in drainage canal of cities.
 Mini model can be used in socities.
 All above installations develop, power free of cost.
 The principle is also found in pescalators, which are Archimedes screws designed to
lift fish safely from ponds and transport them to another location.
 This technology is used primarily at fish hatcheries, where it is desirable to minimize
the physical handling of fish.

FUTURE:-
It is one of the future energy resource. It is recognized as one of the most reliable ,
predictable and environmental friendly resource. One area of future research is to consider
variable speed generators. These would allow the ASG to reduce rotation speed during low
flow periods, resulting in increased bucket fill and torque, allowing continued operation.

Future research plans also include conducting flow visualization within the ASG’s buckets .
The impact of varying other parameters, including the effects of inlet and outlet geometry,
installed slope and pitch, will also be investigated. Based in part on the presented data and the
ongoing research, a parametric model of an ASG is being developed, to allow numerically-
based site specific optimization of ASG designs.