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Concept design of an impulse turbine pico hydro power
Integrated Design Project 2
Individual Supplementary Assignment (2020-21)
Conceptual Design of an Impulse Turbine Pico Hydro Power Scheme
1. Design Case study
Design projects, from initial brief to final delivery and manufacture, go through a chain of stages such as scoping and drafting initial design specifications, conceptualization, prototyping, detailed design development, final design specifications, testing, and launching. (Design activities can be found on IDP2 Canvas pages). In this exercise, you are acting as an engineering consultant reporting to a major design and consultancy company. This is a multi-disciplinary leading industry dedicated to innovating the power and energy sectors.
Your brief is currently to address the conceptualization of a Pico hydro power scheme for a remote location of your choosing. A Pico hydro power scheme typically supplies local electricity to a small village or workshop. Figures in Appendix 1 (drawn from online resources) outline the complexity of the design of a typical scheme.
2. Design Guidelines
- The scheme should be resilient and environmentally friendly
- The scheme should be sustainable with regards to manufacturing and maintenance
- Constituent materials should be available in the market and cost effective
- The all aspects of the design will reflect sound engineering principles
- All major mechanical sub systems such as gears, bearings, generator, etc. should be externally resourced.
3. Your task
As an engineering consultant, you oversee developing the concept design of a 5KW turbine for 10 years of service. You must deliver preliminary design calculations that justify the prototype that you propose. At this stage, no engineering drawings will be expected.
You are free to decide the type of scheme you will be conceptualizing. Noting that, extra marks will be awarded for any achievable and realistic innovations that you introduce.
You are also free to make assumptions around geographical and environmental conditions, or any other criteria that is relevant. Any assumption made should be based on evidence and must be referenced in your report. Please include information about product(s) supplier, cost, and technical specifications of any bought-out component(s).
Part 1 - All engineers:
1. Write an account (up to 4 pages) of Sustainability, health and safety, and business and enterprise aspects of your design.
2. Develop an overall conceptual design of the scheme using hand sketches and/or computer modelling, as you prefer.
Part 2 – Technical analysis/calculations (Discipline specific):
Civil engineers should concentrate on the turbine house structure including its foundations, the intake structure, weir and flumes (up to 4 pages).
Mechanical engineers should only concentrate on the mechanical power transmission system from the selection of an appropriate gearing, shafts, bearings up to and including the interface to the generator (but not the generator itself (up to 4 pages).
Electrical engineers should only concentrate on the electrical power generation system starting from the selection of an appropriate generator, and electrical power supply and transmission to the electricity user (up to 4 pages).
3. Marking Scheme
Maximum Pages/Words Maximum Marks
Executive Summary 300 words 5
Conceptual design development / sketches 3 pages 25
Considerations of Sustainability,
Health & Safety,
Business Enterprise
4 pages
30
Technical Analysis / Calculations 4 pages 30
Overall Report Quality including references cited 10
Total 100
The report should be word processed (except for hand drawn sketches, where scanned images should be used).
4. Submission Deadline
Submit your reports via canvas. The deadline for submission is Friday 27th August 2021 Note: The standard late submission penalty by the school will applicable.

Appendix
Breeze, P. (2018). Hydropower. Academic Press. https://birmingham-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primoexplore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9780128129074&context=PC&vid=44BIR_VU1&lang=en_US&search_scope=CSCOP_ 44BIR_DEEP&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=local&query=any,contains,Mini%20and%20Micro%20Hydro%20Power&facet=rtype,in clude,books&offset=0
Soares, C. (2011). Microturbines: applications for distributed energy systems. Elsevier. https://birminghamprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primoexplore/fulldisplay?docid=TN_cdi_askewsholts_vlebooks_9780080549484&context=PC&vid=44BIR_VU1&lang=en_US&search_scope=CSCOP_ 44BIR_DEEP&adaptor=primo_central_multiple_fe&tab=local&query=any,contains,Mini%20and%20Micro%20Hydro%20Power&facet=rtype,in clude,books&offset=0
Specific to Pico hydro power: https://energypedia.info/wiki/Pico_Hydro_Power#:~:text=Pico%20hydropower%20is%20the%20only,clusters%20or%20even%20single%20ho useholds
General reference to hydro power: https://www.theengineer.co.uk/micro-hydroelectricity-takes-off-in-the-uk/ https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/hydro-energy/hydro-energy.html https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/hydro-energy/hydroelectricity.html https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/hydro-energy/micro-hydro-power.html
https://www.british-hydro.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/A-Guide-to-UK-mini-hydro-development-v3.pdf https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/buying-and-making-electricity/microhydropower-systems https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/impulse-turbine
https://www.alternative-energy-tutorials.com/hydro-energy/impulse-turbine.html
https://offgridpermaculture.com/Off_Grid_Energy/Off_Grid_Hyrdo_Electric___Micro_Hydro_How_To_Guide.html

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