Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

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Empirical analysis of turbine and generator efficiency of a pico hydro system T

a,⁎ a a b a
Ibadullah Safdar , Sara Sultan , Hamza Ahmad Raza , Muhammad Umer , Majid Ali
a
U.S. – Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Energy, National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan
b
School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, National University of Science & Technology, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In this research, the performance of a pico hydro system is analyzed by determining turbine and generator
AC permanent magnet alternator efficiency. The turbine used is an impulse type while, for power generation, a 3 phase AC permanent
Impulse turbine magnet alternator is accompanied in the system. Other electrical components are also installed for frequency
Pelton turbine stabilization to operate the load safely. The effect of flow rate and installation of equipment’s i.e. battery and
Pico hydro power
inverter on the turbine and generator efficiency is investigated in this paper. The results obtained from the
experiment revealed that the alternator power, pressure, and torque exerted on the alternator shaft entirely
depend on water flow rate. The speed of the alternator is also affected after incorporating battery and inverter in
a pico hydro system. The optimum permanent magnet alternator efficiency of 48.35% is achieved at a flow rate
of 15.4 gpm and afterward, it starts decreasing due to the stator and rotor losses inside the alternator. The
turbine efficiency is related to net and jet head and also water and jet velocity and found maximum at 19.7 gpm
flow rate.

Introduction system efficiency while a typical micro-hydro system can yield 60–80%
efficiency [5]. Large hydropower facilities are generally built with a
Energy is the convertible currency of technology without which the huge reservoir and require a dam structure, connected with large grids,
whole of mankind could suffer for even the basic needs. The universe so high investment and capital costs are associated with them. Further,
truly is dependent on energy and the demand is increasing due to the they are problematic for aquatic and marine life so they have a lot of
luxurious lifestyles and enhanced living standards. The availability of social and environmental problems. The small hydro plants do not have
resources is a question as most of the world’s energy sectors are uti- any impact on aquatic life, so they don’t suffer from such problems [6].
lizing fossils to generate power which is not only depleting natural Small hydropower is mostly ‘run of river’, so it doesn’t require a dam
resources but also posing a threat to the environment [1]. At present, structure, instead a small barrier called weir may be constructed to
the world is already suffering from a power shortfall. According to the direct and control the water flow. The output power range for small
Energy outlook report, 1.5 billion people have no access to electricity. hydropower is between 2.5 and 25 MW. There are further categories of
Mostly, rural and hilly areas suffer from this situation due to the lack of small hydropower; Mini-hydro (range < 2 MW), Micro-hydro
transmission networks [2]. Hence, there is an increased interest in (range < 500 kW), and Pico-hydro (below 10 kW) [5,7].
sustainable and renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and hydro The principle of hydropower lies in converting the gross head to
which are reliable and clean. Hydropower can be a viable solution in mechanical and electrical energy, so the available power is directly
ecological as well as economic aspect especially when implemented at a proportional to the flow rate of water and net hydraulic head [5,7].
small scale. It contributes 19% of the world’s electricity production. In P0 = gHn Q
the USA, hydropower provides electricity at 0.85 cents per kilowatt-
hour [3]. The trend of adaptation for hydro technology is increasing where P0 is the hydraulic power measured in kW, ρ (kg/m3), g (m/s2),
each year. According to the International hydropower association data Hn (ft) and Q (ft3/s) are the water density, gravitational acceleration,
of 2014, global hydropower capacity has increased up-to 1000 GW from net head, and water flow rate respectively. The main components in
302 GW in 1999 [4]. small hydropower plants are intake, penstock, turbine, and tailrace. If
Large scale hydro technology is mature enough to obtain 80–90% the storage system is used like in off-grid connections, the battery bank
and inverter is needed. The intakes are intended for screening the water

Corresponding author.
⁎

E-mail addresses: 14eseibadullah@uspcase.NUST.EDU.PK (I. Safdar), Hraza1@asu.edu (H.A. Raza), m.umer@smme.nust.edu.pk (M. Umer),
majidali@ces.nust.edu.pk (M. Ali).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2019.100605
Received 26 August 2019; Received in revised form 18 November 2019; Accepted 3 December 2019
2213-1388/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

stream from debris and other waste etc. to get the cleaner and air-free load and with the battery charging system. He was able to produce 7 V
water into the pipeline [8]. Water is taken from the source through an DC at a water flow rate of 7 L/min. At no-load condition when the
intake and directed through penstock which heads it to the turbine with battery was not attached, the current rating was 90 mA and then it
a certain pressure. The turbine shaft rotates under the influence of dropped to 10 mA after attaching the battery. This system was capable
potential energy which turns on the generator to produce power. The of producing 0.63 W electric power. The lead-acid battery of 6 V and
control valves are installed at the top of the penstock to regulate the 4.5Ah was used for the system.
water flow through it [8,9]. H. Zainuddin [16] presented a system that uses domestic pipeline
It is substantial to analyze the hydropower systems' stability in a water energy to produce electricity. To find out the pico-hydro system
working condition. The factors that influence most are an internal hy- operating time and maximum water flow, an open circuit test was
draulic loss, volume loss, and mechanical loss. Some other hydraulic performed. The Output voltage was 72 V at 17 psi and 0.238 L/s within
losses are governor based i.e. through guiding vane. The losses due to a time interval of 1 am to 4 am when water usage was very low. An
friction in a straight pipe, scroll case, and socket ring are associated average open circuit voltage was 56–60 V during a day. Maximum
with hydraulic losses, while losses due to damping and insufficient 1.2 W power was obtained at 13.8 V and 371 rpm of the generator. Ni-
water impinging ability occurred during turbine rotation are termed as cd battery was used to assess the charging behavior. Battery charging
mechanical and volume losses respectively [10]. was 5.98 V and it charged up to 7.48 V through 0.01 A and 14.37 V.
The mechanical, electrical and hydraulic parameters of any hydro- System actual efficiency at 11.96 m head was 4.45% which was very
power systems will change with continuous operation after thirty or low as compared to the estimated 51% efficiency.
forty years. In essence of this, the sensitivity analysis of water flow and Bryan Cobb [17] worked on a pico hydro system in Hydro and cli-
turbine head, rotor-turbine axis misalignment, and generator rpm and mate lab at Oregon state university. He measured the mechanical effi-
excitation current parameters were investigated by Beibei Xu et al. The ciency of the turbine by directly connecting the load to the generator
torque was calculated by creating a relation between governing and and optimized the system taking into account input parameters like
shaft system of the hydropower system. Such a shafting system effect on jet alignment, nozzle angle, and speed ratio.
excitation current, axial inaccuracy, guide bearing rigidity (upper, In this paper, the proposed system is based on Cobb’s experiment
lower and turbine) were analyzed that were sensitive to hydraulic and the objective is to build the pico-hydro system that could more
parameters. The changes in the state of penstock and needle were efficiently produce electrical power over a range of water flow rates by
sensitive to the change in values of excitation current and axial mis- maintaining the frequency. As the AC load operates at 60 Hz frequency,
alignment. Such sensitive values obtained for different parameters were below or above which it could be damaged. In a run of the river pico-
essential in the design and stability of any Pelton hydropower systems hydro system, an increase in water flow rate results in increased rpm of
[11]. the turbine shaft and generator and as a consequence destabilizing the
The electronic equipment installed within a hydropower system frequency. For this purpose, some electric equipment’s i.e. rectifier,
plays a substantial role in effecting overall system efficiency. Hengshan battery, and inverter were added in the experiment to control the fre-
Xu et al had proposed an optimally designed efficient interleaved boost quency and provide a safe operating range for the load. By maintaining
converter (IBC) to improve the power factor that eventually results in the frequency, the effect of such equipment’s and water flow rate on the
improving the overall efficiency of a system. The discrete components turbine and generator efficiency is also analyzed. The generator used in
design based IBC parameters such as switching frequency, output vol- this paper is an AC permanent magnet alternator (PMA) with a rectifier
tages, inductor size, current fluctuation, power factor limitation, and kit. The AC output from the generator is rectified to DC and provided to
core magnetic flux density were investigated having an impact on IBC the battery which stores the charge. An inverter is installed that takes
efficiency. The proposed IBC efficiency increases within the range of the DC input from the battery and converts it again to AC, according to
97.2–97.7% at full load relative to traditional Si-based IBC [12]. the load requirement.
It's better to analyze the effects of parameters i.e. change in water
mass flow rate within pipes controlled through the governing system Methodology
and generator turbine shaft vibration that ensures the safe operation of
the hydropower system. The dynamic performance parameters such as The experimental setup is based on the system used in [17] with
ratio among inner and outer runner diameter, peculiarity between some extra electrical equipment’s added to it. The account of jet mis-
coupled guide bearings, and governing system self-regulation coeffi- alignment on turbine efficiency is not considered; however, the nozzle
cient of two practical hydro turbine generation units were investigated jet is aligned within the center of turbine blades to utilize maximum
numerically by Huanhuan Li et al. The proposed hydro turbine gen- turbine shaft power as shown in Fig. 1
eration system model incorporates practical values of hydropower The equipment’s used in this experiment are 3-phase permanent
station for validation purpose. It was found that changes in one of the magnet alternator, Pelton turbine, centrifugal pump, pressure trans-
above parameters in any unit thus create an impact on another gen- ducer, flow rate sensor, laser tachometer, battery, rectifier, inverter,
eration unit. The numerical results obtained will assists in determining
optimal values of prescribed parameters to minimize the operational
menace of hydropower systems [13].
A Pico hydro system was proposed by Yadav & Chauhan [14] that
was based on producing electricity by utilizing a household water tank.
The 6 V lead-acid battery and inverter were used where the inverter
was capable of converting 6 V DC to 175 V AC. The power obtained
from the system was 8.408 W that was utilized to enlighten compact
fluorescent lamp (CFL) of 5 W. The parameters such as maximum vol-
tage, current, and rpm provided were 5.646 V, 6.87 mA and 1500,
respectively. An experiment was performed with different pipe dia-
meters and revealed that such parameters were inversely related to it,
whereas having a direct relation with head.
Ridzuan et al. [15] investigated a power generation system from
water flowing through the domestic pipes. He analyzed the output of
the generator with three cases, i.e. no-load condition, with consumer Fig. 1. Nozzle alignment with turbine blades.

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I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

Table 1
Equipment details.
Equipment Specifications Manufacturer

Permanent Max rpm = 2700 Wind blue power

magnet alternator Max 3-phase AC [21]
voltage = 170 V
Pelton turbine Material = brass, ABS Alaskan[17]
PCD = 100 mm
Centrifugal pump Power = 2 HP MP Pumps
Pressure transducer 0–50 psig Omega Engineering
Flow rate sensor 0–50 gpm Omega Engineering
Laser tachometer 2.5–99,999 rpm Neiko
Hanging Scale 0–50 kg Mango spot LCD
Electronics
Battery (dry lead acid) Voltage = 12 V, –
Current = 9 Ah Fig. 2b. Experimental Setup.
Rectifier Max current = 150 A Wind blue [19]
Inverter Power = 300 W, SNAN [20]
Input voltage = 12 V,
phase AC voltage of 120 V by the inverter to turn on the load.
Current = (> 0.6 A) The inverter needs greater than 0.6 A to make it operational with
Load 2 bulbs (60 W each) – maximum resistance to input voltage of 16 V and maximum power
handling capacity of 300 W. The inverter accompanied functionality of
low and overvoltage shutdown and operates normally at input voltage
multi-meters, weighing display meter and loads. Their specifications between 11 and 14 V [20].
are shown in Table1. The schematic and picture for the experimental
setup is shown in Figs. 2a and 2b.
The Pelton turbine shaft is coupled with a generator shaft employing Mathematical calculations
a coupler. The turbine rotation occurs due to water impingement on its
blades and rpm is measured by laser tachometer. The setup comprises The turbine and generator efficiency determine the overall system’s
of water flow loop to get a controlled flow rate using a centrifugal pump performance. Input volumetric water flow rate ‘Q’ and head ‘H’ are the
and is measured through flow sensor with LED displaying meter. key factors determining the turbine efficiency of the hydro system.
A flow loop valve is used to cut off water supplied to the pump Some head losses occur in penstock and manifold that is why the net
whereas; flow rate is adjusted through a flow control valve. The pres- head is not equal to gross head. The net head can be determined
sure transducer is installed just before the nozzle exit and readings are through the jet head and both are related to the nozzle’s velocity
displayed on an LED meter. Weighing display meter is also used to hold coefficient as
PMA to measure the force exerted on its rotor.
The three-phase AC voltage is produced by PMA that is rectified to
Hj = CV 2Hn (1)
DC voltage with the aid of the bridge rectifier. The rectifier selection is The jet velocity can be calculated from the following equation using
based on the maximum current produced by PMA [18]. The rectifier pipe velocity Vp:
used in this system is hung in a metal casing and capable of handling
current up to 150 A [19]. The DC voltage produced by the rectifier is A1 Vp
Vj =
fed to the battery for charging. The DC voltage is converted to a single- A2 (2)

Fig. 2a. Methodology Schematic.

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I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

Table 2
Readings measured with battery connected after rectifier.
Flow rate Pressure Shaft speed Mass Output Current Output voltage PMA Power Turbine efficiency Generator efficiency System efficiency
Q (gpm) P (psi) (rpm) m (Kg) I (Amps) V (Volts) Welec (Watt) t (%) g (%) s (%)

9.4 5.86 95 0.330 0.027 13.25 0.264 6.4 13.62 8.7

11.2 8.7 120 0.435 0.123 13.41 1.22 6.3 37.72 23.76
12.3 10.2 133 0.685 0.179 13.71 1.81 8.3 32.15 26.68
15.4 16.29 180 0.88 0.418 15.34 4.73 7.3 48.35 35.29
17.4 20.88 353 1.53 0.618 15.65 7.13 17.62 21.08 3.71
19.1 25.26 404 1.9 0.81 15.9 9.49 18.64 20.03 3.73
19.7 28.4 448 2.085 0.96 16.08 11.39 20.75 19.73 4.09
22 32.09 487 2.615 1.149 16.44 13.93 20.17 17.71 3.57

Q Welec
Vp = =
A1 (3) g
WS (10)

Using equations (1), (2), and (3), the net head can be calculated by. where the electric power from the generator was:

VJ2 Welec = VI (11)

Hn =
2gCV2 (4) VI = product of voltage and current across the generator terminal.
The turbine shaft gets power from water flowing through nozzle,
placed at the specific head. Results & discussions
Turbine efficiency η t was determined as:
The battery voltage measured by multi-meter is 12.51 V DC before
Ws running the system. Initially, system behavior is observed at no-load
t =
Wj (5) condition (without battery) to check the maximum voltage produced by
PMA. At the flow rate of 22 gpm, PMA can generate 170 V AC. Further
where
experiments are performed by connecting the battery with rectifier
Ws = shaftpower output and inverter. The output voltage from inverter is 110 V AC.
The PMA power, pressure, and torque exerted on the PMA shaft
Wj = jetpower
depends on water flow rate and increases with an increase in flow rate.
Calculating the torque, using measured values of mass and shaft
speed (see Table 2), the shaft power of the turbine can be determined Turbine efficiency
by.
To calculate the turbine efficiency, the shaft power is determined
2
WS = from equation (6). The ratio optimization between shaft power and jet
60 (6)
power is important for the turbine efficiency. Jet power is calculated
where using a jet head and flow rate and is the same as obtained by Cobb [17].
As turbine efficiency is greatly influenced by the water flow rate, the
= torque produced in shaft
effect is studied at different flow rates to find the maximum efficiency
= shaft speed in revolution per minute for this system (as shown in Fig. 3). At the flow rate of 19.7 gpm, the
maximum turbine efficiency of 20.75% is achieved. The results are
The torque and force were calculated by compared with Cobb’s experimental results but the turbine efficiency
= F. d (7) achieved from such an experiment is lower as obtained by Cobb. This is
due to the difference in shaft power.
F = mg (8) The experiment is also performed with a direct load system as done
where by Bryan Cobb, the range of turbine rpm obtained is almost the same as

F = force
d = moment arm
g = acceleration due to gravity
m = tension in the hanging scale in terms of measuring the mass

Jet power can be measured using flow rate and jet head.
Wj = gQHj (9)

where
= Density of water

g = gravitational acceleration

Q = water flow rate

The generator rotor gets mechanical power from the turbine shaft
and converts it into electrical power. The generator efficiency depends
upon the turbine’s shaft power and electrical output power. Fig. 3. Flow rate versus turbine efficiency with their uncertainties.

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I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

that of Cobb’s experimental results but when the battery is installed, the
load is increased and thus results in lower rpm. Consequently, shaft
power is decreased and unable to obtain the maximum shaft power
even at the highest flow rate.
Fig. 3 shows that turbine efficiency increases as we increase the flow
rate because jet power is being increased. The value is maximum at
19.7 gpm and beyond this value, the efficiency starts decreasing. This
might be because of losses occurred inside blades, which decreases the
water stream velocity when leaving through blades. In an ideal case, the
water exit angle during leaving blades is 180° which means full water
jet force is utilized for the turbine rotation [22,23]. In such case, water
jet exit velocity after striking turbine blades becomes equal to the water
jet velocity impinges inside turbine bucket. This is impractical because,
the water leaving through buckets had an impact on succeeding buckets
rotation thus results in lowering the overall turbine efficiency [24]
It also means that there is a lower water exit angle obtained from Fig. 5. Water and jet velocity obtained at different flow rates with their un-
blades in this experimental setup and also a different coupler is used for certainties.
turbine and PMA shaft coupling whose weight is different from the
previous one, thus leading to lower shaft power and consequently thus results in causing varying magnetic field that disturbs some of the
achieving less turbine efficiency. In other way, there might be possi- position of magnetic domains within a magnetic material. The extra
bility of nonuniformity in water jet stream through nozzle at flow rate energy is consumed in terms of hysteresis loss to work against such
above than 19.7 gpm. The full exit water velocity of nozzle is not uti- domain mislay [26]. The rotor eddy current loss is also due to un-
lized due to diffracted water stream which results in decreasing turbine controlled rectifiers [27] used in this project. There are some other
efficiency [25]. conductive parts of a PMA that result in induced electromotive force
and current in them, thus dissipate as heat in terms of eddy current loss.
Generator efficiency Such induced body current does not take part in output power and leads
to lower PMA efficiency [26].
The maximum PMA efficiency obtained from experiment is 48.35%,
while Cobb calculated it like 84% with a direct load on the DC gen-
Pipe and jet velocity
erator.
In this case, conversion losses predominate because of the rectifier
The pipe velocity ‘Vp’ in a flow loop pipe and jet velocity ‘Vj’ at
that converts AC output from the generator to DC and inverter that
nozzle exit are calculated at different flow rates from equation (3) and
converts the DC output from the battery to again AC. This decreases
(2) respectively. The maximum pipe and jet velocity are achieved at a
overall PMA efficiency.
maximum flow rate which is 5.16 ft/s and 90.6 ft/s as shown in Fig. 5.
The maximum PMA efficiency of 48.35% is achieved at a flow rate
The net and jet head are calculated from equation (4) and (1), re-
of 15.4 gpm and after that, it starts decreasing (see Fig. 4).
spectively. The net and jet head obtained for such a system are within
This behavior is because of losses occurred inside PMA such as
range of 24.37–134.1 ft and 23.17–127.46 ft respectively. The jet power
stator and rotor losses. Similar behavior has been observed in other
lies between 30.25 (41)–390.14 (528.9) lbf ft/s (W), determined by
experiments in literature [26,27]. The stator losses are further cate-
using equation (9) at different flow rates. It is observed from calculated
gorized as copper and iron loss. Copper losses are due to current in-
results that water and jet velocity, net and jet head are highly depen-
duced from armature winding also termed as I2R loss and is tempera-
dent on the water flow rate.
ture dependent. So, as flow rate increases, the more current is passed
Bryan Cobb directly connected the load with the DC output of the
through winding that results in increasing copper temperature and
generator and measured the electrical efficiency of the system because
leads to a poor PMA efficiency. The iron loss is due to magnetizing
his research was focused on the mechanical system of this experiment.
material placed in a varying magnetic field and is linked with hysteresis
In this paper, the load is operated at a fixed frequency and to measure
and eddy current loss that affects PMA efficiency. In this experiment,
overall system efficiency. To control the frequency variation due to
the readings are recorded by varying flow rates at some time interval,
varied water flow rates, the battery is installed which could take the
rectified DC output to store charge and forward it to the inverter for AC
conversion thus results in achieving efficiency lower as compared to
Cobb’s experiment.

Uncertainty analysis

The equipment’s used in the experimental setup with their reading

accuracies were shown in Table 3. There is a need to measure the

Table 3
Equipment’s measurement accuracy.
Equipment Accuracy

Flow meter paddle type (gpm) ± 2% FS

Hanging Load measuring scale (oz.) ± 3 oz.
Laser tachometer (rpm) ± 0.05% reading
Digital multimeter (V/I) ( ± 0.5%)/( ± 2%) reading
Measuring tape (inch) ± 0.5% reading
Fig. 4. Flow rate versus generator efficiency with their uncertainties.

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I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

Table 4 of shaft and electrical power that generates errors in generator effi-
Measured or calculated parameters uncertainties. ciency as shown in Fig. 3. The parameters with measured and calcu-
Parameter Uncertainty (+/-) lated uncertainties are shown in Table 4.

Mass flow rate ‘Q’ 0.000418, 0.000498, 0.000548, 0.000686, 0.000774,

0.00085, 0.000878, 0.00098
Conclusion
Pipe velocity ‘Vp’ 0.05, 0.05, 0.06, 0.07, 0.08, 0.09, 0.09, 0.11
Jet velocity ‘Vj’ 0.80, 0.95, 1.04, 1.31, 1.47, 1.62, 1.67, 1.87 AC generator in a pico hydro system demands to attach the battery
Pipe area ‘A1’ 0.00004745 at its output before directly connecting the load because generator
Nozzle area ‘A2’ 0.0000027
frequency increases or decreases with variation in load or water flow
Net head ‘Hn’ 1.01, 1.43, 1.73, 2.71, 3.45, 4.16, 4.41, 5.53
Jet head ‘Hj’ 0.9, 1.3, 1.6, 2.4, 3.1, 3.8, 4.0, 5.0 rate. Such frequency fluctuation disturbs the load. The turbine and
Jet power ‘Wj’ 1.33, 2.25, 3.00, 5.89, 8.46, 11.20, 12.27, 17.18 generator efficiencies are estimated and compared with
Mass ‘m’ 0.1875 Cobb’s experimental results. Cobb’s tested the turbine and generator
Force ‘F’ 0.19 efficiency with a load directly connected at generator output without
Torque ‘T’ 0.051
Shaft speed ‘ ’ 0.0475, 0.06, 0.0665, 0.09, 0.1765, 0.202, 0.224,
addressing the frequency stabilization issue, while considering the ef-
0.2435 fect of different parameters like speed ratio, jet misalignment, and
Shaft Power ‘Ws’ 0.053, 0.067, 0.074, 0.100, 0.196, 0.224, 0.249, 0.270 nozzle angle.
Turbine efficiency ‘ηt’ 0.33, 0.31, 0.38, 0.33, 0.78, 0.83, 0.92, 0.90 In this paper, the battery-inverter circuit is accommodated in the
Voltage ‘V’ 0.0663, 0.0671, 0.0686, 0.0767, 0.0783, 0.0795,
pico hydro system to control the frequency. Such circuit has an impact
0.0804, 0.0822
Output Current ‘I’ 0.0005, 0.0025, 0.0036, 0.0084, 0.0124, 0.0162, on turbine and generator efficiency. The effect of water flow rate is also
0.0192, 0.0230 observed on such efficiencies, where the turbine efficiency is almost
PMA Power ‘Welec’ 0.005, 0.025, 0.037, 0.098, 0.148, 0.196, 0.235, 0.288 increasing with an increase in flow rate and reached maximum effi-
Generator efficiency ‘ηg’ 0.461, 1.092, 0.781, 1.105, 0.456, 0.422, 0.414, 0.368 ciency at 19.7 gpm, while efficiency starts decreasing afterwards 22
gpm respectively. This is because of insufficient utilization of water jet
velocity by turbine blades due to nonuniformity of water stream at
uncertainties in a reading of above measured parameters because un-
nozzle exit. The maximum generator efficiency is recorded at 15.4 gpm
certainty propagates, as most of the required parameters were inter-
and after that it starts decreasing due to losses incurred inside gen-
dependent on instrumental reading accuracy. The experimental results
erator. Although, the system efficiency is decreased but it is able to
uncertainties for turbine and generator efficiency in addition to pipe
provide the safe frequency range according to the load requirement.
and jet velocity were estimated for their validation purpose. The un-
The system proposed in this paper has some limitation. Although
certainty propagation method for product with or without constant,
the system frequency is stabilized but less power is generated relative to
division and raised power functions described by the Kline and
the uncompensated system. However, the problem can be minimized by
McClintock as shown by eq 12, 13 & 14 for single measured experi-
running a turbine with the aid of four nozzles placed at 90° apart from
mental value with their effect on calculated values are employed in this
each other for utilizing maximum water jet velocity thus results in
paper.
minimizing the effect of inverter and battery on generator rpm and as a
Y
n
Xi 2 consequence generator output power can be increased to operate more
= loads.
Y i=1
Xi (12)

Y = |C| X (13) CRediT authorship contribution statement

Y X
= |m| Ibadullah Safdar: . : Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation,
Y X (14)
Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review
The expression ‘X’ was the measured or calculated quantity, while & editing, Visualization. Sara Sultan: Validation, Investigation, Writing
‘ X ’ is its uncertainty that is transferred to the calculated quantity ‘Y’ - original draft, Visualization. Hamza Ahmad Raza: Validation,
with its uncertainty ‘ Y ’. The uncertainty in the calculated quantities Investigation, Writing - original draft. Muhammad Umer:
such as torque, power (shaft, jet & electrical), velocities (pipe & jet), Investigation. Majid Ali: Resources, Supervision.
and efficiencies (turbine & generator) are calculated through eq (12),
used for product and division functions, whereas net and jet head un-
certainties are calculated by raised power and product with constant Declaration of Competing Interest
functions as declared by eq (14) & (13) respectively.
The measured uncertainty in the flow rate introduces errors in the The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
water velocity within a pipe and as a consequence, the uncertainty interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influ-
permeates into jet velocity as shown in Fig. 5. The calculated un- ence the work reported in this paper.
certainty of jet velocity introduces uncertainty in net head that in-
directly influences jet head values. The uncertainties in jet head and Acknowledgment
mass flow rate values has an impact on calculated values of jet power
which in collaboration with shaft power introduces uncertainties in The author would acknowledge Dr. Kendra Sharp from Oregon State
turbine efficiency as shown in Fig. 4. Similarly, measured uncertainties University for tremendous support and guidance throughout the pro-
in rpm, voltage, and current quantities effects the calculated quantities ject. The sponsorship of USAID and NUST is also acknowledged.

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I. Safdar, et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 37 (2020) 100605

Appendix

Pico hydro system specifications

Water Density 1000 kg/m3 (1.94 slug/ft3)

Gravity 9.8 m/s2 (32.2 ft/s2)
Nozzle Diameter 0.375 in. (0.02625 ft)
Pipe Diameter 1.31 in. (0.11 ft)
Moment arm of PMA 0.27 ft

Input Variables

Variable Initial value Final value

Flow rate ‘Q’ 9.4 gpm (0.0209 ft3/s) 22 gpm (0.0490 ft3/s)
Pressure ‘P’ 5.86 psi (843.84 lbf/ft2) 32.09 psi (4620.96 lbf/ft2)
Net Head ‘Hn’ 24.37 ft 134.1 ft
Jet Head ‘Hj’ 23.17 ft 127.46 ft

Dependent Variables

Variable Initial value Final value

Jet velocity ‘Vj’ 38.63 ft/s 90.60 ft/s

Pipe velocity ‘Vp’ 2.2 ft/s 5.16 ft/s
Force ‘F’ 0.722 lbf 5.72 lbf
Torque ‘ ’ 0.195 ft-lbf 1.544 ft-lbf
Shaft speed ‘ ' 95 rpm 484 rpm
Voltage ‘V’ 13.25 V 16.44 V
Current ‘I’ 0.027 amps 1.149 amps

Power (ft-lbf/s)

Variable Initial value Final value

Jet Power ‘Wj’ (Input) 30.25 ft-lbf/s 390.14 ft-lbf/s

Shaft Power ‘Ws’ (Output) 1.937 ft-lbf/s 78.69 ft-lbf/s
Electric Power ‘We’(Output) 0.264 ft-lbf/s 13.93 ft-lbf/s

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2019.100605.

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