Water Turbine Generator

For our University project we decided to make a water turbine generator. It consist out of funnel input for water, a turbine, a generator connected to the turbine, a electric circuit connected to the generator and a drain as the output for water. The water goes into the turbine through a funnel connected to a PVC pipe. The PVC pipe ends in a tub, that contains blades around an axis, that is also connected to some magnets. The power of the water makes the axis spin, which powers the dynamo. In the dynamo power is generated to light up an LED. In short, our project uses kinetic energy from water and produces electric energy to power an LED.

2 buckets

tub ,diameter =31 cm

funnel

item materials

ball bearing (item)

wood

copper wire

magnets

pvc pipes d=1cm, 0.5m long pipe

d=4cm, 2x 1m long tube

pvc corner connector bit ,d=4cm

pvc straight connector bit ,d=4cm

plexiglas

1 screw thread d= 0.7cm, length =30 cm

nuts

rubber bands

bison poly max glue

glue pistol glue

Arduino

wiring

breadboard

resistor 220 ohm

led

ductape

Tools:

glue gun

dremel

sander

pvc cutter

dril

laser cutter

The turbine blades are designed out of a iron rod axis, with 2 pvc pipes with Plexiglas sheets inserted. To make it you have to cut a pvc tube d=1cm into two pieces of 20 cm long with a pvc cutter, after that you have to drill a hole in the center the size of your iron rod. Use the Plexiglas cutout document to use for a laser cutter to get the right Plexiglas sheets. cut into the pvc pipes a gap that is 5 cm long. fit the plexiglass sheets into gap in the pvc and glue it shut. insert the 2 pvc pipes onto the rod and use 2 nuts to cram it shut.

To build the item structure you first have to build a rectangle that is 34.5 cm long and 19.5 cm wide, on the long beams you have to place a ball bearing on each (same side and orientation). furthermore create a uncentered '+' shape that will balance on the tub. after that add 4 L shape bits to the 4 beams of the '+' that will keep the generator casing in place. make sure to connect everything well and use extra rectangular pieces bit to keep everything better together.

To make the tub fit the item structure 4 holes has to be etched out with a dremel in the sides of the tub. make sure that the iron axis is centered in the tub so that everything fits properly. 2 holes has to be made using a dremel, one in the bottom as drain and one in the side as source . the drain hole has to be bigger than the source hole. and the source hole has to be big enough to fit a pvc corner bit d=4cm. that you can glue in with proper water proof glue.

the source pvc corner bit can be connected by a 1m long d=4cm pvc pipe with a connector to another 1m d=4cm pvc pipe, on the last pipe a funnel can be glued to the pvc pipe with a glue gun so you can drain a bucket of water into the system.

The generator consists of a magnetic core between four coils. To craft the magnetic core, four magnets are placed on a piece of wood that has a hole drilled through the middle through which the axis will run that is connected to the blades. The magnets are placed with opposing poles opposite to each other and the magnets that make a 90 degree angle face with attracting poles to the center of the core. Subsequently, the magnets are held in place by wrapping rubber bands around them. To craft the coils, we make use of a case that is laser cut out of 3mm plywood (the sketches of which can be found in omhulsel_v1). The case consists of its sides and coil supports that can be fitted into the sides and stuck in place with some glue (The sketches of the coil supports can be found in spoelhouder_v1). The coils need to be wound in opposite directions so that the voltages add up, to make this more convenient, we draw the winding direction on to each of the sides of the case. We wrap 80 windings of copper wire with a 1mm diameter around each of the coil supports. The coil supports are held next to each other during this process so that the sides of the case can be "folded together" and the coils need not to be connected later on. When all coils are wound, we can fold the case together and add the top part for extra stability.

Both ends of the wire of the coil are stripped of their protective coating, and inserted into female - male wires. These wires are connected to a ground port and the AD0 port of the arduino uno. The arduino is also connected to the LED, with a wire from the IO13 port of the arduino to the plus side of the breadboard, and a wire from a ground port of the arduino to the negative side of the breadboard. From the plus side of the breadboard, a wire is connected to a 220 Ohm resistor on the breadboard. The other side of the resistor is connected to the LED, which is connected to the negative side of the breadboard. The arduino uses a powerbank as power supply, which is connected with a USBC cable. The entire wiring is put in a plastic bag, to protect it from any water coming from the water turbine. The arduino uses a code, that makes the LED light up when the Voltage measured from the coil gets above a certain value. this is given in the file.