It works!

For the last month I have been working in our Hydrolab installing the turbine and the associated pipework. I'm not the best at installing things, but I'm quite pleased with the pipe run. I've fitted the system onto the downpipe from a tank 40ft (12.5m) above the lab. The plan of the pipe is in the drawing below:

Plan for pipe installation

I made a series of brackets with Unistrut and Dexion metal frames to support the pipe. I cut the pipe and assembled it dry to make sure that everything fitted before gluing everything together. The PVC pipe glue stinks. It is the most awful smell, even in the large space of the Hydrolab. After a day of gluing pipes together I had a really bad headache, but everything fitted as planned. There were a couple of problems where the glue dried before I could get the pipe to fit snuggly into the fittings, but I managed to adjust some of the brackets to allow for the slight changes in length.

The next step was to silicon up the joints to make them watertight, before checking the pipework for leaks by putting water through the system. There are several valves between my pipe run and the 40ft tank supply. One of them had been shut for a long time, and would not open. Myself and the lab technician, Jack, spent 2 days soaking the valve in WD40, heating it up and hitting it with a large hammer. Finally it cracked open and we were able to pressurise the pipework. There were just 4 small leaks in the pipe, which I was quite impressed with.

Pipework

After plugging the leaks and allowing the silicon to dry off we did another leak check, and the leaks were pretty much sealed - just a couple of small drops of water were coming out. So, now was the moment of truth. Connecting everything together to see if the turbine would work. The last year has really come down to this, the choice of turbine and design of the rig - what would happen if it didn't work. I hadn't really thought about that. I connected up the turbine to the flexible pipe from the end of the pipe run, switched on the oscilloscope to look at the output from the torque transducer and current sensor (used to measure the speed of rotation of the turbine) and then slowly cracked open the control valve.

With a rushing of water, the pipes slowly filled with water and the nozzle pressurised. Finally the nozzle exploded into life, directing water at the turbine, and the turbine began to spin. Across on the oscilloscope a trace was visible from the current and the torque. The excess water fell into the little water tank and then was pumped away by a little submersible pump. The only real problem was that the tank obviously wasn't up to the task that I required of it, water splashed out and all over the Hydrolab floor. But it worked! A video and a couple of photos of the first run can be seen below.

Turbine running with the water splashing

Oscilloscope trace (top torque, lower - current)

Video of first run

So now, the testing begins, and trying to match the model and test results…

EWB Conference

Last year I displayed a poster at the EWB research conference. This year, I was asked to present a paper on the Energy Panel about my work so far. This will be in the beginning of March at the Royal Academy of Engineering, London. So I spent a couple of days writing a paper to describe the work I've been doing. I'm looking forward to the conference, to get feedback on the work I've done so far and see what people think about the direction I've gone it, especially as it will be the first time I'm presented my work to people outside the university.

I received comments on the WREC paper I submitted before Christmas. Most of the comments were insignificant, and we got a great score on the paper. This was fantastic, and after a couple of small alterations to the paper, I resubmitted it again. I should hear back about the paper in the middle of February, whether it's been accepted or not.

It's going to be a fun couple of months, finally getting some testing to do!

SAM

Busy Busy

There hasn't been many photo opportunities over the last few months, so I've put up some random photos I've taken on my phone just to brighten up the writing!

Scrabble problems

I don't quite know where the time has gone since coming back from Nepal. I've been finishing my turbine selection section of my work, and now have an idea of where I'm going mechanically. I've even submitted a paper to the World Renewable Energy Conference 2011 in Sweden about my selection method and outcomes, as it's not the usual way to select a turbine. Now, I'm modelling the turbine in a bit more detail and looking to see how I can experiment with it. Which comes to one of the frustrations I've reached. I thought I'd be doing a lot more practical experiments, but I suppose you have to do the theory first and come up with some ideas before you can test them. It's not the sitting in labs and fiddling with switches and buttons that I thought it would be. Not yet anyway.

Swappable heads on top of my computer

In PhD-land I've also been reading into the electrical side of things - how grids are made, how generators are connected together, control systems for these and so on. It's meant reaching into the deepest depths of my memory and trying to retrieve my old electrotechnology lectures. This has actually been very interesting, realising why things are done as they are in this world: the choice of 50Hz as a standard frequency in Europe, reading the history of the electrical current wars between direct (constant) advocated by Thomas Edison and alternating with Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse beating its drum. (To read about the current wars see here). I've also spent some time looking at the National Grid here in the UK, as this can provide ideas on how to operate a remote electrical grid. There's an interesting bit on the BBC about how the National Grid copes (or doesn't as the case may be) with the peak in demand at the end of Eastenders here.

Lights in Bristol city centre

The Welsh translation of microwave - such an onomatopoeic description! From the Centre for Alternative Technology

I've been doing a lot outside uni as well. I've been asked to be Deputy Stage Manager in Horfield Theatre Company's latest production, Bad Girls - the musical. I think it's going to be fun!

I went to the Ashden Awards in London on the 1st July. These are awards for sustainable energy solutions. This year there were some interesting and a wide variety of finalists. I thought it was great to see Okehampton College and St Columb Minor School, as they were spreading the knowledge amongst children, which worked its way back to their homes. The Isle of Eigg in Scotland had formed a remote grid using hydro, wind, solar and diesel which was great.

I spent a long time talking to the MD of Eigg Electric about the operation of their grid. It is a fantastic example of how renewable energy sources can be used to link up and supply communities. Although it would be great to implement similar schemes across the UK, Eigg has several advantages. They are a solid community, with everyone working to the same goal - partly due to their island location. On the mainland this sense of community doesn't really exist as much. They also accept limitations on their power - a maximum of 5kW per household. I think that most consumers wouldn't like the power being cut whilst using their electric shower if someone switched on the kettle. And also the cost of it was very high. Pico and Micro hydro is normally quoted at about $1000 per kW generation (£700/kW). On Eigg, however, the cost was £5440 per kW - and that is including the two 80kW standby diesel generators. I just don't think it's commercially viable still. Soon, hopefully, the price of the technology will reduce and maybe this shining example will be replicated all over the country and the world.

Having a lie down on Bridge Valley Road in the Midnight Walk

Last year Lynne Richards, a most wonderful woman who I had the pleasure of knowing, sadly passed away. St Peter's Hospice in Bristol supported Lynne and her family. St Peter's was organising a Midnight Walk, where women would walk 10 miles around Bristol. It seemed very appropriate to us all, as it would be on the same day that Lynne died last year, so a team of ladies from church was going to attempt it. Not to be out done, a group of men, including me, decided we would support them all by marshalling on the route. I was posted on the closed Bridge Valley Road, and enjoyed watching all the women puffing and panting coming up the road. When we returned to the finish, I regretted my previous smugness as I was tasked in cutting the tags from everyone's sweaty ankle. Karma.

Lynne's Ladies, Me and Jim on Bridge Valley Road

It's strange how things happen, this morning I woke up with an idea. I think it may be the basis of the idea, the idea that is going to push my research into the unknown, which is where I should be heading. It's been exciting trying to write it down to understand how I'm going to accomplish it. It's going to take a long time to develop it properly, but I finally have an idea. Woo.

I'm off to Greece for a couple of weeks now, one of my close friends is getting married. I'm looking forward to the break, sunshine, and a chance to sleep.

For now

SAM

Easter Holidays

So, for the last few months I've been working on finding a way of selecting a turbine. This has meant going back to basic theory and looking at how turbines work, which has been very useful. It has reminded me of the fun I had in my undergraduate times, we did experiments with Pelton wheels, jets, flow measuring devices and so on. It also has brought some things to attention, why propeller turbines are normally used at low head, the problems with Pelton and Turgo wheels when the jet is slow. Here's some pictures of turbines if you have no idea what is what...

Pelton Wheel

Turgo Wheel

Crossflow

Francis Turbine

Propeller Turbine

Waterwheel

Archimedes Screw

The PhD is in association with Engineers Without Borders - UK (www.ewb-uk.org). So, I joined EWB for their annual research conference at the Royal Academy of Engineering in London, where I presented a poster about my research. The poster didn't say too much about the solution of my research problems, but I think describes the problem quite well. It was interesting to listen to the other EWB researchers, what they were up to, their motivations and so on, and also see who was up to anything hydro-like.

EWB Poster

This term, I've helped out in my first undergraduate lab. My supervisor was doing a series of lectures on Electrical Product Design, and part of this included a lab on designing a solar powered motor - the product itself wasn't the most useful, the process is the important part. So I helped out in the lab. I was rather scared, as I still really hadn't done much practical electronics apart from building the SMPS (see last time's blog), and I knew they would ask questions that I couldn't answer. But, it wasn't too bad, I managed to answer most things, and with the help of George, my lab-mate, we survived.

I had an afternoon out in Bristol with a friend, which as many people know is the home of the engineering genius Brunel. I met the man himself at his iron ship, the SS Great Britain.

Brunel and Me (yes, I needed a haircut)

I've also booked my tickets to go back to Nepal again. I'm going to arrive there exactly one year after leaving last time, 16th April, which is a bit of a coincidence. I'm really looking forward to seeing all my friends there and just having a relax. The plan is to do a bit of research into small scale hydro as well. I'm very very excited.

For now

SAM