1

Detailed Design Report

Hydroelectric Turbine Generator

ME 340 Team B

Matthew Coleman

Logan Hamilton

William DelGiorno

Executive Summary

A faucet-powered hydroelectric generator is an example of a clean energy production,

which provides free and efficient energy to the consumer. The faucet-powered generator

presented here will be an easily attachable device that fits on the end of a faucet and

converts the moving water from mechanical to electrical energy. Other than the initial

cost of the product, the consumer will not need to pay for anything else, since they are

already paying for the volume of water supplied to the household. The voltage generated

will be greater than 1.5 volts across a 10 ohm resistor. This translates to a minimum

power output of .225 watts. This power will be utilized by small devices such as phones,

electric toothbrushes, etc. Team B is confident that this product will benefit both the

customer AND the company.

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 1

Introduction 3

Problem Statement 3

Background Information

Project Planning

3

3

Customer Needs and Specifications 4

Identification of Customer Needs 4

Design Specifications and Weights 5

Concept Development 5

External Search 6

Problem Decomposition 6

Concept Generation 6

Concept Selection 8

Detailed Design 9

Overall Description 9

Detailed Drawings 10

Final Theoretical Analysis 11

Component and Material Selection 13

Fabrication Processes for Mass Production 13

Industrial Design 14

Safety 14

Testing 15

Test Procedure and Plan 15

Conclusion 16

References 17

Appendices 18

Appendix A: Project Plan 18

Appendix B: Customer Needs/Weights 19

Appendix C: Theoretical Analysis

Appendix D: Attestation of Work

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Introduction

Problem Statement

Team B will develop a product that converts the mechanical energy of water flowing

through a typical household faucet, to electrical energy, which can then be used to power

a small accessory designed into the product.

The specific requirements of the product can be found below in the Customer Needs and

Specifications section. There are also constraints that must be met such as:

Final product should be designed for easy manufacturing

Expelled water must be no less than 50% of original flow rate

The voltage generation must be greater than 1.5 volts across 10 ohm resistor

Background Information

Hydroelectric power is used all over the world, most commonly produced from dams.

Whenever there is some sort of water flow or pressure differential, power can be

converted from it. Hydroelectric turbines utilize the flow rate and pressure of the water,

and turn it into electrical power with no remnants of pollution or anything else harmful.

The faucet-powered generator is a small scale hydroelectric turbine. The water from the

faucet creates the pressure and velocity necessary to spin the miniature turbine, which

creates the electrical power from the DC motor.

Project Planning

Team B chose to follow Product Design and Development, 4

th edition to develop a

process to figure out the most efficient way to build this hydroelectric generator. A Gantt

chart (Appendix A, Table 4) helped to plan each stage of the design process for the 15

weeks alotted to develop the product. Research was then executed to find information

regarding turbines, water properties, and electrical properties. Team B then needed the

customer needs weighted by importance to determine what the product needs to be like

(i.e. looks, performance), so a survey was performed to gather this data. Once the

importance of each need was figured out, each member drew concepts. Utilizing the

weighted customer needs for each concept, a final concept was chosen, and a SolidWorks

base model was created of that design. Upon acceptance of this proposal, Team B will

begin building prototypes which will be extensively tested to optimize the efficiency of

the product. A final product will then be produced to compete against other models.

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Table 1: Weighted Survey Results

Customer Needs and Specifications

Identification of Customer Needs

Evaluation of customer needs show:

The cost should be relatively cheap

Functions reliably and repeatedly in a wet environment

Should be attractive

Easily attaches to faucet with no leaks

Desirable to see inner workings

Can power/charge an object

Does not require assembly

Is not too large

Does not affect usage of faucet

While all customer needs are very important, the team decided that the four most

important needs to be focused on for a successful product are its performance, aesthetics,

cost, and ease of use. By optimizing these four standards we believe that the desire for the

product will increase much more.

The team utilized a survey of ten college students to determine the weights of the four

primary customer needs. The potential customer base is basically anyone who uses a sink

so these college students fall into this category, therefore their opinions are valid.

The survey used ranked each of the four needs (performance, cost, aesthetics, ease of use)

from 1-4 with 4 being the most important and 1 being the least important. The actual

survey results with the customers’ decisions can be found in Appendix B but the final

weight results were:

The majority of the students, as expected, ranked performance and cost, most important.

These are quantitative values that potential customers can easily look up, so the team

wants to focus most of the design on these two specifications. Ease of use came in third.

Survey Weight Results

Needs Weight

Performance 34%

Cost 29%

Aesthetics 15%

Ease of Use 22%

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Figure 2:

Patent USD681552 S1 [2]

Figure 1:

Pelton Turbine

[1]

Since we are hoping this is a one-time installation, we will not have to focus too much of

our time on that aspect. Aesthetics came in last, and while we will try and make this

product look as visually appealing as possible, this customer need will be the last of our

worries.

Design Specifications and Weights

Some design specifications that were needed to be considered are:

Generate 1.5 volts across a 10 ohm resistor

Will cost less than 50 dollars retail

Will attach to a faucet head with 3/8 internal pipe thread

Will be at most 4 inches long

Must be self contained

Aesthetically pleasing

Placed in clear casing

Water discharged vertically downward

50% of original flow rate must exit

In order to compare the design specifications with the customer needs, a Quality Function

Deployment chart (QFD) was created. This can be found in Appendix B. The darkened

boxes (on the diagonal) show where the customer needs relate to the design

specifications.

Concept Development

External Search We initially, discovered that there were two main types of

turbines: impulse turbines and reaction

turbines. Impulse turbines use the

velocity of the water that comes in contact

with it to spin the turbine. Impulse

turbines work best in higher head

applications. The pelton turbine (shown

to the right) is the most widely used of

the different types of impulse turbines.

A pelton turbine has spoon like blades

that catch the water coming in from the

nozzle, which helps it spin and output more power. Reaction

turbines combines water flow and water pressure to produce

power. Unlike impulse turbines, reaction turbines work better in

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Figure 3:

Patent US8125096 B2 [3]

Water Inflow

Turbine Generator Power output

Volumetric Flow

Rate

low head applications. The most common reaction turbine is a propeller. Propellers have

blades that are always in contact with water and has a constant pressure as to keep

everything in balance.

. Researching showed patented designs that help

us develop ideas for our project. Patent

USD681552 S1 is a micro-hydro electrical

generator that uses a pelton turbine to generate

power. This is a relatively simple design. The

water flows in at the bottom, goes through a

nozzle, and proceeds to hit the pelton turbine to

generate power. We saw that this design used a

direct connection from the turbine to the generator.

We developed many ideas from this design including

the pelton turbine and the direct connection. Patent

US 8125096 B2 uses a Kaplan turbine which is a type of propeller. The Kaplan turbine

allows for adjustable blades which provides a wider range of action. This particular

Kaplan turbine was designed to operate at around 90% efficiency and is able to produce

anywhere from 100 kW to 700 kW of power. This may be due to the fact that this design

has a complex belt system to help generate power. This design was interesting, but we

chose to go with a design similar to patent USD681552 S1.

Problem Decomposition Our team generated concepts by decomposing the system into four subsystems. All of

our designs were based off of this decomposition.

Concept Generation All three of us came up a design by ourselves that fulfilled the project requirements.

Here are our three concepts:

Torque and Power Voltage and

current

Figure 4: Problem Decomposition

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Concept A

Concept B

Figure 5: Concept A full view Figure 6: Concept A component view

Figure 7: Concept B side view Figure 8: Concept B front view

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Concept C

Concept A: Has the water flow hit the turbine that is directly connected to the DC motor.

The DC motor generates power and is connected to an outlet. Figure 5 shows how this

device would connect to the faucet and it shows what it would look like on the inside.

Figure 6 shows the inside parts that make up this component. This concept had plug on it

so it could be used as a phone charger or something of that nature.

Concept B: The water flows through the nozzle to hit the pelton turbine. The pelton

turbine is directly connected to the DC motor which is off to the side. This is very

similar to Patent USD681552 S1. It would be a simple design that is meant to be easy to

come up with parts and assemble. It would be small and easy to operate. The casing

would be made with see-through materials such as acrylic so that the customer could

learn from the product.

Concept C: This design is basically Concept B but with two turbines, two motors, and

two nozzles. This was put in to hopefully double the output power. This would be much

wider that either of the other designs. Similar to Concept B, this design would have a

see-through casing for learning purposes.

Concept Selection For the concept-ranking table we scored each design on a 1-3 scale (1 being the worst and

3 being the best) for each category. For example we gave Concept B a 3 on aesthetics

because of the casing’s see-through material and because of its small size. The rest of the

scores can be found in the Concept Ranking table in Appendix B, Table 6. After

reviewing our concept-ranking table Concept B came out with the highest score. Concept

B ended up on top because of its projected low cost and its ease of use. This design

Figure 9: Concept C front, side, and back view

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would be the easiest for the customer to set up while also being aesthetically pleasing.

We did not choose Concept A because we thought it would be a bad idea to have a plug

that close to the water making the product too dangerous. Concept C would have been

very difficult to assemble without making any mistakes. Even though it would have a

chance for double the power, the chance of there being a problem increases as well.

Detailed Design

Overall Description

We chose a water wheel turbine housed by an acrylic, clear casing. The turbine is

coupled to the generator via a dowel (part 6) and pin (part 7). Part six and seven are made

of plastic, as to cause minimal friction with the acrylic housing. Part one shown below

utilizes a nozzle to direct flow onto an ideal location of the water wheel to maximize

torque. An inch of housing is left below to allow for any excess water buildup. Housing

width is confined tightly to not let water get by the turbine.

Figure 10 Exploded View

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1 7

2

3

6

5

10

1 inlet 3/8 inch nozzle

2 outlet 3/8 standard outlet

3 casing clear acrylic casing for educational value

4 motor motor rated 2200 RPM at 2.5 volts

5 turbine water wheel turbine (3D printed)

6 dowel keeps motor water-proof and locks into turbine

(plastic)

7 pin Seals far side from water leakage (plastic)

Table 2: BOM

Detailed Drawings

Figure 11

Side isometric view of the assembly to illustrate how the waterproof pin fits in and

does not inhibit the turbine from rotation.

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Figure 12

Side view showing transparent motor to show fitting between motor and turbine to

make effective seal.

Final Theoretical Analysis

Experiment 1: Faucet Analysis

A simple faucet analysis was performed to determine the pressure and flow rate that

produces the max power. The team connected a valve with a pressure gage to the end of a

faucet, the valve was completely shut and the faucet was opened so there was maximum

flow. The maximum pressure determined was 40 psi. The team then went down

increments of 5 psi, allowing flow rate to increase. At each increment of 5 psi, the team

calculated the time to fill up one gallon in a bucket. The results can be found in Appendix

C, table 9.The flow rate was determined by the equation:

Q = 1 gallon/T

Where Q is the flow rate, in gallons per minute, and T is the time it took to fill up the 1

gallon bucket. After going from 40 psi to 0 psi, the power was then calculated. The

equation to calculate power is:

Power = (Q*P)*.435

Where Q is the flow rate (GPM), P is the pressure (psi) and power is in the units of watts.

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These values were then placed on the same graph and trend lines were placed on the

graph to determine the intersection point. The intersection point gives the pressure and

flow rate that produces the highest power input of the system. For a maximum power of

17.5 watts, the values for the flow rate and pressure were roughly 1 GPM at 33 Psi,

respectively.

Figure 13 Faucet Analysis

Experiment 2: Generator Analysis

Procedure: Attach generator to a height so that the mass has enough space to fall in order

to collect usable data. Put the mass on a string attached to the generator shaft. Drop the

mass a known length (L) and record the max voltage and time it takes to fall a distance L.

Repeat for different masses. The results can be found in Appendix C, table 8.

Equations:

Torque:

Rotational velocity:

Mechanical Power:

Electrical Power:

Efficiency:

13

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0 1000 2000 3000 4000

Torq

ue

(mN

*m)

Effi

cien

cy

RPM

Generator Analysis

Efficiency

Torque

Component and Material Selection Process for Mass

Production

The final product requires a turbine casing, a turbine, a nozzle, covering for support of

the motor, and a rod to connect the turbine with the generator. The casing will be made

with clear acrylic. The clear casing will allow for customers to see how the power is

generated in the system. Also the acrylic has adequate strength to hold everything

together, as seen in our testing phase. Acrylic costs only $14.50 per square foot, making

it much cheaper than its metal counterparts. The turbine was made with ABS

(Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic. ABS plastic is very lightweight which allows

for the water stream to spin the turbine faster. The ABS plastic costs $13.30 per square

foot. We purchased a brass nozzle. We purchased the nozzle from McMaster-Carr and

they only offered the nozzles in brass and stainless steel. Although stainless steel does

not rust, we chose the brass nozzle because it cost about $20 less. The covering of the

motor will be made of PVC (Polyvinylchloride). We chose PVC because it is a strong

material that has a cost of $10.00 per square foot. The rod will be made of nylon. The

rod needs to be able to hold on to the generator and spin with relative ease, meaning that

this material must be strong and mobile. Nylon has high wear resistance and a low

coefficient of friction, which makes it a good candidate for this connecting piece. Nylon

has a cost of $21.00 per square foot, however the pieces we will need will be nowhere

near a square foot.

Fabrication Process for Mass Production

The laser cutter will cut the acrylic pieces for the casing from a large slab of acrylic, the

turbines will be 3D printed, and the brass nozzles will be ordered from McMaster-Carr in

Figure 14: Generator Analysis

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bulk. The pieces of nylon will be ordered in bulk. The nylon pieces will have a hole

drilled in the center matching the dimensions of the turbine’s shaft diameter. The first

part of the assembly process will first require the nylon to be connected to the turbine.

The piece of nylon will then be put through the hole in the acrylic casing where it can be

connected to the generator. The thread will then be put through the hole in the top piece

of the casing. The nozzle will be put on the piece of thread. The last part of the assembly

will be to glue all the pieces of the casing together. The assembly is very simple and

inexpensive.

Industrial Design

This product was designed so that it comes fully assembled. This makes for better

usability for the customer. The user simply has to take the inlet of the product and twist it

on the end of their faucet.

The product is also aesthetically pleasing. Since the casing is made from acrylic, it will

be clear allowing for the customer to see its inner workings. The final product, if

machining permits, will have a bright green turbine which also contributes to better

aesthetics. PVC piping will cover the motor to hold it in place and help limit water

damage.

The product will also be safe. The PVC and the close tolerance between the shaft and the

casing shows that water will not come into contact with the motor, preventing any risk of

electrical shock. Since the system is compact (length is less than four inches), it will not

interfere with any daily faucet uses, meaning the user will not accidentally break the

product.

Safety

The only safety hazard of this product is the containment of the electrical equipment. All

materials used in the product are environmentally safe. Some of the safety standards that

would be met were taken from the UL and IEC safety standards. The safety standards that

the product would most likely be checked for are:

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Commission Standard Code Standard Description

International

Electrotechnical Commision

(IEC)

IEC 62006 Acceptance tests of small

hydroelectric installations

International

Electrotechnical Commision

(IEC)

IEC 61116 Electromechanical

equipment guide for small

hydroelectric installations

Underwriters Laboratories

(UL)

UL 50 Standard for enclosures for

electrical equipment

Underwriters Laboratories

(UL)

UL 1004-4 Standard for electric

generators

Underwriters Laboratories

(UL)

UL 674 Electric motors and

generators for use in

hazardous locations

Table 3: Safety Standards

New standards are created for products all of the time. In combination with these

standards above, commissions may even develop a whole new standard that specifically

apply to faucet powered turbine generators.

Testing

1. Purpose of prototype: test power outputted.

In testing, our max voltage for the alpha prototype was 0.5 Volts.

Ways to maximize voltage include building a new turbine, refining housing,

minimizing axial friction within motor-turbine coupling, and adjusting flow

location to turbine.

Figure 15: Alpha Prototype

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2. Planning a prototype: How to improve upon alpha-prototype.

Building motor generator coupling is crucial to creating prototype that effectively

uses flow rate. After this is created we will construct a compact housing around

coupling. We found this is the most effective method from building the alpha

prototype.

3. Experimental plan:

Variables we will be testing include angular velocity, flow rate, torque,

mechanical and electrical power. Ways to improve performance include using a

waterproof dowel and pin, using different sized generators, and using waterproof

sealant .

Equipment: voltmeter, weights, flow restrictor, stopwatch, control volume,

dynamometer.

Tests include flow rate from outlet, documenting angular velocity from

dynamometer, and outputted power and various flow rates.

4. Schedule for testing:

Our testing for our beta prototype has already begun; we will have another week

to refine a design based off of the experimental variables mentioned above. We

plan on having a smoke test next week to see where we can make final

improvements. From there we have several more days at the learning factory to

produce a final beta prototype.

Conclusion

We have made it through the beginning phases of the design process. We first considered

the project specifications and the customer needs, which lead to us coming up with

criteria that we used in our concept selection process. A survey was then given to our

peers so we could correctly weight these criteria for the concept-ranking table. We then

started to do some external research on other hydroelectric turbine generators. From

there we came across a few patented designs that we used in our concept generation.

Each of us then came up with one design to put into our concept-ranking table. When

Concept B came out on top, we began to start our CAD drawings on Solidworks.

We believe that our design will attract customers because of its simplicity and ease of

use. It will be small and able to fit to an ordinary residential faucet. Customers looking

for a little extra power for their phone or toothbrush in the bathroom or to be a little more

eco-friendly will be interested in this product. Since our design is simple and compact it

will most likely come out cheaper than many of our competitor’s designs. We would like

to continue in our design process and see this project through to the end.

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References

[1] "Energy.gov." Types of Hydropower Turbines. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.

<http://energy.gov/eere/water/types-hydropower-turbines>.

[2] Bentley, Roy E. Micro-hydro Electric Generator. Roy E. Bentley, assignee. Patent US

D681552. 7 May. 2013. Print.

[3] Shifrin, Salvatore, and Joseph Shifrin. Hydor Turbine Generator. Salvatore Shifrin,

Joseph Shifrin, assignee. Patent US 8125096 B2. 28 Feb. 2012. Print.

[4] UL LLC. "Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS)Â Plastic." Acrylonitrile Butadiene

Styrene (ABS) Plastic. UL LLC, 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

[5] Hegde, Raghavendra R., Atul Dahiya, M.G. Kamath, Monika Kannadaguli, and

Ramaiah Kotra. "Nylon Fibers." Nylon Fibers. N.p., Apr. 2004. Web. 21 Apr.

2014.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Project Plan

Table 4: Gantt Chart updated as of 4/22/14

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Appendix B: Customer Needs/Weights

Table 5: Quality Function Deployment Chart

Table 6: Concept Ranking Table

Table 7: Customer Ranking Survey to determine weighting

Criteria A B C Weighting High Performance

2 2 3 .34

Low Cost 2 3 1 .29 Aesthetics 2 3 2 .15 Ease of Use 2 2 2 .22

Totals 2.00 2.44 2.05 1

Criteria 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Weight High Performance

4 1 4 3 4 3 4 4 3 4 34 .34

Low Cost 3 2 3 2 3 4 2 3 4 3 29 .29 Aesthetics 1 4 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 15 .15 Ease of Use 2 3 2 4 2 1 3 2 2 1 22 .22

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Appendix C: Theoretical Analysis

Experiment 2: Generator Data

Mass (g) Shaft Dia

(mm)

Drop Distanc

e (m)

Time (s)

Voltage (V)

RPM Torque (mN-

m)

Pmech

(watts) Current (A)

Pelec

(watts) Efficiency

108.7 10.07 1.55 0.91 2.608 3230.4 5.364 2.461 0.261 0.680 27.6

108.7 10.07 1.55 0.95 2.568 3094.4 5364 2.357 0.257 0.660 28.0

108.7 10.07 1.55 0.94 2.572 3127.3 5.364 2.383 0.257 0.662 27.8

60 10.07 1.55 1.23 2.324 2390 2.961 1.005 0.232 0.540 53.7

60 10.07 1.55 1.33 2.352 2210.3 2.961 0.929 0.235 0.553 59.5

60 10.07 1.55 1.28 2.228 2296.6 2.961 0.966 0.229 0.524 54.2

20 9.53 1.73 1.99 0.815 1743.1 0.935 0.171 0.082 0.066 38.9

20 9.53 1.73 1.93 0.821 1797.3 0.935 0.176 0.082 0.067 38.3

Table 8: Generator Data

Mass

L

Voltmeter

Generator (

Shaft (Radius r)

Figure 16: shows a weight attached to a

string wound around the shaft of the

generator.

Procedure:

1. Drop various weights from top.

2. Record time to reach bottom

3. With L, Vmax, and r data in table can be found

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Appendix D: Experiment Processes

Experiment 1: Volume Flow Rate Calculation

Figure 17 shows control volume of 1 gallon, and pressure gage used to vary pressure.

Procedure: Time was recorded to fill control volume from fully open gage in increments

of 5 psi until gage was closed. Data can be seen in table below.

Control Volume (1 gallon)

Pressure Gage

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Pressure (psi)

Flow Rate (GPM)

Power (watts)

40 0 0

35 1.35 20.55650671

30 1.5576 20.32940625

25 2.058 22.38375175

20 2.412 20.98721447

15 2.502 16.32773961

10 2.73 11.87709277

5 3.288 7.15235916

0 3.39 0

Table 9: Faucet Analysis Data

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Appendix D: Attestation of Work:

William DelGiorno

My primary contribution to this proposal document was basically everything previous to

the Concept Development section. Some other things in this document that was done by

me include the Gantt chart, the customer survey table, and the concept ranking table.

Concept C was also my own idea and drawing.

Matthew Coleman

My main contribution was writing up everything in the concept development part of the

project. I also completed a few other parts of this document including the Table of

Contents, Conclusion, and References sections. I also wrote up the material selection

process and fabrication process. Lastly, I helped put the document together by labeling

the figures, tables, and page numbers. I came up with Concept B.

Logan Hamilton

My primary work consisting in the document is part four. I took our drawing and

designed the basic solid works model our group is going to work from. Along with this, I

also calculated predicted values for how efficiently our motor can run and what kind of

output we can generate. As with the rest of the group I also contributed to the editing of

our proposal to narrow effectively utilize the number of pages.

By signing this document we all attest that it provides an accurate representation of our

individual efforts in the completion of this work Date:__4/22/14___

Member Name Printed:_ Matthew Coleman____ Signature: Matthew Coleman

Member Name Printed:__William DelGiorno__ Signature: William DelGiorno

Member Name Printed:__Logan Hamilton_____ Signature: Logan Hamilton