Powering Our House with Water: Testing a Water Turbine

Overview

Have you ever wondered how the flowing of water can be turned into electricity? Normally, water and electricity cannot go together, so you would think it is not possible. However, with the help of a turbine and a generator, the kinetic energy in water can be converted into mechanical energy, and then turned into electrical energy, or electricity. There is a growing demand for energy, with a specific interest in portable power sources. T o develop a portable unit and to test on this process, a miniature model of a turbine was constructed. Then, water was poured onto it (flow rate) at different speeds maintaining a constant elevation from where the water was poured (water head). The number of rotations per minute (rpm) of the turbine shaft that yielded mechanical power output were counted, which was later experimentally observed with three standard turbine-generator units. It was experimentally observed that if the flow rate is increased, shaft rotations as mechanical power, and, generator output as electrical power will also be increased. T o verify this experiment, three standard sets of turbines, and generators were tested using supply water line and measuring electric output using a multimeter. Thus, by using the turbine-generator units under tap water and measuring voltage and current (electric output) using the multimeter, the results from the previous experiment were verified. This project is the first step towards building a portable hydropower turbine.

Competition history

• JSHS 2023 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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