TruFLOW
I created this turbine because existing renewable energy systems often comes at the cost of natural landscapes and wildlife.
Haven't humans built enough?
TrueFlow Hydropower
— ROLE & SKILLS
3D Design Intern
- Rhino 3D
- SOLIDWORKS
- Adobe Suite
Additive Manufacturing
- SLS Printing
Prototyping & Testing
— DATE
June '22 – Oct '22
Here's the real problem with ‘sustainable’ energy…
Large scale hydroelectric systems are often detrimental to surrounding environments due to the background work and environmental changes that must be incorporated.
Furthermore, approximately 50% of hydroelectric plants worldwide experience suffer sever operational constraints.
These multimillion-dollar projects
- Endanger lives,
- Offset ecosystems
- Destroy Soil and natural habitats
DISCLAIMER: The nature of this project required that I signed an NDA with the engineering division at Imaginarium. The following are assets that are focused on displaying my process in getting to this iteration of the solution.
Introducing: TruFLOW
TruFLOW stems fro the idea that renewable energy can be generated from existing human infrastructure.
Wouldn't it be great if most cities were built upon systems of thousands of gallons of passively flowing water?
Oh wait… they are!
Pipelines in urban setups stood out as a promising place to start.
Design Research showed me that each of the 6 million household in Mumbai outputs approximately 7500 liters of water each day.
‘TruFLOW’ project envisions that the key truly green hydropower, lies in the thousands of pipes and channels that already lie in our cities.
Here’s what inspired me!
INFO
- Research suggested that throwing stars spin optimally within a fluid
- River turbines generate sustainable energy with relatively low RPM
- Da Vinci’s propeller funnels fluids in a direction to spin at a high rate
Initial Sketches & Prototypes
Riding this wave of inspiration, I conferred with some of the engineers at Imaginarium, as well as my mentors. They encouraged experimenting with form factors, including a screwdriver turbine and a helix shaped propellor. ( Check out these sketches below).
The form factor that worked best and maximized the surface area of the turbine within a water pipe was a Shuriken inspired design inscribed in a sphere (visualized on the left). The fluid dynamics are inspired by Tesla's valve, which promote uni directional flow. But wait, here comes a challenge!
Challenge I:
Inscribing turbine in a pipe while maintaining water speed within the system.
Solution I:
Modeling a spherical turbine that has sub-channels in it's cross section to smoothen flow.
So the modeling began, I used Rhino 7 to start out, mapping out the cross section and then moulding into spherical constraints.
MODEL I
My first model involved inscribing the 'ninja star' shaped cross section within spherical constraints, allowing maximized surface area within any pipe.
The cross section was smoothened out in the sketch itself to allow for seamless interaction with fluids.
The model also had inner channels to promote sub-flows within the overall design.
Here’s are some of the engineering drawings of my model!
Slide below to interact and see the iterations in the Trueflow Turbine
MODEL II
This model accounted for an important oversight gravitational effects on the water, pipes aren’t always full and the bulk of the water is usually concentrated towards the lower half of the pipe. The next model accounts for this as each blade is swept at an optimal slope of 30 degrees. This means that the bulk of the blade’s surface area is near the base.
This also allows for more consistent spinning and more momentum of the blades, which would result in higher RPM of around 175 based on testing .
Material Selection using Ansys Granta
I first indexed materials that had the best durability in marine environments and in salty water, to account for any impurities. The best options seemed to be:
- Tungsten Carbides
- Commercially Pure Lead
- Stainless Steel
Narrowing the results down based on density, I optimized the weight and price of the turbine per unit mass, I indexed the materials again, and narrowed my search down using a Pareto front, I chose:
- Stainless Steel
My first working design! Let's take this thing for a spin!
Watching my Rhino model come to life in a powder bed printer was magical.
Constraints I had to account for:
- Thickness of the turbine blades, so that they would be durable enough to withstand the force of water.
- Thickness of the internal beam to allow for structural integrity.
-The weight of the blades needed to be minimized to allow for less internal resistance within the fluid.
These constraints called for material selection. I used Granta Edupac Material Selector to enter some basic constraints.
