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Power generation from canal system using

adjustable Twisted Blade Turbine

Conference Paper · December 2015

DOI: 10.1109/ICET.2015.7389181

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Power Generation from Canal System using Adjustable
Twisted Blade Turbine
M. Usama S. Habib
Department of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Engg. and Technology, University of Engg. and Technology,
Lahore, Pakistan Lahore, Pakistan
engr.usama669@gmail.com salmanhabib560@gmail.com
Abstract— As natural head of water turbine has been used for
power generation where the construction of a dam is infeasible. It
works on natural flow of water to generate a specific power
output. Although the velocity of canal water is less but the force
of water is comparatively high. Pakistan has the largest canal
system in the world and it can be implemented anywhere in the
canal. At present, in Pakistan, energy crises are increasing day
by day and hopefully this project can be helpful to minimize the
same. The present work describes the development of a Twisted
Blade Turbine which is simple in design, fabrication and
maintenance which can produce sufficient power to light a couple
of energy saver bulbs up to wattage of 30 to 40.
Keywords—Natural Head, Natural Flow, Twisted Blade
Turbine, Adjustable Twisted Blade Turbine
I. INTRODUCTION
In today's world electricity has become one of the major
necessities and its shorting seriously influences the economic
development of any country. Due to the rapid and continuous
growth in population, urbanization and industrialization in
Pakistan during the past few decades, the imbalance between
the production and demand of electric power has led to a
major energy crisis in Pakistan. As a result of this energy
crisis, Pakistan is currently one of the few countries where
load shedding is carried out to overcome the gap between
production and consumption of electric power[1].
Micro hydropower (MHP) plants have attained attention
because of their ecological spotless and an acceptable price for
the available power production and do not generate
greenhouse gases and harmful pollution concerns. MHP is
environmentally friendly renewable energy, because these
resources can be sized and designed to minimize the canals,
ditches or river flow interference. The connected generators of
MHP plants may be Permanent Magnetic, self-
excited/Separately Excite generators. With the fast
development of manufacturing a semiconductor power device,
the power generated by the MHP plants can be easily
converted into energy having excellent quality stable source of
power to meet the requirements of the cost of using the new
commercial power converter and the inverter [2].
978-1-5090-0436-2/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
H. Hussain
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Engg. and Technology,
Lahore, Pakistan
ee.haseeb@gmail.com
MHP concept would be ideally suited to rivers and shallow
channel , since it can be designed to fill the channel’s cross -
sectional area of the passage of more turbine rotor standard
circular or marine turbine array. The initial analysis is to
assess its potential for power generation. This analysis
involves both experimental testing of a physical model and the
related modeling and results [3], [5].
While Pakistan is deficient in fossil fuels, it is necessary to
utilize the coal reserves and renewable resources [6].
Observations based on reviewing the geological setup,
geographical location and climatologically cycles along with
industrial and urban development activities reveal that bright
opportunities exist for the exploitation of renewable resources
like biogas, biomass, wind, solar etc. Technically, all these
sources are viable and suit the poverty and environmental
alleviation in Pakistan.
In the country, WAPDA, PCRET and other energy sector
organizations are investing in various developments regarding
hydroelectric and renewable resources, like wind and solar, as
the people have become aware and familiar with the relevant
technologies [6].
The previous work describes the development of a twisted
Blade rotor configuration which is simple in design,
fabrication and maintenance [7].
The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the
usage of twisted blade turbine system for the generation of
cheap electricity from a stream line water flow. As Pakistan
has one of the largest canal systems in the world. Therefore,
this method of electricity generation can provide an efficient
mean to provide an efficient mean to produce sufficient
amount of electrical power for local use [9].
The approach utilized to design the complete unit for
producing electricity is summarized in Fig. 1. Each block is
shown in the flow chart.
Section II describes the statistical analysis, experimental
readings required for the designing of proto type model.
Section III explains the designing of Proto Type Model as
depicted in Table II and fig. 2. Section IV explains the
designing parameters, properties and Modeling of
AdjustedTwisted Blade Rotor Turbine [1], [4], [8].
 TABLE III. DESIGN PARAMETERS FOR PROTOTYPE TWISTED BLADE
MODEL

Design Parameters Specifications

Circumference of pipe 13.2cm
Total number of fins 6
Total length of the fins 13.1572cm
Space between the fins 2.2cm
Space between the fin screws 7.3cm
Total pipe length 10.16cm
Radius of the pipe 0.8244cm

IV. PRACTICAL TURBINE DESIGN

A. Shaft and Blade Modeling

For modeling of a turbine, first of all, we designed the
shaft with proper dimensions and made it on Corel Draw.
Two circular disks were also implemented which were placed
on the far ends of the shaft. Shape of blade was made as a
Fig. 1. Flow chart depicting the various stages involved in designing twisted semi-circle bucket so that maximum water of the
the stream line electricity generation unit. stream enters the turbine. The Corel Draw design of the
turbine is shown in Fig. 3. The properties of the designed
turbine are shown in Table IV [10].
II. CANAL SURVEY
The data given below was obtained from Lahore canal.
TABLE I. CANAL SURVEYED

Canal Location Canal Width Canal Depth

Lahore Canal 9.144 m 1.376 m

The data is given below has been obtained from different

locations of Lahore canal.
TABLE II. STREAM LINE FLOW RATE AT DIFFERENT LOCATIONS

Sr. No. Area Location Speed of Canal Water

1. Mughalpura 0.46m/s

2. New Campus 0.72 m/s

3. Thokkar Niaz Baig 0.8 m/s Fig. 2. Prototype turbine models (a) Straight blades turbine (b) Twisted
blades turbine.

Then the force & Power that can be available from water TABLE IV. DESIGN PROPERTIES OF TURBINE
of mass 3kg in Lahore Canal at New Campus is:
Design
Specifications Design Parameters Specifications
Force = W = mg = 3*9.8 = 29.4 kg m/s2 (1) Parameters
Radius of a
Power = Force*velocity = 29.4*0.72 = 21.1 watts (2) 11.2cm Velocity of water 0.8 m/s
blade
This means that from a 3kg of stream water flowing with a 2.16421 Generator
Angle at centre 60%
radians Efficiency
velocity of 0.72 m/s can produce 21.1watts of useful power.
Arc length of
This power can be utilized to drive a turbine for the 24.25 cm Water flow rate 0.774 m3/s
blade
production of electricity. Material Stainless Swept area of
0.93m2
III. PROTOTYPE DESIGN Selected Steel turbine
Material Grade 304 Length of turbine 0.5334 m
Experiments were conducted with two different types of Turbine
blades viz., (a) Straight blade (b) Twisted blade as shown in 35% Radius of turbine 0.275 M
Efficiencya
Fig. 2 & Table III. On the basis of calculations, it was Output Power
50W Density of water 1000 kg/m3
concluded that the twisted blades with curves produces more [2]
rotational speed as compared to straight blades with curve. * The value was assumed for calculating the flow rate.
 C. Gear Design
Our aim was to generate 40 watts. It was observed that to
produce 40 W the rotor of the selected generator should rotate
at 519 rpm. Thus, the turbine was coupled to the generator
through a system of 4 gears. The specifications of the
designed gears are as follows:

TABLE VI. TURBINE & GENERATOR COUPLING GEAR SPECIFICATIONS

Parameter Specification
2 Gears 48 teeth

1 Gear 12 teeth

1 Gear 10 teeth

R1:R2 24:5

R3:R4 4:1

V. RESULTS
The twisted blade rotor turbine was deployed on the
Lahore Canal below the Thokar Niaz Baig bridge as shown
below:

Fig. 4. Deployed turbine in the running stream of Lahore Canal at the

location of Thokar Niaz Baig.

DC bulbs of different wattages were connected to the

Fig. 3. Corel Draw Model of Blade, Blade Holder, Shaft ,Turbine Assemble
and 3D model of Twisted Blade Turbine.
B. Generator Selection
For obtaining 50W of electric power from the designed
turbine a Permanent Magnet DC Generator was selected. The
specifications of the selected generator are given below:
output terminals of the generator as dummy loads. The
voltages produced and the current extracted by the loads were
measured through a microcontroller control unit. The obtained
results are shown in the following table.
TABLE VII. MEASURED VOLTAGES AND CURRENTS AT THE GENERATOR
OUTPUT WHEN LOADS WERE VARIED

TABLE V. PERMANENT MAGNET DC GENERATOR SPECIFICATIONS Sr. No. Measured Measured

Bulb Load (W)
Voltage (V) Current (A)
Parameter Specification 1 No Load 28 0
Power 150 W
2 13 9.9 1.18
Voltage 24 V
3 16 9.9 1.31
Speed 750 rpm
4 20 2.8 7.14
It can be observed that the obtained results are quite provide better results. Also, the generator that we utilized
satisfactory. Similarly, the results were obtained on different provided 60% efficiency only as it was an old machine.
loading conditions while varying the angle of wet area i.e. the Apart from this the results shown in this paper were
blade angle.
evaluated on the wet area angles of 150 to 200. Our
The results are shown below:
calculations propose that these angles can be varied to 280.
TABLE VIII. MEASURED VOLTAGES AND CURRENTS AT THE
Thus, efforts should be made further in this context.
GENERATOR OUTPUT WHEN LOADS AND BLADE ANGLES WERE VARIED
REFERENCES
Sr. Bulb Load Angle of Wet Measured Measured
No. (W) Area (degrees) Voltage (V) Current (A)
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13.6 0.82 10.1109/IICPE.2012.6450492
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VI. CONCULSIONS
[5] S.P. Adhau, R.M. Moharil, P.G. Adhau, "Reassessment of
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According to our survey, we observed that there is a [6] N.A. Zaigham, Z.A. Nayyar, "Prospects of renewable-energy
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• Small units of energy storage in the form of micro
grids will help us to produce a reasonable amount of
energy from the canal water.
• Electricity can be provided to street lights and traffic
signals through the stream line water flow generation,
Back up can be provided through batteries.
• Pakistan has the largest canal network in the world so
we can utilize the kinetic energy of stream water to
generate electrical power.
B. Recommendations
Currently in this study the turbine efficiency was assumed
to be 35%, however, with better engineering skills these
results can be improved to at least 59%. This will eventually

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