Characteristics of Archimedes screw turbine microhydro power plant in various gearboxes

Electrical energy has become a basic need of modern society, but the provision of electrical energy is still not able to meet the needs of the community. Many potential energy sources can be converted into electrical energy. One of the potential energy sources is the flow of water that can be used for micro-hydro power plants in remote areas. This paper describes the results of research on micro hydro power plants using Archimedes screw turbines. The aim of the research was to study the effect of variations of the turbine gearbox and generator on the characteristics and performance of the Archimedes screw turbine micro hydro generator. The novelty and uniqueness of the research is that the turbine and generator are analyzed as a single system. As a single combined turbine and generator system, there will be two kinds of system characteristics, namely mechanical characteristics and electrical characteristics. There were five variations of the gearbox ratio used in the study, namely 1, 1.4, 1.56, 2.33 and 2.56. The water discharge used to drive the turbine was 2.64 l/m and the elevation angle of the turbine slope was 30°. In the 2.56 gear ratio variation, the highest rpm, voltage, current and electric power were obtained. While the largest average torque was obtained at gear ratio 1. From the results of the study obtained a relationship that the greater the gearbox ratio, the rpm, voltage, current and electric power increase, otherwise the torque produced decreases.