A turbine is a machine for producing continuous power in which a wheel or rotor, typically fitted with vanes, is made to revolve by a fast-moving flow of water, steam, gas, air, or other fluid.
Learn more about how turbines work and what are some of the applications for turbines
Familiarize with the 3D printer, its process, and its applications
Reprint some of the previous groups parts that are falling apart and that are unclean and have rough edges that may influence the outcome of the project
Develop a system that blows air into the front of the turbine in order to demonstrate a working final creation
A turbine is a machine that generates continuous and unending power through the use of wheels or rotors that are typically fitted with curved vanes that capture some type of fuel in order to rotate that are attached to a centrally located rotating axis. These rotors apply the use of continuous streams of water, steam, gas, air, or other fluid to rotate the vanes.
Real world applications of turbines
Types of turbine generators
Synchronous generator
Used in almost all stand-alone applications
Single phase used up to 10 kW.
Most three phase are smaller than equivalent single phase
Induction generator
Just an induction motor with negative slip.
Used most often with grid-tie systems.
Used by some for battery based systems.
Simple and robust.
Readily available and inexpensive.
Requires external excitation from the grid or from capacitors
Control is more difficult, especially for inductive loads
It requires frequency controls if not tied to the grid
DC Alternator
Produces rectified alternating current.
Readily available.
Easy to service.
A rheostat controls excitation.
Wind turbine
Wind Turbine
When the wind meets the blades it starts to spin which causes the axle that is connected to the rest of the rotors to spin which produces mechanical energy.
This mechanical energy can be used for purposes such as grinding grain or pumping water.
The mechanical energy can also be connected to a generator in order to produce electricity
The specific parts of a wind turbine and how they work can be found on the following link
Number of sensor fittings reading speed and direction of wind, levels of electrical power generation, rotor speed, blades pitch angle, vibration levels, lubricant temp
Computer processes inputs to carry out operation with safety system that is able to override controller when emergency occurs
Protects turbine from operating in dangerous conditions
Ensures power generated has proper frequency, voltage, and current levels to be supplied to the grid
Yaw drive system
Keeps rotors facing the wind and unwind cables traveling down the tower base
Consists of electric or hydraulic motor on the nacelle driving the pinion on a vertical shaft through reducing gearbox
Brake to stop the turning of turbine and stabilizing turbine during normal operation
Drive Train
Heart of wind turbine
Nacelle
Box like component sitting on top of turbine
Contains 8,000 components of a wind turbine. Includes: gearbox, generator, main frame
Housing made of fiberglass protecting internal components
Rotor
Spins the shaft connected to the generator
Made of
High-tech blades
Hub- made of ductile cast iron, weighs 8 to 10 tons. Located on front of blade
Spinner
Pros of a Wind Turbine
Does not pollute the surrounding area because it generates electricity by using a natural everyday occurrence to power the turbine
Enormous potential because no matter where you are there will always be wind to turn the turbines so you can potentially build anywhere
Renewable because we never will run out of wind to turn the turbines
Space Efficient because the turbine can fully power multiple homes and you are able to use the land that surrounds the turbines
Rapid growth: wind power only accounts for about 2.5% of total worldwide electricity production, the capacity is growing at an incredible rate of 25% per year (2010)
Prices are decreasing due to technological advances and increased demand
Low operational cost: the major cost to use turbines is actually building the turbines, once they are built the only need periodic operational checkups
People can generate their own power for their homes
Cons of a Wind Turbine
There is not always wind which makes it very unpredictable
Costs enormous money in order to build the turbines
Threat to wildlife: because the blades are so big there is a chance for flying animals to get killed by running into the blades, this is especially true on Wind Turbine Farms
For those living near wind turbines it generates a lot of noise that may keep you up late into the night
Wind turbines disturb the natural scenes because of their great size especially when you see a farm of wind turbines
Water turbine
Two types of water turbines
Impulse Turbine
Impulse Turbine Blade
How it Works
Fast moving fluid fired from a narrow nozzle thus spinning the turbine with bucket shaped blades that work by directing the fluid spray at an angle or sometimes even back the way it came.
Fluid is forced to hit the turbine at high speed
Water turbines are often based around an impulse turbine
No direct correlation between pump charistics and turbine characteristics
Flow is fixed for a given head
Steam Turbine
Steam turbine
How it Works
Cross between a wind and water turbine.
Like a wind turbine when steam blows past the blades they start to spin
Like a water turbine the blades are in a sealed contained unit so that the steam is constrained and forced to move past the blades
Use high-pressure steam that turns a electricity generator making them rotate faster then both a wind and water turbine
Similar to a water turbine, steam turbines can utilize both a impulse and reaction turbine blades
The impulse steam turbine has the same blades as the water powered impulse turbine. The steam in this type of turbine hits the blades pushing them around utilizing a series of impulses which then bounce off the other side of the blade with a velocity reduced pressure.
In a steam powered reaction turbine it includes a second set of blades that have been attached to the inside of the turbine case. The second set of blades helps to speed up and redirect the steam at the right angle where it leaves with a lower temperature and pressure but similar velocity as the steam when it first entered the turbine. Both of the blade sets are made of incredibly tough material that allow continuous high-pressure steam to be directed at them.
Components
Rotors and blades
Speed control mechanism
Set of nozzles that direct steam onto either the stationary or rotating blades
Impulse turbine Blade
Real complete turbine
Stages of Real Steam Turbine
Multiple blades allow to extract the most energy it can before the steam is exhausted
Each of the sets of blades are called a stage which works by either impulse or reaction
Typical turbine has a mixture of both types of stage that are mounted on the same rotor as each other all turning the generator at the same time
Often the stage that comes first is the impulse then reaction stages. The impulse stages extract the energy from high pressure steam and the reaction stages remove extra energy from expanded steam volume which utilizing bigger and longer blades.
This multi-stage approach was invented by Charles Parsons who created it in a way that each of the stages of the turbine are slowly slowing or reducing the steam pressure. This reduces the forces applied on each blade which improves the overall power output
The Makerbot Replicator 2 is a 3D printer that extrudes a biodegradable thermoplastic (PLA) to create parts. This is the older and smaller of two Makerbot 3D printers at HCC, but it prints faster than the newer (5th Gen) model.
Warnings
Printing gun parts violates US Federal Law
Printing trademarked or actively patented stuff could result in a legal problems
The school can not support printing personal stuff including personal inventions
Focus printing on things that are related to engineering projects.
Quick Start Guide
Find or create a 3D model of a part.
Find an existing 3D model (pre-drawn STL files) at the Smithsonian, thingiverse, and traceparts. 3Dwarehouse and Archive3D models do not convert to STL files consistently without problems. Makerbot needs STL or OBJ files to print from. MakerWare saves files in its own format called THING which can also be printed from.
Back blades are rubbing against each other and since they are on different shafts this affects the spinning motion of both shafts and the rotors on those shafts.
Location of Problem Image 1
Solution: Move the pieces that are rubbing together apart
Remaining Problems
Front housing is not stable and not firmly connected with the big front housing
Housings don't stay connected when not attended to and fall apart if left alone
Place each blade and rotor in its place and secure the position while allowing part to be removed when needed to be fixed or replaced
Connect the three different housings together to prevent it from falling apart when not holding it up in a way where they can be separated easily
Design and implement a way of transferring an air stream in a concentrated stream to spin the rotors and the rotary shafts
Week 4: Connectivity
Primary Week 4 Objectives
Fix unstable big fan housing so that it is stable and doesn't wobble which would create friction between the blade and the housing
Replace glue that fixed the blades and rotors to stick in one spot permanently which you may run into problems later on if you have to fix or replace one or more of the rotors and blades and are unable to be easily removed. Find a way to stick the rotors and blades in one place in a way that allows easy removal when having to replace the part.
Create a removable way to stick the separate housing pieces together preventing it from falling apart that allows the next group to be able to remove the tubes, blades, and rotors
The nails that were placed onto the original groups turbine failed to have a hold on the drilled holes on the front housing so the nails kept on slipping out which caused the whole front part of the turbine unbalanced causing friction between the blade and the housing.
Replaced nails with screws to hold the turbine steady
Objective 2: Blade and rotor placement and attachment
Previous group glued each piece to the tube making it so you have to get the glue of in order to remove the part if you need to replace that part.
Middle ring of the rotor was big enough that if you wrapped a piece of tape around where the parts are supposed to be located at. Tape creates a snug fit between the rotor and the rotary tube that allows part to be easily removed while once the turbine starts spinning the piece still stays in place.
The problem with using glue to connect the housings together is that they are unable to be separated. There are two ways of combating this problem:
Recreate and reprint the housing pieces with some kind of attached mechanism that fully connects the two housings together while being able to separate them if need be
Create a secondary attachment that allows the housings to connect with each other while still being able to separate
Solution to Problem: Velcro between the spot where the housings connect with each other on both sides of the housing and on the underside of the housing. Velcro holds the pieces together keeping the housings from separating while easily being able to disconnect the pieces.
Velcro keeps the pieces from being separated while the cylinder connectors attached to the housing keep the housings from being separated horizontally
Create something that closes off the turbine from the air except for the front and back of the turbine. Another choice would be to create a covering using the 3D printer to generate the pieces
Find or create bearings big enough enough to fit around the small inside rotary shaft allowing the turbine to spin easier with a lot less friction and if some friction remains find where it occurs and create a way to fix the problem.
Create a mechanism that directs a high enough stream of constant directed air that is able to spin the turbine
Real world applications of your built turbine
Create a different type of turbine and compare between turbines
