| dc.description.abstract | Water energy is essential for economic expansion and human development. Social progress
and economic growth depend on meeting water energy needs sustainably. The use of non renewable energy sources for pumping water to high heads from a low head (surface flow or
groundwater) has led to a global imbalance, leaving society vulnerable to an uncertain future.
The thesis aims to bypass electrical energy for pumping water in a niche region of people near
river basins, promoting interdependence and minimizing consumption. Technical engineering
solutions applied in this work use the flow from rivers or streams as their primary input energy
sources to pump 5 to 10 percent of the water needed for sustenance at higher elevations while
returning 90 to 95 percent of the water that is used for pumping back to the stream. This
endeavour has the potential to assist around 5% of the world's population who currently live
along the river basins. The Taipadar village case study is illustrated, which is situated in the
Tiriya river basin of the Chhattisgarh state, Bastar, in central-east India, to demonstrate the
implementation of such technical solutions in the real world. The emphasis is given to the
effectiveness of converting two hydraulic powers: input river flow and head and output
delivered flow and delivery head.
Afterward, in this research, the two appropriate engineering solutions of the Taipadar village,
namely the Ram pump and Turbine pump, have been examined for their best performance, and
monograms have been created to enable technicians and field personnel to develop their
customized systems. A detailed comparison of two technologies (i.e., Ram pump and Turbine
pump) is made with a discussion of their working principles and the results of tests conducted
at a field station in central-east India. The H-Q-D (Head-Discharge-Diameter) chart is also
developed to serve as a helpful tool for interpreting the technology concerning boundary
circumstances and serves as a roadmap for upcoming innovations in such renewable hydro pumping devices.
It is crucial to investigate the technologies' combined or individual overall optimum
performance for the system design. To gain insights into the performance of the turbine pump,
its blade geometry, represented by the blade thickness to chord length ratio (t/l), is analysed.
This study on t/l highlights its effect on the specific speed of the turbine and, therefore, the
pumping efficiency. This comprehensive work on t/l is a novel area of investigation that has
been previously ignored or overlooked, but its findings have opened up new avenues for
optimizing the performance of hydro turbines. The scaling effect of axial flow propellers while
maintaining a constant t/l ratio, as well as varying chord lengths and blade numbers, is also
addressed. A comprehensive qualitative theory of energy transfer and corresponding loss
mechanisms is also provided, along with an analytical method.
Moreover, in order to examine the performance of a hydraulic ram, this study analysed the
stroke rate of the impulse valve, as well as the valve setting, drive head, and length, using two
analytical models. These models (i.e., Tacke and Iversen) have validated the results that show
good conformance with matching delivered flow. The analysis of the effect of control variables
on input variables demonstrates that the field setup outperformed the lab setup.
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The thesis, in the end, will provide the fundamentals, design, conceptualization, construction,
evaluation, and field validation guidelines for implementing low-head micro hydro pump
technologies to deliver water, generate electricity, and, most notably, convince society and
policymakers to shift their current reductionist approach. The scaling and design of the turbine
pump, pump selection, and flow output estimation with a technical-economic feasibility study
procedure are also discussed. | en_US |
