Date of Award
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Terms of Use
© 2024 Paula Suder. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. For all other uses, please contact the copyright holder.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Engineering Department
First Advisor
E. Carr Everbach
Abstract
With the onset of climate change from excess carbon emissions, renewable energy sources, especially in the form of hydropower, can offer comparatively low-emission alternatives to conventionally used fossil fuels that may lessen the environmental effects of energy generation. Although most hydroelectric facilities utilize dams to store water and channel flow, diversion facilities, also called “run-of-river” facilities, operate utilizing a portion of the natural flow and eliminate the need for dams and their associated construction and environmental concerns. To design and construct a small scale run-of-river device, an iterative design process was implemented over two prototypes, including spiral axial hydropower turbine design and component selection. The second prototype was created by adjusting the metrics of the spiral axial turbine and implementing the concepts of bevel gear pair theory and design. After assembly, the device was tested in the Crum Creek for its ability to generate power. The device generated a small but detectable amount of voltage and current, successfully producing power. By optimizing various components in future iterations, the device can more efficiently capture the energy of the Crum Creek’s flow and yield greater power output. Additionally, future iterations can rework and scale the design to produce enough power for common everyday uses, such as powering a modern smartphone.
Recommended Citation
Suder, Paula , '24, "Run-of-River Device for Hydropower from the Crum Creek" (2024). Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards. 926.
https://works.swarthmore.edu/theses/926