Los Alamos Mid School (77)/Interim Report

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=77

Problem Definition:
I want to know if there is a way to use stream water, or running water, to produce power. I am going to simulate a hydroelectric power generator to place in a stream to extract the energy from the running water then convert it to power. I will estimate the maximum amount of power that could be generated in a stream. I am also investigating the theoretical limits of power, such as the size of the device in the water, and the losses, mechanical and electric conversion.

Problem Solution:
I am to using the Mathworks’ Simulink program to create a model of the physical system for this project. I will simulate a power system to place in a stream or river to generate electricity. The power system has blades that turn a shaft and a shaft that turns an electrical generator. I would like to look at the maximum performance of the system so I am not going to model all of the details. I am using the stream flow in a river to generate the power, velocity in particular, not the traditional hydro-power plant using the depth of water. I want to look at the change in velocity. “As you increase the velocity how much more power could you get out?” As speed increases, the propeller turns faster, and you produce more power from the water. The water temperature isn’t one of my concerns because it shouldn’t have an impact on the performance of the system. I am looking at the mechanical conversion of water velocity into turning a shaft and the shaft turning/running a generator. The generator will be a black box that has parameters, like flow speed and blade efficiency that relate directly to the power output. The best generator will be determined by understanding these differences on power output.

Progress to Date:
I have learned about how the generator will work and why and where I want to place it in the stream to get the most power. I have also learned about the program I am going to use to simulate the system. Since I have only used an agent based modeling program before I need to know how Simulink works, and have worked through many Simulink tutorials. I need to start putting the system together in Simulink.

Expected Results:
I think I will find there is a way to use running water to generate power. But my question is how much power can I generate and is it efficient. I would expect that as the stream velocity increases the power generated would also increase. The angle of the blade to the stream will affect the speed at which the shaft rotates and therefore the power generated. So we will parameterize this effect using a blade efficiency.

Interim Comments
Hello, My name is Teri Roberts. I work at Los Alamos National Lab and I have worked with the Challenge for many years in a variety of roles. I have been asked to provide feedback on your interim report.

Wow! I am impressed that as a middle school team you have chosen to model a technical problem that is based in physics. I understand that you have a big learning curve with Mathworks' Simulink. The modeling environment is a big part of what you must learn. I want to encourage you to continue climbing that learning curve.

But there are some things you can work on even without complete knowledge of the computational tool. Recall that computing, math, and science all come together to make up the proposal problem. The math and science parts of the problem must be well understood in order to take maximum advantage of the computational modeling environment. You can still write about the physics of water and motion in your report. Surely there is a reference somewhere that you could site? Do you have a mentor who could help you simplify the computational fluid dynamics concepts and math for your model? What are the equations you will use? What are the variables in the equations? Your report could cover all of the math/science that are involved in your model even if you can't get the computational environment up and working.

Please keep working on this project. You could look at this problem as a multiple-year project where each year you learn a little more and report on it.

Good luck with your efforts. And thanks for letting me review your work.