International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No.

5, September 2019

Turbine Design and Its Impact on Energy

Harvesting from In-Pipe Hydro Systems
Hani Muhsen, Mariam Ibrahim, Ahmad Alsheikh, Mohammed Qanadilo, and Abdallah Karadsheh
German Jordanian University, Amman, Jordan
Email: hani.mohsen@gju.edu.jo

Abstract—This paper aims at investigating the impact of the and maintenance cost. One of the critical design issues that
utilized turbine design on the harvested energy from in-pipe must be considered during the design of Hydrodynamic
systems. Four turbine designs are involved in this study turbines is to maximize the power production without
which includes the spherical turbine and the Helical (Egg disturbing the water flow in the distribution network [4].
Beater) with three blades, four blades, and five blades. The The in-pipe hydropower systems are classified into two
proposed turbines are designed and they have been main designs according to the location of installation. In
implemented in a prototype to determine the performance of
the internal system, the entire runner is placed vertically
each design. The study presents design procedures and the
design requirements of each employed turbine before the inside the pipe, and the generator is placed outside which
implementation phase. The next step is to collect the provides design simplicity. On the other hand, the runner is
produced torque, rotational speed, pressure drop, and output connected in a secondary line in case of external system
power for each turbine experimentally. The results have been and it is independent of the pipe size, which allows higher
analyzed and compared to show the design impact on these flexibility, higher efficiency and lower operating and
parameters. Finally, a case study is carried out on the major maintenance cost. Moreover, the turbine can also be
water distribution network in Amman the capital of Jordan classified based on its operation principle. The reaction
to determine the possible locations, which are benefited from turbine is used in low head sites, and it reacts to the high
the implementation of the in-pipe system with the examined
fluid issuing from nozzles to rotate the turbine according to
turbines. 
Newton’s third law. Whereas, the impulse turbine
Index Terms—in-pipe system, energy harvesting, turbine produces the work from the fluid issuing on a series of
design blades and it is typically used in high head sites.
In this work, the investigated turbines belong to internal
system and reaction turbines. After determining the turbine
I. INTRODUCTION location and the operation conditions, the used designs
must be specified. In the literature, several blade designs
Hydropower is considered as a developed and a
have been proposed based on the shape of the blades and
cost-competitive renewable energy source, in which
the connection of the turbine with the shaft. For instance,
energy and water are linked strongly together. Indeed,
the H-Darrieus is one of the used turbines to convert the
significant energy is used to deliver the water to the
consumers throughout the distribution system. This wind energy into electrical energy, and it provides good
excessive energy might damage the transporting pipes at performance in contrast to the other used turbines. Another
some points due to the extra pressure. Therefore, pressure turbine design which is known by Darrieus turbine, which
valves are used to reduce the pressure in these pipes to is a vertical axis turbine and it has streamlined blades
proper levels. The excess pressure points can be exploited turning around an axis perpendicular to the flow.
by generating clean energy that supplies different loads The turbine consists of a group of curved blades which
near to these points. The inclusion of the turbines in the allow the blade to be stressed only in tension at high
distribution pipe will reduce the system cost significantly rotating speeds [1]. The designed turbines in this work are
due to not using pressure valves. In this technology, the the spherical turbine with three blades, four blades and
pipe is equipped with a turbine, which is connected to a with five blades. The used design is a combination of the
generator, which is mounted on top of the pipe. The Darrieus wind turbine and Gorlov turbine (Egg-beater).
generated energy from the in-pipe system is known in the The design and implementation of the proposed turbines
literature by in-pipe hydropower [1-3]. will be presented in the next sections.
Unlike traditional renewable energy resources, the
in-pipe hydropower energy is independent of the weather II. DESIGNED TURBINES
changes, and it is classified as an environmentally friendly In this section, SolidWorks is used to design multiple
energy source. Moreover, it is known as one of the turbines that consist of three and four blades; each design
cheapest means to produce energy regarding installation has a different angle of attack to evaluate the most efficient
design, to be used in the prototype. A spherical turbine was
Manuscript received March 20, 2018, revised July 9, 2019. designed to rotate transversely within a cylindrical pipe,

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doi: 10.18178/ijmerr.8.5.685-690
 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019

which is coupled with a generator. In one embodiment, the This material was chosen due to its safety and the ease to
blades of the spherical turbine curve in an approximately use, and it provides a smooth finishing. Moreover, another
180-degree arc in a plane that is at an inclined angle material has been investigated in the 3D printing for one of
relative to the rotational axis of a central shaft. The design the designed turbine, which is Photocurable resin. This
of lucid energy turbine [5] was modified, and three designs material is lighter and more elastic than PLA, but it is more
have been proposed as shown in Table I. expensive. The Fig. 3 below shows the 3D-printed turbines
The aim of proposing several designs is investigating of the designs as mentioned earlier.
the main parameters, which affect the turbine performance.
TABLE II. COMPARISON OF DESIGN PARAMETERS OF GORLOV (H-EGG)
These parameters include the number of blades, the angle TURBINES.
of attack, the width of the blade, and the employed material,
which forms the blades. The next step was preparing the Design 4 Design 5 Design 6
designed models for a 3D printing phase as depicted in Fig. Angle of Attack 12° 15° 12°
1. Number of Blades 3 4 5
TABLE I. COMPARISON OF DESIGN PARAMETERS OF SPHERICAL Blade Width 7 mm 7 mm 7 mm
TURBINES
Material PLA PLA PLA
Design 1 Design 2 Design 3
Angle of Attack 12° 15° 15° Vertical Axis 31.5 mm 33.5 mm 31.5 mm
Number of Blades 4 3 4
Horizontal Axis 49.5 mm 49.5 mm 49.5 mm
Blade Width 5 mm 6 mm 6 mm
Photocurable
Material PLA PLA
resin
Diameter 49.5 mm 49.5 mm 49.5 mm
The second proposed design is a combination of the
Darrieus wind turbine and the Gorlov turbine (H-Egg). The
shape is longitudinal along the vertical axis, and the airfoil
blade profile is swept in a helical profile along its span.
Again, the main parameters that affect the turbine
performance have been investigated. Fig. 2 depicts the (a) (b) (c)
proposed designs and Table II compares between the three
models.

(d) (e) (f)

(a) (b) (c) Figure 3. D-printed turbines; (a) Spherical turbine with four blades, (b)
Spherical three blades, (c) Spherical four blades, (d) H-Egg three blades,
Figure 1. Proposed designs of spherical turbines (a) Design No. 1 with (e) H-Egg four blades, (f) H-Egg five blades.
four blades, (b) Design No. 2 with three blades, (c) design No. 3 with four
blades.

The blades have been designed using SolidWorks III. PROTOTYPE DESIGN
software; the turbines were 3D-printed by adding material In this section, a prototype to mimic the in-pipe
layer by layer based on advanced technology that builds up hydropower system was implemented as demonstrated in
parts in layers at the sub-mm scale. The used material in the Fig. 4. The system consists of a tank for water storage,
3D printing process was Poly Lactic Acid (PLA) and it is PVC pipe which acts as a connection between the tank with
made out of organic material, which mainly contains submersible pump passing through the turbine segment
sugarcane and cornstarch. and then back to the tank to close the loop. A submersible
pump is then used to pump the water and to increase the
pressure of water inside the pipes; the gate valve is used to
manipulate the water flow rate. The pipe adapter (also
called a coupler) is used to connect the 3.17 mm outlet
diameter of the pump to the 63 mm pipe diameter. PVC
sleeves and elbows are also implemented to connect the
pipes. The support structure was designed with one-meter
(a) (b) (c) height to take advantage of the gravity fed. This height is
selected to generate a pressure of approximately 0.1 bar in
Figure 2. Proposed Gorlov (H-Egg) turbine designs (a) Design No. 4 with
three blades, (b) Design No. 5 with 4 blades, (c) Design No. 6 with five
addition to the pressurized pumped water.
blades. Finally, the steel angles are used to withstand the weight
of the tank. Fig. 5 (a), and Fig. 5 (b) show the considered

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 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019

turbine segment from outside, and inside, respectively. diameter of 17mm. The inner race was connected to the
This segment extends to 10 cm long, and it is attached with shaft with a diameter of 6mm. These bearings were can be
rubber sleeves from each side to be connected with the rest located in a cylindrical box as shown in Fig. 7.
of the loop. The turbine diameter was selected to be Furthermore, a deflector was used in the system to
49.5mm, and it was printed with a hole in the middle for the increase the efficiency by around 30 - 40% by
shaft, which would go through the turbine and the bearing concentrating the flow at one side of the turbine; and this
and then out of the pipe to be connected to the DC will increase the produced torque by the turbine [7-9]. The
generator. Other holes were also printed for the flange deflector will also increase the velocity of the water flow
screws. The length of the shaft was 6 mm, and it was made by decreasing the area based on the continuity equation
of steel. [10]. The deflector was designed using CATIA V5 with an
angle of 35 ͦ as shown in Fig. 8.

(a) (b)
Figure 7. (a) Cylindrical box design view 1, (b): Cylindrical box design
view 2

Figure 4. Implemented prototype to mimic the in-pipe hydro system; the

system consists of tank, submersible pump, flow control valve, DC
generator, speed sensor and Wattmeter.

(a) (b)
Figure 8. (a) Designed deflector using CATIA V5, (b) Implemented
deflector

(a) (b)
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
Figure 5. Turbine segment/ outside, (b) Turbine segment/ inside
In this section, the empirical results of the proposed
The flange was used as a connector between the turbine turbines have been summarized in Table 3, where the
blades and the shaft to transfer the rotational motion of the power was varying with the used model design. The output
blades to the shaft. The Flange was designed using CATIA power in in-pipe hydropower system in case of gravity fed
V5, as shown in Fig. 6. The top flange is connected to the structure can be estimated using the following formula [8],
bottom flange by a shaft which has a hole in the middle to [11]:
hold the main shaft which will ease the rotation and reduce P=    H  Q  g . (1)
the vibration of the system. where,
P  The output power [W]
  Turbine efficiency


 = Water density 1000kg
m3 
H = Net head (m)

Q = Water flow rate m

3
 s
(a) (b)
g = Gravity acceleration constant 9.8m  s2 .
The torque was calculated using the following Equation.
Figure 6. (a) Flange design using CATIA software, (b) Implemented
flange. P=  (2)
The shaft was connected to ball bearings at the where,
intersections of the pipe. The designated bearings in the P = The output power (W)
prototype were 606 with rubber sealing to reduce  = Angular velocity of the shaft (rad/s)
rotational friction and to support axial and radial loads [6].  = Produced torque (N/m).
The outer race of the bearing was stationary with a

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 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019

The speed in rpm was measured using a tachometer, and four blades produced the highest power value of 16 Watt,
the pressure was measured using a Differential Pressure and the H-Egg 3 blades produced the lowest power value
(DP) transmitter. The speed in (rad/s) was calculated using of almost 1 Watt.
the following Equation.
2 N
= (3)
60
where,
N  revolution per minute (rpm).
The flow rate was measured using the flow meter with
the Arduino. The spherical turbines with three and four
blades presented poor performance; therefore, they have
been excluded from the study.
The output power of the remained turbines has been
measured and analyzed versus the pressure drop as shown
in Fig. 9. It was observed that the increment of the pressure
drop at the turbine segment yield in an increase in the
generated power. For instance, the spherical turbine with
four blades was delivering 16 Watt at approximately 60 Figure 9. Power vs. pressure drop for proposed designs
mbar pressure drop at the turbine segment. This value was
the best result that has been obtained among the proposed Fig. 10 (c) displays the pressure drop caused by each
designs. The generated power of the other turbines was turbine. The pressure drop was varying with the attack
smaller as depicted in Fig. 9. angle, the number of blades, and the shape of the turbine.
The produced torque for each turbine design was Each shape has an optimum attack angle, increasing or
measured and the results have been summarized in Fig. 10 decreasing this angle will negatively affect the pressure
(a). The results show that the produced torque is dependent drop. The flow rate was constant at 160 L/min, as
on turbine design and the pressure drop. Hence, the more measured by a flow meter. Fig. 10 (d) shows the shaft
pressure drop on the turbine, the more torque the system speed for each turbine. It was observed that the angular
will produce. The spherical turbine with four blades shaft speed depends on water flow, which was almost the
offered the highest-pressure drop with a produced a torque same for each turbine since the water flow was constant.
of 0.44 N.m. Fig. 10 (b) shows the power produced by each
turbine. It can be noticed that the spherical turbine with

TABLE III. TESTED TURBINES RESULTS

Flow rate
Pressure drop Pressure drop Flow rate Power
Design Speed (rpm) Speed (rad/s) Torque (N.m) (m3/s)
(mbar) (m) (L/min) (Watt)
Spherical
350 36.65 0.439 60.29 0.615 160 0.0027 16.09
turbine 4 blades
H-Egg 4 blades 336 34.18 0.178 23.5 0.24 160 0.0027 6.27

H-Egg 5 blades 333 34.87 0.046 5.92 0.06 160 0.0027 1.6

H-Egg 3 blades 320 33.51 0.028 3.47 0.038 160 0.0027 0.93

(a) (b)

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 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019

(c) (d)
Figure 10. Produced torque versus proposed design, (b) Output power versus proposed design, (c) Pressure drop versus proposed design, (d) angular
speed of the shaft versus proposed design.

V. AMMAN WATER DISTRIBUTION NETWORK CASE STUDY Fig. 11 depicts the estimated results for the specified
As a case study, the primary water distribution network locations in Amman. The results showed that the
in Amman (the capital of Jordan) is considered to implementation of the spherical turbine with four blades in
determine the possible locations, which can be benefited the in-pipe network between Dabouq and Al-Akhdar could
from the implementation of the in-pipe system with the produce the maximum power compared to the other
examined turbines. The water network is divided into three locations. The estimated power in the case as mentioned
main parts: Primary pipes (located in Disi water, Zai station, earlier is expected to reach 26.6 KW of green energy.
Alzara Ma’een, and Water wells), Secondary pipes (e.g.,
the pipe between Dabouq and Al Akhdar), and Territory
pipes (e.g., a territory plan from Abu Nusair to Shafa
Badran). Table IV shows the distribution network for main
tanks in Amman. Table IV. Distribution network for main
tanks in Amman
Table V illustrates the possible locations and the
collected data of the pressurized water using the
best-proposed turbine design (i.e., spherical turbine with
four blades), the estimated output power was calculated by
employing the pressure drop in the desired pipes. To
calculate the output power, Equation (1) is used.

TABLE IV. DISTRIBUTION NETWORK FOR MAIN TANKS IN AMMAN.

Pipes
Capacity Elevation Max. Flow
Location Diameter
(m3) (m) (m3⁄s)
(mm) Figure 11. Estimated results for the specified locations in Amman
Dabouq 250,000 1,030
0.2778 1000-800
Al Akhdar 5000 800
VI. CONCLUSION
Shafa Badran
1000 980
Upper
0.1388 400 In this work, several turbine designs have been proposed
Shafa Badra for the in-pipe hydro system. The performance of the
1000 920
Lower
proposed designs was compared by implementing them in a
TABLE V. POSSIBLE LOCATIONS TO INSTALL THE SYSTEM IN AMMAN. real prototype that mimics the in-pipe system with gravity
fed structure. The generated power depends on converting
Pipe
Flow rate Pressure Output the extra water pressure in the in-pipe system to green
Location diameter
(m3⁄s) drop (m) power (kW) power which can be used later to feed secondary
(mm)
Shafa Badran applications such as lighting or any other loads. Six
upper and 0.1388 turbines were proposed and investigated, and they have
400 3.886 5.291
been implemented using SolidWorks software and a 3D
lower
printer. The design factors, which have been addressed in
Dabouq – Al this work phase, were the number of blades, the angle of
1000 0.2778 9.714 26.47
Akhdar (1) attack and the thickness of the blade. Each turbine was
Dabouq – Al tested separately to determine the pressure drop and the
800 0.2778 7.77 21.7 generated output power. According to the experimental
Akhdar (2)
results, the spherical turbine design presented better

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 International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research Vol. 8, No. 5, September 2019

performance in comparison with the Hybrid H-Egg designs [7] W. P. Cheng, T. C. Yu, and G. Xu, "Real-time model of a
large-scale water distribution system," Procedia Engineering, vol.
since the blades had larger frontal area. Hence, more water
89, pp. 457-466, 2014.
streamlines were hitting the blades which leads to higher [8] Ilupeju, A. O. Samuel, et al. "Sustainable energy generation from
rotational speed. The output power of 16 W was obtained pumped hydropower," International IEEE Conference on the
from the four blades spherical turbine, which is a good Domestic Use of Energy (DUE), 2015.
result from a small prototype. The proposed designs are [9] Khan, A. Ahmed, and M. R. Khan, "A simple and economical
design of micro-hydro power generation system," IEEE Power
recommended for implementation in-pipe hydro system, Generation System and Renewable Energy Technologies
and mainly they can be used in the locations of that require (PGSRET), 2015, 2015.
pressure reduction as an alternative for pressure control [10] C. Armando, et al, "Energy saving in a water supply network by
valves. Moreover, a case study was conducted to coupling a pump and a pump as turbine (PAT) in a turbopump,"
Water, vol. 9, no. 62, 2017.
investigate the benefit of the proposed system in the water [11] N. Setyo, et al. "Design and build of hydropower testing system in
network in Amman-Jordan. It is found that the system can scale of laboratory," Electronics Symposium (IES), 2016
be installed in several locations and it can produce up to 26 International. IEEE, 2016.
kW. Finally, the system is expected to provide higher
energy and to occupy less area in contrast to the PV system Hani Muhsen received his Bachelor of
and wind turbines. Engineering in Electrical Engineering from
Palestine Polytechnic University in 2005 with
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT excellent evaluation. He obtained a German
Academic Exchange Scholarship (DAAD) for
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the studying M.Sc. during 2006-2009 in Jordan
Deanship of Scientific Research at the German Jordanian University of Science and Technology. He
obtained the PhD degree from the Technical
University for the presented work in this paper.
university of Chemnitz in Germany in 2016.
He started working as assistant professor at German Jordanian University
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