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Design and 3D printing of controllable-pitch archimedean screw for pico-hydropower generation

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Abstract

Renewable energy has attracted considerable attention because the energy problem has become a worldwide issue. The development of pico-hydropower generation, as a component of distributed generation, has been a subject of concern. In particular, the Archimedean screw generator (ASG) has more benefits, such as low cost, easy maintenance, and fish-friendly characteristic, compared with other types of hydro turbine. Despite these advantages, no appropriate design theory of ASG and Controllable-pitch Archimedean screw (CPAS) exists. Hence, a design theory of ASG and CPAS was theoretically investigated and designed in this study. CPAS was designed for a small-scale hydro-power generation system. With a 3D printer, fused deposition modeling was used to fabricate the blade of CPAS with polylactic acid and epoxy surface coating. A performance evaluation was conducted and analyzed. Results indicate a similar trend with the proposed theory. The power generation was 123 W and efficiency was 71% in 0.04 m3/s.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Kyung Tae Lee, Eun-Seob Kim & Sung-Hoon Ahn

  2. Institute of Advanced Machinery and Design, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, Korea

    Won-Shik Chu & Sung-Hoon Ahn

Authors
  1. Kyung Tae Lee
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  2. Eun-Seob Kim
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  3. Won-Shik Chu
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  4. Sung-Hoon Ahn
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sung-Hoon Ahn.

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Recommended by Associate Editor In-Ha Sung

Kyung-Tae Lee is presently a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering and Business Management from Seoul National University in 2007. His research interest is hybrid renewable energy system.

Eun-Seob Kim is presently M.S. candidate in School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He received his B.S degree in mechanical engineering from Gyeongsang National University in 2013. His research interest is 3D printing system and material adhesion.

Won-Shik Chu is presently a research assistant professor at the Institute of Advanced Machinery and Design, Seoul National University in Korea. He received his Ph.D. degree at Seoul National University in 2009. His research interest is renewable energy system design.

Sung-Hoon Ahn is presently a professor at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. He received his B.S. degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1992 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1994 and 1997, respectively. Before joining Seoul National University, he worked as a research associate at the University of California, Berkeley (1997-2000) and as an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Gyeongsang National University (2001-2003). His research interests include rapid prototyping, Internet-based design and manufacturing, microfabrication, nanocomposites, and manufacturing design.

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Lee, K.T., Kim, ES., Chu, WS. et al. Design and 3D printing of controllable-pitch archimedean screw for pico-hydropower generation. J Mech Sci Technol 29, 4851–4857 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-1032-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-015-1032-y

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