You have no items in your shopping cart.
The low availability of reliable electrical energy in Nigeria is alarming. The industries need electricity, the farmers need electricity to pump water for irrigation and other activities. Individuals needs electricity to pump water and for other use. Nigerians depend mostly on fossil fuel whose products are not economically friendly. Solar energy is another means that can be used to power a pump but it is not widely use in Nigeria since it is not cost effective. Wind energy can also be used to power a water pump but wind energy is not readily available in Nigeria since Nigeria is in the tropical region with a wind speed of 2.5m/s to 4.0m/s. Wind energy is obtained with the help of a turbine. Due to the low wind speed in Nigeria, the Horizontal wind turbine cannot function well in Nigeria. Darius vertical wind turbine cannot be effective in Nigeria since it requires high wind speed to start.Design and fabrication of a savonius turbine wind pumpis applicable in Nigeria since it requires low speed and moderate torque to function, hence this study.
In this research, a savonius turbine wind pumpwas designed and fabricated to pump water. It has a swept area of 3.41m2, pitch of the gear is 0.04m, blade tip and rotational speeds are 7.38rpm and 5.05rpm respectively. The circular gear of the driven and the circular pitch of the driver gear are the same (78.55mm). Preliminary study was carried out to determine the wind speed of the study area (Uselu, Benin City). Three conceptual designs were carried out and the best concept was chosen using a decision matrix. The selected concept was fabricated based on the outcome of the detailed design. Performance evaluation was carried out.
The fabricated savonius turbine wind pumpwith a torque of 6.70Nm, swept area of 3.41m2, a mechanical power of 31.87W extracted from the wind at an average wind speed of 3.49m/s was able to pump an average of 0.0239m3 of water in 3.01mins (180.78 secs) with an average pump head of 10.46m. It has an efficiency of 41.94% and a volumetric efficiency of 32.67%
