Project Readiness Package Pressure Fluctuation Energy Generator Rev 11/16/11
INTRODUCTION:
The mission of the Sustainable Energy Systems for Education (SESE) family of projects is to design, develop, build, test, and deliver interchangeable sustainable energy technological solutions for use by future design teams and undergraduate engineering class projects in KGCOE. There are 6 core functions that comprise a sustainable energy system: collection, conversion, storage, transmission, control and consumption. Harvesting Energy from Moving Water (HEMW) is a sub-family of projects that aims at satisfying the core function of collection.
The mission of HEMW is to develop various methods to collect energy from moving water. These collection systems will be designed to be modular and maintain an open source, open architecture format to provide a basis for future educational learning. Although the HEMW family of projects focuses on the collection function, it will be responsible for the conversion, transmission and control functions as well. All energy collection devices are expected to interface with and charge a battery bank that is currently being designed by another MSD team – P12401.
Administrative Information:
· Project Name (tentative): / Pressure Fluctuation Energy Generation· Project Number, if known:
· Preferred Start/End Quarter in Senior Design: Fall/Winter 2012
Fall/Winter / Fall/Spring / Winter/Spring· Faculty Champion:
Name / Dept. / Email / Phone· Other Support, if known:
Name / Dept. / Email / Phone· Project “Guide” if known:
·
· Primary Customer, if known (name, phone, email):
·
· Sponsor(s):
Name/Organization / Contact Info. / Type & Amount of Support CommittedProject Overview: The concept of this project is inspired by current industries working on collecting energy from ocean waves. The concept directly related uses floating buoys connected to cables connected to linier generators permanently attached to the sea floor. The difference in height of the waves moves the generator to create electricity. This project takes that concept and turns it on its side. Using a linear generator, a spring, and a floating buoy this project is creating a device to be deployed in rivers. The buoy requires a mechanism that takes the constant pressure of the moving river, and converts it into a fluctuation of pressure. The high pressure would pull the buoy down stream, at the specified time the pressure would release causing the spring to pull the linear generator back to its original position, and the pressure would start to build in the buoy once again. The spring could be replaced by another component that also collected energy as a revision or a later project.
The projects that this is based from are large scale with hundreds of these in a grid. The idea behind this would be for backyard use or in areas of the world where individual power generation is the only option. This has the potential to be scalable for larger industrial projects or to go in line with hydropower generation plants, but the purpose of this project is specifically individual use. The end goal of this project is to have a working prototype of this idea and export the energy to a storage device such as the battery bank built by MSD P12401.
Some areas of issue may be: getting the buoy to stay in the stream and not be pushed to lower pressure slower moving water, how to secure the generator to prevent theft, damage, or loss, and how to have a safety to prevent damage from debris or extremely fast moving water. This device will need to be constructed so that if a boat were to drive over it, no damage would occur to the boat or the device. There are many real scenarios to consider throughout the project, however for the initial project a prototype should be built and tested. The team should sit down and decide which real world failure modes are the most pressing in the initial design, and which can be pushed off to a future date.
Detailed Project Description:
· Functional Decomposition:
· Potential Concepts
o Linear Generator connected pressure controller
§ As stated in description above:
· Linear generator
· Elastic mechanism
· Pressure fluctuating buoy
· Battery bank or grid
§ Testing using an indoor artificial flow pool from the waterwheel project.
· Use of an indoor pool that generates water current to simulate river flow.
· Permission and compliance with pool safety rules to be examined and strictly followed.
· Specifications (or Engineering/Functional Requirements):
Note: Several parameters depend on the model’s geometric scaling.
· Constraints:
Regulatory Constraints
· The design shall comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations. The team's design project report should include references to, and compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations (see ISO Standards for Energy Collection)
· The design shall comply with all applicable RIT Policies and Procedures. The team's design project report should include references to, and compliance with all applicable RIT Policies and Procedures.
Economic Constraints
· Purchases for this roadmap will be run through the Mechanical Engineering Office. Each team must complete a standard MSD purchase requisition and have it approved by their guide. After guide approval, the purchasing agent for the team can work with Ms. Venessa Mitchell in the ME office to execute the purchase and obtain the materials and supplies.
Environmental Constraints
· Adverse environmental impacts of the project, such as the release of toxic materials or disruption of the natural wildlife, are to be minimized.
· Particular focus should be placed on resource sustainability (described further in Sustainability Constraints).
Health and Safety Constraints
· Wherever practical, the design should follow industry standard codes and standards (e.g. Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS), FCC regulations, IEEE standards, and relevant safety standards as prescribed by IEC, including IEC60601). The team's design project report should include references to, and compliance with industry codes or standards.
Manufacturing Constraints
· Commercially available, Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components available from more than one vendor are preferred.
· It is preferable to manufacture and assemble components in-house from raw materials where feasible.
· Students should articulate the reasoning and logic behind tolerances and specifications on manufacturing dimensions and purchasing specifications.
Intellectual Property Constraints
· All work to be completed by students in this track is expected to be released to the public domain. Students, Faculty, Staff, and other participants in the project will be expected to release rights to their designs, documents, drawings, etc., to the public domain, so that others may freely build upon the results and findings without constraint.
· Students, Faculty, and Staff associated with the project are expected to respect the intellectual property of others, including copyright and patent rights.
Sustainability Constraints
· All raw materials and purchased materials, supplies, and components used in the roadmap must have a clearly defined Re-Use, Re-Manufacturing, or Recycling plan.
· This is intended to be a "Zero Landfill" project. This includes documents as well as project materials.
Project Deliverables:
· Complete Set of Technical Information:
o Documented design calculations including efficiency and expected power output.
o Complete 3D model of device with detailed drawing package.
o Complete Bill of Materials with costs, vendors, part numbers etc.
o MFG and Assembly documentation: on how to fabricate device, assemble and disassemble the device.
o Test procedures including what to test and how.
o Documented set of experimental results as proof that device works and meets specs.
· An intuitive operation manual including possible adjustments, transport-setup-disassembly, key contacts if needed, should be provided for the end-user.
· Team will present a summary report on assigned and assimilated benchmarking activities sometime during weeks 3-5. Successful completion of this project requires a solid understanding of the basic operational characteristics of fluid mechanics, turbo-machinery, and power generation.
· Students will acquire this knowledge via lecture, reading and conduction of several experiments.
· Team will conduct (2) Project Reviews during MSD 1. A system level review will be held sometime during weeks 4-6. A detailed design review will be held sometime during weeks 7-9.
· Team will conduct a final week 11 review with their Guide.
· Team members will supply Peer Evaluations at the end of weeks 3, 6, 9 per their guide’s direction.
· Budget Estimate: $1500
· Intellectual Property (IP) considerations:
As a federally funded project, any IP generated as a result of this project should belong to RIT but the project champion should check the details
· Other Information:
o Project breakdown to two main components
§ Design and build linear generator
§ Design and built pressure conversion float
· Continuation Project Information, if appropriate: Include prior project(s) information, and how prior project(s) relate to the proposed project.
Student Staffing:
· Skills Checklist:
· Anticipated Staffing Levels by Discipline:
Discipline / How Many? / Anticipated Skills Needed (concise descriptions)EE / 3 / Speed controls, generator selection or design, device control, generator to battery interface, circuit design, power storage design, proper safety of electrical devices, float circuitry if needed, micro-controller selection, programming, implementation.
ME / 3 / Heat transfer analysis, FEA (for cable, generator, float), Solid Modeling, design assembly, design structure, design assembly order, systems engineer, controls, piston selection/design, interfaces, testing, materials selection.
CE / Micro-controller programming
ISE / 1 / Ergonomics, material selection, basic designs, FMEA, usability, manufacturing aspects, Cost analysis
Other
Other Resources Anticipated:
Faculty
Environment / MSD Design Center
EE Senior Design Lab
Machine Shop, Brinkman Lab
Equipment / River Flow Channel
Materials
Other
Prepared by: / David Sonneborn / Date: / 11/16/11
Page 7 of 7