Archimedes Screw Design: An Analytical Model for Rapid Estimation of Archimedes Screw Geometry

Arash YoosefDoost and William David Lubitz
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Arash YoosefDoost: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
William David Lubitz: School of Engineering, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Rd E, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 22, 1-14

Abstract: In designing Archimedes screws, determination of the geometry is among the fundamental questions that may affect many aspects of the Archimedes screw powerplant. Most plants are run-of-river and highly depend on local flow duration curves that vary from river to river. An ability to rapidly produce realistic estimations for the initial design of a site-specific Archimedes screw plant helps to facilitate and accelerate the optimization of the powerplant design. An analytical method in the form of a single equation was developed to rapidly and easily estimate the Archimedes screw geometry for a specific site. This analytical equation was developed based on the accepted, proved or reported common designs characteristics of Archimedes screws. It was then evaluated by comparison of equation predictions to existing Archimedes screw hydropower plant installations. The evaluation results indicate a high correlation and reasonable relative difference. Use of the equation eliminates or simplifies several design steps and loops and accelerates the development of initial design estimations of Archimedes screw generators dramatically. Moreover, it helps to dramatically reduce one of the most significant burdens of small projects: the nonscalable initial investigation costs and enables rapid estimation of the feasibility of Archimedes screw powerplants at many potential sites.

Keywords: Archimedes screw design; analytical equation; quick estimation method; Archimedean screw; generator; turbine; fish safe/friendly; small/micro/pico hydropower plant; run of river powerplant; low head hydropower (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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