Micro-hydropower plant simulator

• Main Author: Escabarte, Emilyn B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2007
• Subjects: Hydroelectric power plants; Power and Energy
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/3498; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/10336/viewcontent/CDTG004276_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The design and engineering assessment of a micro-hydropower plant (MHPP) involves developing an understanding of the complexities of its movement due to forces applied to it complexities which are often highly two and three dimensional in nature. These days, the typical medium used to gain insight into a particular system is a PowerPoint presentation. However, with all its embellishments of animated effects on texts and graphics, such a presentation is fundamentally static in nature. On the other hand, with the advancements in computing power, dynamic three-dimensional animations have emerged as a powerful tool and can be utilized to give insight into electromechanical design at all levels of study. In this paper, I describe my efforts to harness this power to create, using personal computer, a presentation that shows a micro hydropower plant in three dimensions with at least a limited degree of interactivity. The system only includes penstock, turbine and generator. The simulator is built using Blender3D 2.44 for modeling and simulation, Python 2.5 for scripting and Gimp 2.2 for creating textures.