1/27 Weekly Brief

Design

• Hydrology
• Reviewed the following issues with regards to the hydropower civil works:
• Streamflow data (daily or monthly)
• Efficiency of the current system (primarily concerning the volume of water)
• Summary of the current infrastructure
• Geographic information about the site
• Identifying relevant information and sources
• Slope of penstock
• Soils information
• Manning coefficients of local materials
• Geotechnical
• Reviewed geological records and semester objectives
• Discovered the following: The variance of soil type, topography, and vegetation in Cameroon make a thorough preliminary study of the geology specific to site construction an essential factor in the design concept. Located in the western region of Cameroon, the soils in Bangang are predominantly Ferralsols and Nitosols containing high levels of volcanic ash. Erosion due to rain has a high impact in this region, largely due to the slope of many cultivated areas. Existing geological information suggests that, despite the rain erosion experienced by the western region of Cameroon, the soil has few chemical constraints by the western region of Cameroon, the soil has few chemical constraints because of high organic matter content and the volume of volcanic ash in the soil. 
• Mechanical
• Started converting 3D inventor part drawings to 2D orthographic drawings with dimensions for use in assembly manual
• Outlined a rough assembly guide based on the trip report
• Read up on a number of economic journals
• Review the functions of all the hydropower turbine parts
• Compared different hydropower turbine design models (Francis, pelton, kaplan, and crossflow). The so-called "Purdue 2" turbine is a crossflow turbine
• Reviewed the 2013 Cameroon trip report
• Questions include:
• What is the total head?
• What is the design flow rate?
• What is the length of penstock used?
• Do we have a method for controlling the power output?
• Does the village want the turbine to run on maximum capacity throughout the season? The pelton turbine uses a spear valve to control shutting and running the design so perhaps we can control the power output in a similar process.
• Power distribution
• Reviewing semester objectives and organizing tasks
• Determining what information is needed for the design of the system
• Reading Mini Grid Design Manual with regards to electricity usage, lighting, and costs
• Prepared list of questions that need answering about the grid design in use and what needs to be improved upon
• Other information needed includes:
• Electricity usage
• Typical use of electricity per household
• Expected growth in consumption
• What is the major area of use of the electricity? (re: lighting, machiner, etc) If lighting, what kinds of bulbs are they using? How many bulbs per plot? Who is providing the bulbs/lighting?
• Judging by the map of the village and the power lines along it, we estimate that nearly half of the village (the houses, stores, and bars along the road) are supplied with electricity. Residential sectors not near the road are not. The data here which is needed is:
• For the past five years, what has the consumption of electricity been like?
• Which is the principle user of electricity (residents, stores, or bars, etc) and what is our "target" community size?
• What is the electricity that has been supplied so far for the past five years? (numbers for each year preferable) This will be used to create a supply demand comparison to understand our needs.
• What kind of grid do they use/have?

Assessment

• Environmental Impact
• Read one of the case studies
• Discovered and considered the following: the air quality is not well measured in Cameroon. However, there is a volcano in Southwest Cameroon as well as an oil refinery nearby that could already contribute to air problems. We need to figure out how clean the energy is that will be emitted from our hydropower system. Also, we've been looking through the team documents to see what kinds of materials that go into the turbine, so that poses the question at how they're altered by the elements and how that affects the water quality. About how many people use the water source that we are using for our hydropower system? We're looking to supply power to about 1000 homes, but maybe more would be affected by any water quality changes? We haven't had the chance to look at all of the documents yet, so maybe some of this information is stuff we already have, but it's just things to think about. 
• Social Impact
• Reading though some sample social impact evaluations of similar projects
• Begun to read chapter 7 of Micro Hydroelectric Power Stations by L. Munition, M. Le Nir, J. Roux to become more familiar with the kinds of factors to look at when we are assessing the environmental impact.
• Economic
• Construction Management