EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF HORIZONTAL AXIS WIND MILL BASED WATER PUMP

Abstract

The unique thing about this research work is that it is the first study out of all its kinds in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is an agricultural country and faces dearth of water resources availability for crops as well as rural area people. This research work is very inevitable because it fulfils the water needs and also helps to minimize the energy deficit. This research article represents the means of wind speed data collection, design of wind operated water pumping system and analysis of the design under different wind conditions in Ethiopia. The wind data for the Kimir Dingay woreda and Mayinet kebele villages in the Amhara region in Ethiopia was collected from the Solar and Wind Energy Resource Assessment and the National Meteorological Service Agency. Initially, the design calculations have been made on the basis of analytical methods. Horizontal axis wind mill based water pumping system is fabricated by considering 18 blades with an average radius of 3.5 m and total surface area of 38.5 m2. The wind energy input, lift and drag on blades, rotor power output transmitted to the pump and water discharge from the pump have been calculated. It has been shown that for any rotor size windmill produces maximum power output when angle between blade chord and axis of blade rotation is in the range of 15– 19. The experimental analysis indicates, an average wind power was obtained as 642.5 W in the month of August 2020 with a wind speed of 3.01 m/sec, which is increased to 3547.4 W in the month of November 2020 with a wind speed 5.32 m/sec. The discharge rate of water varies from 1.7 lit/sec to 9.0 lit/sec (0.0017 to 0.009m3/s).