Date of Award

Winter 2016

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Materials and Infrastructure Systems

First Advisor

Aron Jaganathan

Abstract

Energy recovery from wastewater is gaining significance as utilities work toward achieving energy neutrality and sustainability in their wastewater collection and treatment systems. In this dissertation, kinetic energy harvesting mechanism for vortex drop structures found within the municipal waste and storm water conveyance systems is presented. There are thousands of sewer drop structures installed across the U.S. carrying billions of gallons of sewage each year. A custom micro water turbine is developed in this research which could be retrofitted within the existing drop shafts to harvest the excessive kinetic energy available. This dissertation presents the conceptual design and analysis of the micro turbine's performance through analytical, numerical and experimental methods. Various measured performance characteristics of a custom built turbine retrofitted within a full scale drop structure installed in a laboratory setting is presented.

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