Abstract
The induction faucet has been widely used in public due to its advantages of convenience, sanitation, water, and electricity saving. To solve the problem of environmental pollution caused by dry batteries used in induction faucets, a suitable micro pipe mixed-flow turbine installed in a tap-water system with only 15 mm in diameter, that uses the pipeline water pressure to generate electricity for the induction faucet was designed and developed, based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and model tests. According to the specific speed, a preliminary design of each flow component of the turbine was first produced. Then, using the multi-objective orthogonal optimization method, the optimum test schemes were determined, and the influence of various test factors on the turbine’s hydraulic performance was revealed. Under the design flow rate, the turbine’s power output and efficiency were 6.40 W and 87.13%, respectively, which were 34.45% and 4.99% higher than those of the preliminary scheme. Both the power output and efficiency of the optimized turbine met the design requirements. Numerical and model test results showed good agreement, where the deviation in turbine power output predictions was below 5% under large flow condition. Model test results also showed that the turbine can be started as long as the inlet flow is greater than 0.14 kg/s. Overall, the micro-pipe turbine designed in this paper exploits the (mostly wasted) water kinetic energy in induction faucets for power production, contributing to environmental pollution reduction and realizing energy conservation.
Highlights
Water is essential for life and plays an irreplaceable role in the human production and proper functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems [1]
Many sensors in the induction faucet have relied on battery power supply due to the fact that their locations make it hard to connect to local utility grid power [3]
The power output and efficiency of the initial micro-pipe turbine (MPT) model were 4.76 W and 82.99%, respectively, which were close to the design requirements but did not yet meet them
Summary
Water is essential for life and plays an irreplaceable role in the human production and proper functioning of the Earth’s ecosystems [1]. With the current global progress in science and technology there has been an improvement in people’s awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection and the induction faucet has been become widely used in various public places. This has come as a result of several advantages being linked to its use, such as convenience, sanitation, and water and electricity saving. Extensive use of an induction faucet will require a large number of batteries, which will cause pollution to the environment and soil if the batteries are not properly handled [2,4]. The environmental pollution from batteries usage can Sustainability 2021, 13, 10755.
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