IIT Roorkee gets International Class Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory
Roorkee: Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee has established an International Class Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory at its Alternate Hydro Energy Center (AHEC). Shri R.K. Singh, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Power, New and Renewable Energy, Govt of India, inaugurated the sophisticated laboratory today, 10th April 2018, in the presence of Shri Anand Kumar, Secretary MNRE, Prof A.K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee and other senior officials and leaders of hydropower industry.
Sponsored by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, this Hydro turbine R&D laboratory will act as a design and validation facility in addition to conducting research in hydro turbines and other hydro mechanical equipment conforming to national and international standards. The laboratory has been established at a total cost of Rs. 27 crore including high performance computing facility, CFD software and laboratory manpower.
Speaking about the importance of this R&D lab, the Hon’ble Minister Shri R.K. Singh said, “The turbine model testing facility shall be a step for make in India, being the first independent facility for turbine manufacturers and power producers.”
The Hon’ble Minister congratulated IIT Roorkee and particularly AHEC for coming forward for contributing to hydro industry as an excellent example of academia- industry bond.
The laboratory will support the Indian small hydropower industry (government as well as independent) to grow and compete in the International market in various aspects of hydroelectric power development. It will be an affordable facility for small hydro manufactures for design verification, validating designs of small hydro turbine and layouts using CFD technique.
Speaking during the inaugural function, Prof A.K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “The laboratory will provide a platform for national and international academic and industrial collaboration with hydro power industry and research groups. The industry shall have research based solutions.to industrial problems, prefabrication model testing, calibration and certification within the country in cost effective manner”
This new laboratory would also spearhead Research and Development in hydro-turbines, develop human resources for small hydropower plants in respect of entrepreneurs, engineers, plant operators and researchers besides generate data and building expertise for solving site specific problems.
It will conduct tests on scaled models of hydraulic turbines, for efficiency, output, cavitation performance, pressure pulsation and runaway speed, characteristic curves for the turbine quadrant, hydraulic thrust and torque. It is equipped with state-of-the-art SCADA based automatic control system with first principal based flow measurement, precision pressure transducers and sensors.
The laboratory will have the role of verification/validation of designs and generation of design data, third party test as a neutral laboratory, witness tests on turbines as a neutral agency and testing of most of reaction turbines. Laboratory will also carry out validation of designs through CFD technique.
It has been granted by National Accreditation Board for Laboratories (NABL) accreditation as per ISO/IEC 17025:2005 for fluid flow testing as well as calibration vide certificate no. TC-6862 and CC-2532 respectively in Feb 2018. NABL is part of Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) which in turn is part of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). The operation of the laboratory is as per IEC-60193. This is the first laboratory in the institute receiving the accreditation by NABL.
The AHEC is a Center of Excellence for small hydropower in the country to validate homologous hydro turbine models designed and fabricated by various turbine manufacturers. IIT Roorkee is one of the oldest technical institute in the country, established in 1847, and has played an important role in the development of Water resources in India, both through education of engineers as well as research.