Published on Nov 30, 2023
Water wheelers are used everywhere and are economical compared to the currently existing water board system. They form economical medium for amusement purposes as well as traveling across lakes and rivers in the rural areas. However most of the water wheelers pedal operated and require human effort to move from one place to another. This forms a major drawback as currently existing human powered water wheelers which need to be a major area of focus. This project deals with the design and development of economical hybrid waterwheel which can be operated not only by human efforts but also other hybrid power sources such as portable engine as well as solar power since the proposed project implement 3 different modes of operation of a water Wheeler. The proposed project forms technical advantage over the currently existing water Wheelers. The modes of operation involve hybrid Split Drive system which can be operated either using Pedal viz human efforts, Engine which is incorporated on the water wheeler itself and Solar Energy, which utilizes electricity generated by Solar panels to drive the machine.
In the era of increasing fuel cost preference is given to system which can operate over mechanical force or advantage compared to fuel operated systems. However there are limitations of mechanical based systems or to be more precise human effort based systems as they are not practical and human force cannot meet the required expectations. The ultimate goal of the current project is to develop a hybrid human powered water wheeler.
Water wheelers are currently used everywhere and almost every existing water wheeler available in the market is pedal based. The water wheelers are used for travelling across lakes, rivers and major application is the amusement parks and purposes. People come to amusement parks for leisure purposes where water wheelers are usually employed.
Currently water wheelers only come in human operated modes. The unman operated water wheelers are seen commonly and come in different variants including but not limited to single sitter, two sitter , four sitter and so on. However to operate the water wheelers a large amount of human effort is required. The pedals need to be operated and is considered to be fine for amusement purposes. However other than amusement water wheelers are also used in different areas for crossing the river or lake. In such cases the pedal operated water wheelers are not a good idea as it requires a lot of human efforts. Additionally the number of people the water wheeler is supposed to carry is also limited due to the limitations of human efforts. This causes fatigue and hence is a major drawback. On the other hand the water wheelers have an advantage also. They are economical compare to boats or any other medium for transport over the water. This being the reason , the proposed project forms a major area of focus as emphasis should be given to development of efficient water wheeler which can cross the lakes and rivers with minimum efforts.
There are lots of human powered boats (such as kayak, pedal boats, hydro ski etc) in swimming pools and other shallow water bodies. These boats are generally used for recreational and competition purposes. They are very often designed based on elementary Archimedes principle. Apart from some of the boats used for competition whose data are often proprietary, the other human powered boats do not undergo careful scientific or technical performance evaluation owing to tight budget for one-off designs without model testing. Consequently, there is a dearth of information and knowledge regarding the performance characteristics of human powered boats.
This project deals with the development of hybrid multimode water wheelers which can be operated by using any of the three modes i.e. the pedal operated, fuel operated and the solar operated. The modes can be changed easily using levers and depending upon the situation the water wheeler can be operated using any of the three modes. Additionally this project focuses on increasing the overall efficiency of water wheelers using split drive system since the proposed water wheeler has single propellers in comparison to multiple one.
The main objective of the project is to design and develop hybrid multimode water wheeler which can be operated for transportation over water by putting it in any mode of operation. The objectives of the project are:
1. Design and fabricate a water wheeler which can be easily and portably used for transportation over the water medium
2. To make the water wheeler hybrid by implementing multiple modes of operation in the same
3. To incorporate Pedal based driving systems which can make the machine powered using the pedaling systems
4. To implement Engine Drive system which consist of portable engine on the machine which drives the machine
5. To make the machine solar powered which will make the machine green and eco friendly
6. To implement multiple propeller using split drive system which can provide more power to the machine
7. To make the machine economical.
The proposed project is expected to be completed in different phases so that it can be easily completed with minimum errors. Different components of the project are machined separately and assembled so that the errors are optimized at the end and requires minimum optimizations. The following phases are proposed through the course of the project work.
In this phase the overall concept of the project is developed. The project is planned, the outline of the project is done and material selection is done
In this phase the hybrid drive system consisting of pedal operated, Engine operated and solar operated is designed. This involves material selection for various drive trains, Selection of Hybrid drive systems and fabrication of different mechanisms for implementing the same.
To demonstrate this concept, hybrid water wheeler is fabricated. Initially the chassis of the vehicle is fabricated. The chassis is fabricated initially as it forms the structural component of the vehicle and houses all the other parts of the vehicle. The chassis should be strong enough to transfer all the load to ground as well have adequate amount of space for mounting all the other components. In addition the chassis should be sufficiently light and should be able to float on water.
The drive train is responsible for movement of the hybrid water wheeler. The drive train is fabricated and machined in such a way that single drive train provides drive to split propeller system. Additionally for making the system hybrid the level based engagement disengagement system is implemented in this phase.
This is the final phase of the project and involves assembling of all the components. The fabricated as well as designed components are assembled and tested for performance. The optimizations required if any are done in this phase.
Since the project is hybrid it involves development of both electric as well as engine operated rive train. The engine selected should be light enough to float on water and should not add too much of the weight. For this purpose the engine chosen should be light enough as well have necessary power to propel in water. The engine with following specifications is chosen.
Engine type Single Cylinder: Air-cooling, 2-stroke
Displacement: 58CC
Engine Power: 2.8KW/8000RPM
Maximum Engine Speed at idling: 3000±200RPM
Maximum Engine Speed with cutting attachment: 12000±200RPM
Fuel Consumption: 450±30g/kw.h
Fuel Mixture(Gasoline 25:Two cycle oil 1)
Fuel tank capacity: 0.55L
Oil tank capacity: 0.26L
Guide Bar Size: 22"
Chain pitch: 0.325"/gauge0.058
Carburetor: diaphragm
Ignition System: C.D.I
N.W: 5.3KG
MEAS: 48*26*30cm
The following images show the fabrication of the project. The fabrication was carried out step by step including the fabrication of the frame. The fabrication activities involved:
1) Cutting
2) Drilling
3) Welding.
The images below show the fabrication of different components in the project:
The proposed project is expected to form a hybrid medium for transportation over the water medium. The proposed project is expected to provide the user of the machine with the freedom to choose the medium to operate the machine. The machine can be operated using the pedal based drive train which doesn’t require any fuel and requires human effort. This is applicable in silent stable waters such as lakes. For the proposed machine is expected to be implemented on hybrid system which makes it easy to use the power of onboard engine or solar Energy to propel machine. This is applicable and makes the machine fit to operate in moving water where the flow of water also needs to be considered. Additionally the proposed machine is also expected to be more efficient compared to existing water wheelers since at a time 4 propellers are running.
The proposed concept can be used to
Move across rivers or lakes easily
Mode of transportation to cross lakes and rivers
Can be used by fishermen
Can be used as an economical alternative to boats
Can be used to transport materials over the water medium.
Helpful in flood for rescue and food supply.
New trend setup for upgraded technology.
Helpful to clean the water from the swimming pools.
In the overall concept we come to know that these water wheelers are most economic and better in performance with the best efficiency. These are leading to be a new trend in the automobiles as water transport.
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[4] Dave gerr,” Propeller handbook,” published in International Marine, ISBN-0-07-138176-7
