Novel domestic manufacturing of pelton turbine bucket: A key to enhance sub-Sahara Africa energy potential

Locally available materials in sub-Saharan Africa were investigated and their functional properties were enhanced through production and modification processes for Pelton hydro turbine bucket application. Centrifugal casting method was used to fabricate and modify aluminium based functionally graded materials (alloys and composites). In this study, a permanent mould for bucket was designed and fabricated for centrifugal casting application. Oil Hardening Non-Shrinking Die Steel (OHNS) was used for the mould material and heat treated to a hardness of 432BRN. The permanent mould was used to fabricate bucket by centrifugal casting techniques and different alloys and composites were considered: A390 and A390-5%Mg were investigated and a hardness of 150BHN (maximum) was recorded near the inner surface of the A390-5%Mg-T6 and 157 BHN (maximum) was recorded in the inner periphery of the cylindrical cast. Since A390 alloy requires lesser energy to melt and machined compared to steel coupled with its huge availability in Africa, it should be further harness for energy device purposes. This believes that a lot could be achieved in power provision in the region if intensive research is focused on aluminium alloy properties enhancement for hydro turbine blade application.