INDUSTRAL VISIT on 14/10/2022 and 15/10/2022

DAY 1 OF THE INDUSTRIAL VISIT: 14/10/2022

About the visit to WINDWORLD India Ltd. Coimbatore:

On 14.10.2022 the students of IV year (29 students) along with two faculties have visited the WINDWORLD India Ltd. Coimbatore. We have reached the wind farm at 9:30a.m. and an Assistant Engineer started giving lectures about the entire module held in front of the office. Then students were brought to the site and were explained about each and every aspect of a wind turbine and how it works.

Wind is the basic resource on which the continuing success of a project is hinged. Wind World (India) Ltd's dedicated Wind Resource Department (WRD) has a highly skilled and experienced

team, focused on finding the best wind sites in India for the development of wind farms. The objective being to maximize investor returns, by optimizing the micro-sitting of Wind Turbines.

Various stages a wind energy project goes through at Wind World (India) Ltd:

The different components and its functions that we saw in a wind turbine are as follows:

Foundation:

The foundation is under the ground for the onshore turbines; it cannot be seen because it is covered by soil. It is a large and heavy structured block of concrete that must hold the whole turbine and the forces that affect it.

For offshore turbines, the base is under the water and cannot be seen. In offshore turbines that are well into the sea the base is floating, but it is of sufficient mass to support the turbine weight and all the forces exerted on it and to hold it upright.

Tower:

The tower in most modern turbines is round tubular steel of a diameter of 3–4 m (10–13 ft), with a height of 75–110 m (250–370 ft), depending on the size of the turbine and its location. The rule of thumb for a turbine tower is that it has the same height as the diameter of the circle its blades make when rotating. Normally, the taller a turbine is, it is subject to more of the wind with higher speed. This is because the farther we are from the ground, the faster the wind (wind does not have the same speed at various distances from the ground).

Rotor:

The rotor is the rotating part of a turbine; it consists of (mostly) three blades and the central part that the blades are attached to, the hub. A turbine does not necessarily have to have three blades; it can have two, four, or another number of blades. But the three-blade rotor has the best efficiency and other advantages.

Blades are not solid; they are hollow and are made of composite material to be light and strong. The trend is to make them larger (for more power), lighter, and stronger. The blades have the form of an air foil (same as the wings of an airplane) to be aerodynamic. As well, they are not flat and have a twist between their root and their tip. The blades can rotate up to 90° about their axes. This motion is called blade pitch.

Hub:

The function of the hub is to hold the blades and make it possible for them to rotate with respect to the rest of the turbine body.

Nacelle:

The nacelle is housing on top of the tower that accommodates all the components that need to be on a turbine top. There are quite a number of components for the proper and healthy operation of a complicated electromechanical system that a turbine is. A major turbine part among these components is the generator and the turbine shaft that transfers the harvested power from wind to the generator through a gearbox.

The gearbox is a vital component of wind turbines; it resides in the nacelle. A gearbox increases the main shaft speed from around 12–25 rpm* (for most of today’s turbines) to a speed suitable for its generator. For this reason, the shaft on the generator side is called “high-speed shaft.”

Because a turbine must follow the wind and adjust its orientation to the wind direction, its rotor needs to rotate with respect to the tower. This rotation is called yaw motion in which the nacelle and the rotor revolve about the tower axis.

Generator:

The generator is the component that converts the mechanical energy of the rotor, harnessed from wind to electrical energy. A generator has the same structure as an electric motor.

At the commercial production level, all electricity generation is in the three-phase alternative current. In general, the choice of generator, therefore, is synchronous or asynchronous (induction) generator. Nevertheless, the generator associated with wind turbines, thus far, is the induction generator because a synchronous generator must turn at a tightly controlled constant speed (to maintain a constant frequency).

A generator must be rotated at a speed corresponding to the frequency of the electric network (50 or 60 Hz in most countries), it must be rotated faster than the turbine rotor. Most generators need to be turned at 1500 rpm (for 50 Hz) and 1800 rpm (for 60 Hz). In no way, it is feasible for a turbine rotor to move that fast. A gearbox, therefore, must increase the turbine rotor (main shaft) rotational speed to a speed that can be used by the generator.

Students of IV Year EEE, Faculty members of SRM VEC during their Industrial Visit to WINDWORLD India Ltd. Coimbatore on 14/10/2022.

About the visit to GD NAIDU SCIENCE MUSEUM:

On 14.10.2022 the students of IV year (29 students) along with two faculties have visited the GD NAIDU SCIENCE MUSEUM around 2:00p.m.

Sri G D Naidu, an eminent industrialist and philanthropist of Coimbatore, South India, had a great passion for the automobile. He visited several countries during his life time and was fascinated by the workmanship and engineering capabilities of Germany. He was specifically in admiration of the workmanship in Rolls Royce 20 car, after visiting the factory in United Kingdom. He felt that the students in his automobile institute must look at the engine, the differential gear box etc., where they did not use gaskets as in other cars, but blue matched them by hand scrapping. This at that time led to the achievement of heights precision and workmanship. He took classes and often had to bend down under the chassis to show the students about how many bolts were used with a specific torque to eliminate gasket.

In late 1960, he stripped the original body of the beautiful Rolls Royce and his explanation was that due to old age he found it difficult to bend down each time to explain to the students. Now the whole mechanism can be clearly seen from the top. His passion didn’t end with this. He started collecting unique cars which had a history of its own and was in some way an engineering marvel, Sri Naidu’s son GD Gopal continued his father’s hobby by not just adding to the collection, but maintaining most of the cars in motorable condition and initiated the setup of Car Museum and put it all together as a museum for the general public on 27thApril 2015.

The main objective of the museum is that the students and general public, who see these cars, should also learn about technology behind it and the person responsible for such innovations, either in design or engineering or in workmanship etc. and this museum tries to give as much information as in necessary, to highlight the men behind the marvels. It is the desire of Sri G D Naidu that students should get inspired by these examples and he started thinking that if in the late 18th century people could create such wonders even without much facility and technology advancement why can’t they think of such revolutionary ideas?

GD Naidu Museum is dedicated to these innovative personalities who besides their lack of education or wealth were able to contribute to the growth of the automobile industry.

Students of IV Year EEE, Faculty members of SRM VEC during their Industrial Visit to GD NAIDU Science Museum on 14/10/2022.

DAY 2 OF THE INDUSTRIAL VISIT: 15/10/2022

About the visit to Pykara Hydroelectric Power Plant:

On 15.10.2022 the students of IV year (29 students) along with two faculties have visited the Pykara Hydroelectric Power Plant around 9:00a.m. An Assistant Engineer started giving lectures about the entire module held in front of the office.

Pykara (Singara) Hydroelectric Power Plant is erected in the Pykara, Mukurthi and Sandynallah Rivers of Nilgris district in Tamil Nadu. The power project is commissioned in 1933 with an approved total installed capacity of 70 MW. The Hydroelectric Basin of power plant is East Flowing Rivers. The Type of Project is Major as its capacity is larger than 25 MW. The type of plant is water discharged from one project to another. Here water is discharged from Pykara and Mukurthi reservoirs to the plant. The Status of the power plant is completed and is operational. The Main Reservoir of the plant is Mukuruthy Pykara, Sandynallah and Glenmorgon Dam. The water capacity of the Dam is 351 Cusec. The power plant is situated in the Southern Hydroelectric Region of India. The water source for the hydroelectric project is Pykara, Mukurthi and Sandynallah Rivers.

The power plant is owned by the Tamil Nadu State Government under the control of Tamil Nadu State Electricity Board. The beneficiary states of the power plant are Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Power project finished its construction in 1954. The total number of turbines in the plant is seven and capacity of each turbine is 3 nos of 7 MW, 2 nos of 11 MW and 2 nos of 13.6 MW. The unit size of plant is 70 MW. There are seven units in the plant and all the seven units are commissioned.

Students of IV Year EEE, Faculty members of SRM VEC during their Industrial Visit to Pykara Hydroelectric Power Plant on 15/10/2022.

About the visit to The Tea factory and The Tea Museum:

On 15.10.2022 the students of IV year (29 students) along with two faculties have visited the Tea Factory and The Tea Museum around 2:00pm. At a distance of 4 km from Doddabetta Peak and 5 km from Ooty Bus Station & Ooty Railway Station, Tea Factory & Museum is situated on Doddabetta Road in Ooty. Amidst the blue hills of Nilgiris, it is one of the popular tea factories in Tamilnadu and among the must visit Ooty Tourist Places.

Perched at an altitude of 1839 m, the Ooty Tea Factory is spread across nearly an acre; all covered with the emerald green tea plants. Visitors can see the entire processing method right from the freshly plucked green leaves to its packaging at the factory. It also houses the Tea Museum where visitors can learn about the origin of different kinds of tea leaves that are used across the globe along with the history of tea in India and its evolution in the Nilgiris. The Doddabetta tea factory in Ooty also offers beautiful views of the valley, and the towering mountain peaks surrounding it.

The Ooty Tea Factory features a small shop where free tea is offered to all visitors. This hot cup of tea is usually cardamom flavoured that adds to the taste and warms you during the cold Ooty weather. The factory is popular for its homemade chocolates too like rum and raisin, fruit and nut, fig and honey, roasted almonds, coffee chocolate, milk chocolate, sugar free varieties among others. One can buy specially crafted tea souvenirs like tea cups engraved with the Tea Museum logo and tea plates as well.

Pictures taken during the industrial visit to The Tea Factory and Tea Museum on 15/10/2022.