vortex water turbine

thingiverse

I created this scale model after watching a video about Turbulent. It's not an exact replica, but my 3D design still needs some fine-tuning. I experimented with three different turbine blade designs and found that the propeller with the largest pitch worked best. You can see it in action on YouTube - just check out the link to the video: https://youtu.be/iAyac0NlmPg. Removing the support structure between the blades was a bit of a challenge, but I learned that you have to minimize the amount of support used as much as possible. To remove the last piece of support, I first cut it with a Dremel disc and then finished it off with a small chisel. The pump I'm using is a 6-watt Micra, with an outlet diameter of 13mm. For this build, I chose a 30mm long M3 bolt.