Design and Simulation of Wind Pump System for Ban Village

Abstract

The significance of water to human existence can never be overemphasized. Most rural areas do not have access to portable drinking water. Underground water has been adjudged by World Health Organization (WHO) to be a relatively better alternative source of portable drinking water. Hand pump may not provide adequate water for larger community; diesel engine pump emits Green House Gases (GHG). Thus a relatively better alternative source of energy is the wind. Wind pump is designed for Ban village to pump water from borehole to an overhead tank to be supplied to the village, since Ban village is considered to be one of the locations in Nigeria that has high wind speed that can be harnessed for wind pump technology. Design results show that a 3.6 m diameter wind mill will be required to pump water from borehole through a total head of 35 m to the village to meet the daily water need of 25 m³. Results from the Wind Energy Resources Analysis (WERA) software simulation using the wind speed characteristics of the region shows that the monthly water discharge by wind pump is proportional to the monthly average wind speed with the peak monthly discharge of about 3000 m³ in January which declines to about 1,000 m³ in October. This volume of water is enough to meet the monthly water need of the village.

Keywords: Wind speed, Wind pump, Simulation,