Within November 2021, our grade went on a 3 day IB orientation trip to Kithulgala. We combined the typical IB orientation trip with a science component. On Thursday, our second day at Kithulgala we explored the science aspect of the trip.

For the first part, we visited a small local hydropower plant. This was an interesting experience because we were able to see all the concepts we studied in physics, in action. We were fortunate enough to view the 2 turbines generating 2,000 kW of power. We asked one of the local technicians about the specifications of the turbines, such as the head height, and flow rate, which are essential to the generation of power. We later used this information to calculate the efficiency of the turbine, which we discovered to be about 80%.

On our way down to the bus, we stopped at a large hydropower dam being built for a hydropower plant several kilometres down the river. It was fascinating to see the same properties of the small scale hydropower plant, at a large scale. We used some of the information we were able to observe and research to calculate the potential amount of energy the large power plant could generate.

After lunch, the science groups separated and the physics group set off to generate our electricity from a small turbine we placed under flowing water. We did several experiments to determine the effect of head height on power generated from 2 different turbines. We found that the Pelton wheel turbine produced a lot more power than the Francis wheel, it was about twice as efficient. We used our data to calculate the potential maximum amount of energy we could generate from our water flow. And we calculated the efficiency of our turbines, which was about 1%, which is expected if you look at the number of inefficiencies within the system.

Our exploration into hydropower was aided by our trips to hydropower plants, and our investigation into the effects of flowrate and head height on power generation.