Finding the Maximum Volume of a Reservoir and Total Potential Power a Dam in a Small River Can Gener

by Felipe Guell Bernardi

Submitted : Fall 2016

In a small rural city, called Barreiras, in Bahia, Brazil inside a farm there is a river which passes through it. In the past, in the middle of this river a dam was constructed, but it has been useless. In this study, the maximum volume of water which can be stored in the reservoir formed by the dam was calculated, and the maximum amount of power that it would generated if there was a turbine installed in this dam. The data collected from the river was taken from the topographic map provided by the residential condominium, and all the calculations were made based on calculus taken from examples of hydropower facilities already in operation. If there is enough volume to store an enough amount of water, and if the dam would provide the enough power to provide energy to at least 20 houses in a year, the project would be taken in advance for more deep studies. The results showed that the reservoir has a great capacity, and it would store a valuable amount of water. Also, the total potential energy which this dam would provide would be more than the expected, opening space for further investigations.

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