6-Water Turbines

Water Turbines-The different

Turbine Designs

Type of Degree of
Head β2 1000*Nshape
Turbine reaction
Pelton 150<H<2 0 >900 6 To 60
000
Francis < 550 0.5 = 900 50 to 500
Kaplan 20<H<80 1 < 900 350 to 1500
Francis turbines are built with vertical (large turbines) or
horizontal (small turbines) shafts.
The regulation of all water turbines is done by regulating the
volume Vx as neither speed nor spe. Work can be
changed.

• In case of the Francis turbine, Vx is regulated by adjustable

guide vanes located at the pressure end of the rotor.
• Two designs exist of these so-called Wicket gates:

a. Outside regulation where the regulating mechanism

which changes the position of the guide vanes is arranged
outside the water steam.
b. Inside regulation where this mechanism is arranged
inside the water stream.
Outside regulation
The regulation in Kaplan turbines is done by means of adjustable
guide vanes and adjustable rotor blades.

• Normally, Kaplan turbines are built with vertical shafts (large

turbines) but inclined and horizontal shafts are in use also for
small turbines and in special cases
• Axial-flow turbines which can be regulated only by adjustable
guide vanes are called Propeller Turbines.
 Efficiency-Discharge Diagram for the Different
Water Turbine Designs

• The Pelton Turbine has a high efficiency for a wide range of regulating
the discharge as the regulation with the help of the nozzle is nearly loss
free.

• The Kaplan turbine achieves a similar efficiency diagrams due to the

double adjustment of guide and rotor vanes.

• The range of high efficiencies of Francis turbines is more restricted as the

regulation of the guide vanes produces an entrance shock loss at the
unadjusted rotor vanes if Vx≠V.

• The entrance Shock loss of Propeller Turbines is very high if Vx≠V, hence
it obtains a high efficiency only at its design point, so its regulation range
is very limited
Impulse Water Turbine (Pelton Turbine)

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Impulse Water Turbine (Pelton Turbine)

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 Pelton Turbines
 Pelton turbines are pure impulse turbine

 A jet of fluid is delivered by a nozzle at a high velocity on the buckets.

 These buckets are fixed on the periphery of a circular wheel (also

known as runner).

 The impact of water on the buckets causes the runner to rotate and
thus develop mechanical energy.

 The buckets deflect the jet through an angle 160 and 165o in the
same plane as the jet.

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Pelton turbine runner

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B/d =3; e/d = 0.35;
T/d =0.8 – 0.95; L/d = 2.5 – 2.8;
E/d = 0.85;
Typical Pelton turbine bucket dimensions

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 Why use multi-jets ?

 Usually Pelton turbine is used at high heads.

 With a decrease in head more water is needed to

achieve the same power.

 A nozzle with a large area is required. However the

maximum jet diameter is set by the size of the bucket
on the runner being used and it is one-third of the
width of the bucket.
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The area of a single nozzle can no longer be increased to
maintain the same power output, the next approach is to
increase the effective nozzle area by increasing the number
of jets.

Six-jet vertical shaft Pelton turbine, horizontal section.

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• Regulation of the Pelton Turbine is done by closing the nozzle using
properly shaped ‘spear’.

• The movement of the spear while regulating the water flow has to
be very slow otherwise the deceleration of the water in the often
very long pen-stock becomes too high creating pressure shocks
and burst the pen-stock or the nozzle

• If sudden down regulation is demanded a deflector acts first

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 Basic Relationships
With an impulse turbine such as the Pelton turbine,
the pressure at the bottom of the penstock creates a
jet of water with velocity,

C1  K N 2 gH
Where:
C1 = jet velocity (m/s)
KN = nozzle velocity coefficient

actual velocity at nozzle exit C1

 
Spouting velocity at nozzle exit Co
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The spouting (ideal) velocity is given by,
C o  2 gH
Values of KN are normally around 0.98 to 0.99.

The jet diameter required can be determined by:

Q d 2 54 Q
 C0  d  1/ 4
nj 4 H nj
Where:
d = jet diameter (cm)
Q = total flow through turbine (m3/s)
nj = number of nozzles
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 The minimum number of equally sized jets that would be required to
develop the design power

2900Q
nj 
Hd2
 For horizontal axis turbines, a maximum of two nozzles is commonly used.

 The maximum number of nozzles for a Pelton turbine used in micro-

hydropower plants is commonly four, arranged around the runner on a
vertical shaft.

 Up to six are used in large hydropower plants.

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 Considering one jet impinging on a bucket, the
appropriate velocity diagram is shown below.

 The jet velocity at entry is C1

 the blade speed is U

 that the relative velocity at entry is W1  C1  U .

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 At exit from the bucket one half of the jet stream flows
leaving with a relative velocity W2 and at an angle  2 to
the original direction of flow.

 From the velocity diagram the much smaller absolute

exit velocity C 2 can be determined.

The specific work from Euler’s turbine equation

becomes,
W  U1C 1  U 2 C 2

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Where:
= blade speed
U 1 ,U 2
= the velocity component mutually perpendicular to
C both the axis of rotation and radius vector r.
For the Pelton turbine,

U1  U 2  U , C 1  C1 and C 2  U  W2 cos  2 
W  U U  W1   U  W2 cos  2 
W  U W1  W2 cos  2 

Cθ2 U2

C2 
W2

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 The effect of friction on the fluid flowing inside the bucket will
cause the relative velocity at outlet to be less than the value at
inlet.

 Writing , where , then,

W2  KW1 K 1

W  UW1 1  K cos  2   U C1  U 1  K cos  2 

 An efficiency of the runner can be defined as the specific

R
work done divided by the incoming kinetic energy, i.e.

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 1 2
 R  W C1
2
 2U C1  U 1  K cos  2  C12
 R  2 1   1  K cos  2 

 Where the blade speed to jet speed ratio,  U C1

 In order to find optimum efficiency, differentiate the

above equation with respect to the blade speed ratio,

d R
d
2
d
d
 
   2 1  K cos  2 

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  21  2 1  K cos  2   0
Therefore, the maximum efficiency of the runner
occurs when   0.5 , i.e. U
C1 , Hence
2

 R max  1  K cos  2  2

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 Considering the linear velocity ratio to be equal to 0.45,
runner speed can therefore be expressed as:
U
 0.45, where C1  K N 2 gH
C1

 DN m
Blade speed is given by: U  s 
60
Where:
N = runner speed (rev/min)
D = runner, pitch circle diameter (m)

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Solving for N using above equation and blade speed ratio to the
jet speed gives,

 DN
60  0.45,
K N 2 gH

60  0.45  K N 2 gH taking of 0.99 gives:

N
 D KN

38 H
N
D
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 The number of buckets “nb” to ensure efficient operation can be estimated by
the following equation.
m
nb   15
2
The equation is expressed in terms of a parameter called the jet or diameter
ratio “m”. This is defined as:
D
m
d
 To ensure that a runner is large enough to accommodate the optimum
number of buckets, the diameter ratio can be used.

 The minimum value of this ratio has been found from experience to be
about 6. Conventionally this ratio is usually in range of 10-20.

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Example:
A four jet Pelton runner with a pitch circle diameter
of 150mm is to be designed to generate 10 kW under
a head of 20 m. Determine:

a. What jet diameter would be required to generate the

desired power

b. Whether this jet size reasonable

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Soln.

Assume:

Turbine efficiency of about 75 %

Generator efficiency of about 80 %

A coupling efficiency of 90 %

An overall efficiency of about 50 %

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 P  9.81   H  Q
P 10 m3
Q   0.1
9.81  H 9.81 0.5  20 s

The required jet diameter becomes:

54 Q 54 0.1
d  1/ 4  4 cm
H 1/ 4 n j 20 4

The diameter ratio, m = D/d = 15/4 = 3.8.

This is much too small, implying a nozzle which is too large.

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Example: Pelton Turbine

 A Pelton turbine is driven by two jets, generating 4.0MW at

375 rev/min. The effective head at the nozzles is 200 m of
water and the nozzle velocity coefficient, KN=0.98. The axes of
the jets are tangent to a circle 1.5m in diameter. The relative
velocity of the flow across the buckets is decreased by 15
percent and the water is deflected through an angle of 1650.
Neglecting bearing and windage losses, determine:

1) the runner efficiency;

2) the diameter of each jet;
3) the power specific speed.
Solution
Main Parts of Radial Reaction Turbomachine
• The main components of a radial turbomachine are:

1. Casing: The water from the penstocks enter the casing which is of
spiral shape. The area of cross section of the casing goes on decreasing
gradually.
The casing completely surrounds the runner of the turbine. The casing
is spiral in shape to facilitate water flow at constant velocity
throughout the circumference of the runner. The casing is usually
made of concrete, cast steel or plate steel.
2. Guide Vanes: The stationary guide vanes are fixed on a
stationary circular which surrounds the runner. The guide
vanes allow the water to strike the vanes fixed on the
runner without shock at the inlet. This fixed guide vanes are
followed by adjustable guide vanes. The cross-sectional area
between the adjustable vanes can be varied flow control a
part load.

3. Runner: It is a circular wheel on which a series of radial

curved vanes are fixed. The water passes into the rotor
where it moves radially through the rotor vanes and
leaves the rotor blades at a smaller diameter. Later, the
water turns through 900 into the draft tube.
 4. Draft Tube

• Although external to the rotating parts of the turbine the

draft tube is an important part of the hydraulic machine.
• The draft tube is a conical diffuser with around 7o divergence
which reduces the exit kinetic energy in the departing fluid
and therefore increases the efficiency of the machine as a
whole.

In order to avoid
cavitation (small es)
the elbow-type draft
tube has a preference
over straight diverging
type fo draft tubes.
 Velocity Triangles and Work Done
• The inlet and outlet velocity triangles for a runner are shown
below.

• The specific work done is given by:

Y  U1Cw1  U 2Cw2
 Radial Flow Turbine Losses
• The losses in terms of energy balance through the turbine is
given by;
P  Pm  Pr  Pc  Pl  Ps

Where: Pm = mechanical power loss

Pr = runner power loss
Pc = casing and draft tube loss
Pl = leakage loss
Ps = shaft power output
P = water power available

Pc  Pl  Pr  HydraulicPower Loss
• Runner power loss Pr is due to friction, shock at the impeller
entry and flow separation. It results in a head loss hr
associated with the flow rate through the runner of Qr.

Pr  gQr hr
• Leakage power loss Pl is caused by a flow rate q leaking past
the runner and therefore not being handled by the runner.
Thus
Q  Qr  q
• And with a total head Hr across the runner, the leakage
power loss becomes

Pl  gqHr
• Casing power loss Pc is due to the friction eddy and flow
separation losses in the casing and the draft tube.
• If this head loss is hc then
Pc  gQhc
• The total energy balance of the above equation becomes

gQH  Pm  g hr Qr  hcQ  H r q  Ps 

Shaft output power

Overall eff . 
Fluid power available at inlet flange
• Thus
PS
0 
gQH
 Hydraulic eff . H  
Power received by runner
Fluid power available at inlet flange
P  Pm 
 S
gQH

Example: Francis Turbine

• An inward flow Francis turbine, having an overall efficiency of
86 %, hydraulic efficiency of 90 %, and radial velocity of flow
at inlet 0.28 2 gH . The turbine is required to develop 5000 kW
when operating under a net head of 30m, The specific
speed(metric) is 270, assume guide vane angle is 300, find
1. Rpm of the wheel
2. The diameter and the width of the runner at inlet
3. The volume flow rate, and
4. The theoretical inlet angle of the runner vanes
Solution