Hydraulic Machinery - Turbines

Chapter #16
• Impulse and Reaction Turbines
• Specific Speed
• Characteristics Curves
• Cavitation and Draft Tube
• Governing of Turbines,
• Turbine Efficiencies

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 Hydraulic Power Plant
The main components of hydraulic power plant are:

(i) The storage system.

(ii) Conveying system
(iii) Hydraulic turbine with control system and
(iv) Electrical generator

The storage system consists of a reservoir with a dam structure and

the water flow control in terms of sluices and gates etc.

The reservoir may be at a high level in the case of availability of

such a location. In such cases the potential energy in the water will
be large but the quantity of water available will be small.

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 Hydraulic Power Plant

• The conveying system may consist of steel pipes called penstocks.

• Penstocks are pressure pipes conveying the water from a higher

level to a lower level under pressure.

• The penstock pipes end at the flow control system and are
connected to nozzles at the end.

• The nozzles convert the potential energy to kinetic energy in free

water jets. These jets by dynamic action turn the turbine wheels.

• In some cases the nozzles may be replaced by guide vanes which

partially convert potential energy to kinetic energy and then direct
the stream to the turbine wheel, where the remaining expansion
takes place, causing a reaction on the turbine runner.
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 Turbine

• Water-driven turbines are used primarily for the development of

hydrostatic energy.

• Turbines extract energy from flowing water and convert it to

mechanical energy to drive electric generators.

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 Classification of Turbines

The main classification depends upon the type of action of the

water on the turbine, these are

(i) Impulse Turbine

(ii) Reaction Turbine.

• Impulse turbines require a higher head, but can operate with a

smaller volume flow rate.

• Reaction turbines can operate with much less head, but

require a higher volume flow rate

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 Impulse Turbine
• In the case of impulse turbine all the potential energy is
converted to kinetic energy in the nozzles.

• The impulse provided by the jets is used to turn the turbine

wheel.

• The pressure inside the turbine is atmospheric.

• This type is found suitable when the available potential energy

is high and the flow available is comparatively low.

• Some people call this type as tangential flow units.

• A pelton wheel is famous type of impulse turbine.

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 A close-up view of a Pelton
wheel showing the detailed
design of the buckets; the
electrical generator is on the
right.

A view from the bottom of an

operating Pelton wheel
illustrating the splitting and
turning of the water jet in the
bucket. The water jet enters from
the left, and the Pelton wheel is
turning to the right. 8
 Reaction Turbines
• In reaction turbines the available potential energy is
progressively converted in the turbines rotors and the reaction of
the accelerating water causes the turning of the wheel.

• These are again divided into radial flow, mixed flow and axial
flow machines.

• Radial flow machines are found suitable for moderate levels of

potential energy and medium quantities of flow.

• The axial machines are suitable for low levels of potential

energy and large flow rates.

• The potential energy available is generally denoted as “head

available”. With this terminology plants are designated as “high
head”, “medium head” and “low head” plants 9
 Reaction Turbines - Types
• In the usual Francis turbine water enters the scroll case and moves into
the runner through a series of guide vanes with contracting passages that
convert pressure head to velocity head.
• These vanes are known as wicket gates, are adjustable so that the
quantity and direction of flow can be controlled.
• Flow through usual Francis runner is at first inward in the radial
direction, gradually changing to axial.

• The propeller turbine an axial-flow machine with its runner confined

in a closed conduit, is commonly set on a vertical axis.
• The usual runner has four to eight blades mounted on a hub, with very
little clearance between the blades and the conduit wall.
• The blades have free outer ends like a marine propeller.

• A Kaplan turbine is a propeller turbine with movable blades whose

pitch can be adjusted to suit existing operating conditions.
• The runner of a Francis mixed-flow turbine used at the Smith Mountain
hydroelectric power station in Roanoke, VA.
• There are 17 runner blades of outer diameter 6.19 m.
• The turbine rotates at 100 rpm and produces 194 MW of power at a volume
flow rate of 375 m3/s from a net head of 54.9 m.
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 Specific Speed
• After studying the behavior of a turbine, under unit conditions ( i.e. unit power,
unit speed, unit discharge), the next step is to know the characteristics of an
imaginary turbine identical with the actual turbine, but reduced to such a size as
to develop a unit power under a unit head (i.e. 1 kW under a head of 1 meter).

• This imaginary turbine is called the specific turbine and its speed is known as
specific speed.

• Thus the specific speed of a turbine may be defined as the speed of an imaginary
turbine, identical with the given turbine, which will develop a unit power under a
unit head.

Ns = specific speed of turbine

N P N = operating speed of turbine
NS  (for highest possible efficiency)
H 5/ 4 P = power produced by turbine
H = net operating head of water

For multiple-jet impulse turbines the specific speed is based on the power
produced per jet.
 Cavitation
• If at any point in the flow the pressure in the liquid is reduced to its
vapour pressure, the liquid will then boil at that point and bubbles of
vapour will form.

• As the fluid flows into a region of higher pressure the bubbles of vapour
will suddenly condense or collapse.

• This action produces very high dynamic pressure upon the adjacent
solid walls and since the action is continuous and has a high frequency
the material in that zone will be damaged.

• Turbine runners and pump impellers are often severely damaged by

such action. The process is called cavitation and the damage is called
cavitation damage.

• In order to avoid cavitation, the absolute pressure at all points should be

above the vapour pressure.
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 Draft Tube
The draft-tube is a pipe of gradually increasing area which connects the outlet of
the runner to the tail race. It is used for discharging water from the exit of the
turbine to the tail race. This pipe of gradually increasing area is called a draft-
tube. One end of the drat-tube is connected to the outlet of the runner while the
other end is sub-merged below the level of water in the tail race.

The draft-tube, in addition to sere a passage for water discharge, has the following
two purposes also:
1. It permits a negative head to be established at the outlet of the runner and
thereby increase the net head on the turbine. The turbine may be placed
above the tail race without any loss of net head and hence turbine may be
inspected properly.
2. It converts a large proportion of the kinetic energy rejected at the outlet of the
turbine into useful pressure energy. Without the draft tube, the KE rejected at
the outlet of the turbine will go waste to the tail race.

Hence by using draft-tube, the net head on the turbine increases. The turbine
develops more power and also the efficiency of the turbine increases.
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Francis turbine Characteristics Curves at variable speed and constant head

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 Governing of Turbines
• Hydraulic turbines drive electrical generators in power plants.

• The frequency of generation has to be strictly maintained at a constant

value.

• This means that the turbines should run at constant speed irrespective
of the load or power output.

• It is also possible that due to electrical tripping the turbine has to be

stopped suddenly.

The governing system takes care of maintaining the turbine

speed constant irrespective of the load and also cutting off the
water supply completely when electrical circuits trip.

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 Efficiency of Turbines
The Efficiency of a turbine is the ratio of power delivered to the shaft
(brake power) and power taken from the water)

T
 
 Qh

T is the torque delivered to the shaft by the turbine,

ω is the rotative speed in radians per second,
Q is the flow rate, and
h is the net head on the turbine