2016 International Conference on Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Techniques (ICACDOT)

International Institute of Information Technology (I²IT), Pune

Design and Manufacturing of Bulb Turbine

Tadake Harshal Sahebrao Visave Jaydev Murlidhar
Department of Technology, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji
Savitribai Phule Pune University, Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Pune, India. Nanded, India.
[email protected]* [email protected]*

Abstract— The global rise in energy demand has resulted turbine is one of the types of hydraulic turbine according to
to the over exploitation of both renewable and non renewable direction of flow and head available.
energy sources. Most feasible hydroelectric power (HEP) Bulb turbine gaining increasing importance in the hydro
plants sites have been exploited and the current focus is on power plants, because of hydraulic advantages these are
harnessing energy from small HEP plants which have low head
and flow velocity rendering them unsuitable for HEP
suitable than vertical Kaplan turbine.
generation. Previous research work focused on improving the In this project work, a model turbine has been
turbine shape and efficiency; designing better water intake, developed. Actual power available at turbine shaft was
improving the generator and development of turbines suitable measured by using mechanical brake dynamometer to
for low heads. The main aim of this research was to optimize predict power output of such similar actual turbine. While
the power generated by low head small hydro plants through selecting a site different locations were taken and turbine
the use of bulb turbine. This research was carried out in order was run.
to develop a hydro turbine to be used for specific site of lower
Head as run of river or canal water, which has head less than
1.5 meters. The new development of Very Low Head Turbine
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
has been done.
Through this analysis and investigation could obtain the The flowing water energy is the oldest source of
potential of running a Water Turbine System (WTS). The renewable energy. We are utilizing the water or hydro
main problem statement is on location limitation to obtain
energy to develop a mechanical energy from more than
peak flow rate of canal to running water turbine systems which
2000 years ago. The universal power capacity considering
is depending on depth and width of the canal section and also
from the velocity of sectional area of river or canal. Other than all, ocean power, small and large hydropower was
that, choosing most suitable water turbine system is also one of approximately 3288 TWh. In India overall electricity
main criteria to be taken in this research. Water Turbine (Bulb generated was approximately 830 TWh out of which 114
Turbine) are one of clean renewable energy sources which TWh was from hydroelectric power plants. However large
holding high percentage of energy resource provider among power plants growth rate has declined somewhat over
renewable energy. recent few years because of some environmental
considerations or by being exploited. In its place small
Keywords: Renewable energy, Low head turbine, Bulb, Flow hydro power plants has been increasingly used. The reason
rate, Electrical power. of using these small hydro power plants is that they can be
easily installed at small rivers or streams with very less
I. INTRODUCTION environmental effect. In such case i.e. in small hydro
There are many different types of turbine configuration power systems no need of dam to be built.
available for low head small hydro developments. One of is Basically water turbines can be classified on the basis
the hydraulic turbine. The word “hydro” in Greek means
of
water and “dynamics”, means motion and forces associated
with it. Thus the hydrodynamics machines are those A. Water head available (low head, medium head and
machines which involve forces due to motion of a fluid, high head turbines)
generally water. B. Action of water flowing through turbine (Impulse and
The main objective is to generate electricity by using reaction turbines)
low head or minimum head of water with the help of C. Direction of the flow through runner (Tangential
hydraulic turbine. This type of turbine used any flowing flow, Radial flow, Mixed flow, Axial flow turbines)
water like canal, river etc. The hydraulic turbine are
D. Specific speed of the turbine (Low specific speed
classified according to the type of energy available are the
inlet of the turbine and specific speed of the turbines. Bulb turbine, Medium specific speed turbine, High specific
speed turbine)

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 E. Axis of water stream (Horizontal axis turbine and
Vertical axis turbine) IV. CONSTRUCTION
Horizontal axis turbine is shown in fig. 1 below, which
is similar to bulb turbine. It consist of a sturdy casing as shown in fig. at the
entrance to the turbine the shape of casing is conical to
accommodate large quantity of water passing through
casing and avoid losses of energy at the trailing side of
casing has cylindrical shape. Casing is made up of thin
mild steel sheet. The bulb is located at the centre of casing
such as it coincides with the horizontal axis of casing. In
the gap between bulb and casing, guide blades are fixed
radially at equal spacing.
A bulb turbine consists of cylindrical shaped casing and
accommodates gear assembly. It is completely sealed
compartment for water. The runner shaft is supported
between two taper roller bearings. The water seal is
Fig 1: Horizontal axis water turbine mounted at out coming end of shaft. The bulb is cylindrical
and hence runner blades are fixed on it at equal pitch.
III. BULB TURBINE

Bulb turbine is the horizontal axis, low head turbine. In

this turbine the electrical generator is housed in the bulb-
shaped watertight casing and hence it is called as Bulb
turbine. Turbine runner and the bulb together form an
integral unit. The outer surface of the bulb is streamlined to
form a passage for the flow of water from head source to the
turbine with very less loss of energy. The bulb could be
either upstream or downstream of the runner but in most of
cases it is on the upstream of runner. These are also suitable
for small tidal power generations plants. Fig. 2 shows the
Fig 3: Parts of Bulb Turbine
general overview of the bulb turbine with the blade.
Power from driving shaft is transmitted to driven shaft
via bevel gear train. At the other end of output shaft a
brake drum is mounted. Joute rope is wound on periphery
of brake drum and its two ends are connected to the spring
balance hooks. The turbine while testing was located in
flowing water such that its entrance faces will come
against the direction of flow. As flow occurs through
turbine, runner shaft rotates and hence brake drum rotated.
The tension on the spring balance was adjusted for smooth
rotation of brake drum. Procedure for testing is mentioned
on separate page later on.

Fig 2: General overview of the bulb turbine with the blade

A number of blade turbines are operating successfully

in the world. In India at present there are only two power
plants where bulb turbines have been installed. At Gandak
Western Canal Power House three bulb turbine units each of
5.5 MW are operating under a head of 6.1 m, the Kosi East
Canal Power house has four bulb turbine units with each of
5.6 MW operating under a head of 6.1 m.
Fig 4: Drawing Model

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 Table No. 1 T2 = Tension on slack side
R = Radius of brake drum
Sr. No. Part Name Sr. No. Part Name
1 Housing / Casing 6 Output shaft R = 55 mm
Power = (T1-T2)*9.81*R* Angular velocity
2 Runner blades 7 Bevel gear
Where N = Speed of shaft in RPM
3 Hub 8 Brake drum Power supplied to the turbine = specific weight of water *
4 Runner shaft 9 Spring balance Q*H
5 End plate 10 Bracket Q = Area of flow * Velocity of flow
Velocity of flow = ¥(2gH)
V. WORKING PRINCIPLE
Velocity of flow can be measured with the help of Pitot
The Bulb turbine is fully submerged in the water flow tube. Where,
(river). The linear kinetic energy of water is giving rotation V = Cd * ¥(2gH)
movement to the blades of turbine. The water passing H= Dynamic head in meter
through the turbine forces the turbine blades to rotate with a H0= Stagnation head in meter
low speed and with a high torque. When the linear kinetic hst= Static head in meter
velocity of the water coverts to the rotational velocity then H= H- hst
the turbine starts to rotate. The Gearing mechanism
increases the rotational speed of turbine shaft. VII. TESTING RESULT

Data available:
Turbine entry diameter = 0.35 m
Break drum pulley diameter = 0.055 m
Discharge through canal = 3 cusecs = 0.10298 m3/s
Discharge = Area * Velocity
Velocity = 1.07 m/s
H = 0.058 m
Hydraulic power available,
P = 9810*0.10298*0.058
P = 58.59
Fig 5: Bulb Turbine Blades

The turbine material is mild steel with a rotor where the

blades are welded. The casing is made to cover the turbine
in running condition when the turbine is submerged in the
water. A Bevel gear mechanism is used to extract the speed
from Turbine. The turbine consists of the following parts
namely turbine blades (trapezoidal shape), supporting
structure, bevel gear with 18 teeth, bearings.

VI. TESTING PROCEDURE

This device is converting hydraulic energy

associated with flowing water into mechanical energy. For
measuring actual shaft power developed by turbine brake
dynamometer is suitable. A brake drum (or wheel) is W
mounted on output shaft. The joute rope is wound on brake
drum. Tension on slack side and tight side is measured by Fig. 6: Mounting of Bulb Turbine on Location
spring balance. Speed of output shaft is measured by digital
radiation tachometer. Above fig. shows the mounting location of turbine. On
which different readings are taken as shown in table.
Power available at output shaft = Torque *Angular velocity
Torque = (T1-T2)*R
Where T1 = Tension on tight side

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 Table No. 3 providing smooth entry surface and aerofoil section of guide
vanes.

Location Sr. Speed Load Shaft Effi. REFERENCES

No. T1 T2 Power
No. (RPM) (kg) (kg) (W) (%) [1] G.D.Rai, 2006, “Non conventional sources of energy”,
Khanna Publications, Delhi.
[2] Dr. Jagdish lal, 2004, “Hydraulic machines”, Metropolitan
I 1 70 2.5 0.4 9.06 15.46 Book Co, New Delhi.
[3] V. P. Vasandani, 1996, “Hydraulic machine and theory of
2 54 4 0.5 11.64 19.86 machines”, Khanna Publications, Delhi.
[4] Dr. P. N. Modi and Dr. S. M. Seth, 2002, “Hydraulics and
II 1 108 5 1 26.57 45.26 fluid mechanics including hydraulic machines”, Standard
Book Publications, Delhi.
2 96 5 0.5 26.6 45.43 [5] Yonus A .Cengel, John M. Cimbala, 2006, “Fluid
mechanics”, Tata Mc-graw Hill Publications, Delhi.
The above table shows that test result of bulb turbine [6] V. B. Bhandari, 2006, “Design of machine element”, Tata
taken at different locations. We got different speed on each Mc-graw Hill Publications, Delhi.
location with power output and efficiency. [7] http://www.naca.co.in
[8] http://www.sciencedirect.com
VIII. RESULT AND DISCUSSION [9] http://Iopscience.iop.org
[10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation
This is an axial flow turbine which is developed as a
model works at low head. The turbine was designed to
develop a power of 1 kW subject to available head 1.5 m of
water column and discharge 0.1697 m3/s. To achieve above
mentioned parameters (i.e. discharge and head) a special
arrangement is necessary. We have made effort to find out
such locations at Nira Left Canal, and got the location with
maximum head 0.0583 m and discharge 0.1029 m3/s.
Maximum efficiency of turbine as per test results is 45%.
The reasons for lower efficiency may be attributed to,
1. Power transmitted from runner shaft to the brake drum
shaft is straight toothed bevel gear with rough series.
2. Permanent continuous lubrication to reduce the friction
between bearing and shaft cannot be provided due to
enclosed casing and hence the power is lost due to
friction.
3. All the water power reaching to turbine was not equal to
the exact value due to volumetric losses.

This is a model turbine, efficiency can be increased by

making a permanent flow passage such as penstock to
turbine. We hereby suggest that energy can be extracted
from flowing water through canals, which is at very low
head and low discharge.

IX. CONCLUSION

Efforts were made to extract energy from flowing water

at very low head through canals. Large amount of energy
can be extracted from this source. Mechanical efficiency of
turbine can be improved by providing proper lubrication and
power transmission, entry losses can also be reduced by

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