Hydraulic Turbine

At the end the topic, students are able to:
 Describe the Introduction of turbine

 Classify hydraulic turbines
 Impulse turbines
 Reaction turbines
 Identify turbine selection criteria
 Specific speed
 Rotational speed
 Efficiency
 Cavitation
 Procedures in preliminary selections of turbine
 Runaway speed
 Limits of use of turbine types
Introduction
 Hydraulic turbines may be considered as hydraulic motors or prime movers of a water power
development, which convert water energy (hydropower) in to mechanical energy (shaft
power).
 The shaft power developed is used in running electricity generators directly coupled to the
shaft of the turbine, thus producing electrical power.
 It consists of a runner connected to a shaft, a mechanism of controlling the quantity of water
and the passages leading to and from the runner.
 A turbine runner is a wheel having vanes or buckets along its periphery.
 Water impinges on the vanes and imparts its energy (while passing over them) to the wheel
that revolves.
 The rotational motion occurs as a result of impulse and/or reaction.
Turbines classification
 Based on the way the hydraulic energy is converted in to mechanical energy:
 Impulse
 Reaction
 Impulse turbine
 The whole water pressure is converted into kinetic energy before entering the runner
with the help of contracting nozzle
 The kinetic energy is in the form of a high-speed jet that strikes the buckets, mounted on
the periphery of the runner
 Turbines that operate in this way are called impulse turbines
 The most usual impulse turbine is the Pelton.

impulse turbine
pelton impulse turbine
cont’d…
 Turgo Impulse turbine
The turbine is designed so that the jet of water strikes the buckets at an angle to
the face of the runner and the water passes over the buckets in an axial direction
before being discharged at the opposite side
cont’d…
 The Cross-flow impulse turbine
 An impulse turbine also called the Banki or Michell turbine.
 The name "cross-flow" comes from the fact that the water crosses through the runner
vanes twice in producing the rotation
 The cross-flow principle was developed by Michell, an Austrian engineer, in 1903.
 Professor Banki, a Hungarian engineer, developed the machine further.
Reaction Turbine types
 Reaction turbine: the turbine runner is entirely submerged and both the velocity and pressure
head are varying while water flows through the runner
 In this type the water enters the turbine in a circumferential direction in to the scroll case and
moves into the runner through a series of guide vanes, called wicket gates
 The available energy partly converted to kinetic energy & substantial magnitude remains in the
form of pressure energy
Depending upon the arrangement of flow pattern:
 Axial flow turbines (Propeller and Kaplan)

 Radial flow turbines (Francis)
 Diagonal flow (Mixed flow) turbine (Deriaze)
Classification based on head and discharge:
 Head:
 Low head, 1.5-15m ------------ Reaction - Propeller
 Medium head, 16-70m--------- Reaction - Kaplan
 High head, 71-500m------------ Reaction - Francis
 Very high head, >500m---------Impulse - Pelton
 Discharge:
 Low discharge ------------------ Impulse- Pelton
 Intermediate discharge ---------Reaction-Francis
 High discharge ------------------ Reaction-Kaplan
Turbine selection criteria
 The usual practice is to base selection on the annual energy output of the plant and the
least cost of that energy for the particular scale of hydropower installation
 In a theoretical sense, the energy output, E, can be expressed mathematically as plant
output or annual energy in a functional relation as follows:
E = F(h, q, TW, d, n, Hs, Pmax)
Where:
 h = net effective head
 q = plant discharge capacity
 TW = tail water elevation
 d = diameter of runner
 n = generator speed
 Hs = turbine setting elevation above tail water
 Pmax = maximum output expected or desired at plant
Cont’d…
 Generally the selection shall be based on: Available head, Available discharge, Power
demand fluctuation and Cost
 For small head, the discharge requirement is high, requiring bigger turbines; thus costly
 For larger head, the discharge requirement is low, requiring smaller turbines; thus
cheaper
 The choice of a suitable hydraulic prime-mover depend upon various considerations for
the given head and discharge at a particular site of the power plant
 The type of the turbine can be determined if the head available, power to be developed
and speed at which it has to run are known to the engineer beforehand
 The following factors have the bearing on the selection of the right type of hydraulic
turbine:
i. Rotational Speed – Generator
ii. Specific Speed;
iii. Maximum Efficiency;
Cont’d…
I. Rotational speed
 Turbine or synchronous speed: Since turbine and generator are fixed, the rated speed of the
turbine is the same as the speed of the generator.
 In all modern hydraulic power plants, the turbines are directly coupled to the generator to
reduce the transmission losses
 This arrangement of coupling narrows down the range of the speed to be used for the
prime-mover
 The generator generates the power at constant voltage and frequency and, therefore, the
generator has to operate at its synchronous speed
 The synchronous speed of a generator is given by
Where: N speed rpm; f- frequency of the generator (usually 50

hz or 60 hz), p- number of pair of poles of the generator f and
p are constants thus N is constant
Cont’d…
 The speed of a turbine is an important parameter of design
 The higher the speed, the smaller the diameter of the turbine runner & the
cheaper the generator coupled to the turbine
 Problems associated with the high speed turbines are the danger of cavitation
and centrifugal forces acting on the turbine parts which require robust
construction
 No doubt, the overall cost of the plant will be reduced by adopting higher
rotational speed as smaller turbine and smaller generator are required to
generate the same power
 The construction cost of the power house is also reduced
 The ratio of the peripheral speed , v, of the bucket or vanes at the nominal
diameter, D, to the theoretical velocity of water under the effective head, H,
acting on the turbine is called the speed factor or peripheral coefficient , ø.
Cont’d…
The following table suggests appropriate values of ø, which give the highest
efficiencies for any turbine, the head & specific speed ranges and the
efficiencies of the three main types of turbine
Cont’d…
 Thus in general
 Pelton turbines are used for high heads & low discharges
 Francis types are used for medium discharge & high head plants (has adjustable
guide vanes but the runner is a disc with fixed passage)
 Propeller & Kaplan (Kaplan has adjustable blades) types are used for lows head
plants with large discharges.
Cavitation
 A reduced pressure under the blades (or buckets) of a turbine runner may lead to
cavitation – phenomenon detrimental to the turbine
 The term cavitation basically refers to the ability of cold water to boil under low
pressure
 Under a normal absolute barometric pressure of 1 bar water starts to boil at 100
oC. However, when the pressure drops to 0.033 bar (which is called the critical
pressure, Pcr) it may begin to bubble at 25 oC, that is, at normal river water
temperature
 When the pressure under a runner approaches Pcr, the water in the stream starts
boiling, giving rise to cavities (known as cavitation bubbles) filled with water
vapor.
The boundary between the low pressure zone immediately under the blades (or
buckets) and the high pressure zone in the stream above the runner follows an
extremely unstable pattern
The cavitation bubbles find themselves from time to time in the high pressure zone.
As a result, the vapor instantly condenses and a cavitation bubble collapses
Cont’d…
 As this takes place, an enormous pressure develops at the bubble center, which
spreads quickly in an explosion like manner
 A series of such micro-explosions following one another at very short intervals causes
a good deal of noise and vibration in the turbine and may provoke the runner blades
into pitting
 Cavitation result is pitting, vibration & reduction in efficiency & is certainly
undesirable
 Cavitation may be avoided by suitably designing, installing, and operating the
turbine in such a way that the pressures with is the units are above the vapor
pressure of water.
 Methods to Reduce Cavitation
1. Installation of Turbine below tailrace level
 The most effective way of reducing cavitation is to set the runner comparatively ,
low with reference to the tail water elevation so that a high value of cavitation
factor ( ) is obtained
Cont’d…
Cont’d…
2. Optimum dimensions of the runner.
 The runner can be designed to fulfill the condition of minimum cavitation
 The best dimensions (shape, size, angle etc.) can be found out by conducting
experiments.
3. Use of material.
 The cavitation effect can be minimized by selecting proper materials, which can resist
better the cavitation effect.
 The stainless steel or alloy steel or cast steel is the better choice than cast iron.
4. Polishing surfaces
 Sharp or sudden changes in flow and lack of smoothness in finish contributing to
increased cavitation
 The surfaces are polished or coated, as cavitation effect is minimized
5. Selection of specific speed
 The cavitation effect can be reduced by selecting proper specific speed for the given
head
Cont’d…
 6. Selection of other proper parameters
 High head, high speed operation, lowering of tail water level, and operating at gate
openings other than best openings also contribute to greater cavitation
 Therefore, to reduce cavitation effect, the optimum value of speed, level of tailwater,
and best opening of gate are to be selected
II. Specific Speed

 Specific speed: is a speed at which a turbine is running to produce
1kW power through a head of 1m
 It is a useful parameter for the selection of turbine for a given
condition  It is expressed as (from dimension analysis)
Cont’d…
 Meaning of specific speed:

 Any turbine, with identical geometric proportions, even if the sizes are different, will
have the same specific speed
 If the model had been refined to get the optimum hydraulic efficiency, all turbines with
the same specific speed will also have an optimum efficiency
 In all modern power plants, it is common practice to select a high specific speed turbine
because it is more economical as the size of the turbo-generator as well as that of power
house will be smaller
Efficiency of the turbine
 The important efficiency of a turbine are as under
1) Hydraulic efficiency , ηh
2) Mechanical efficiency, ηm
3) Volumetric efficiency, ηv
4) Overall efficiency, ηo
 Hydraulic efficiency, (ηh).
 It is defined as the ratio of power developed by the runner of a turbine to the power
supplied by the water at the inlet of the turbine
 Mechanical efficiency (ηm)

 The ratio of power available at the shaft of the turbine to the power developed by the
runner
 Volumetric efficiency (ηv)
 The ratio of the volume of the water actually striking the runner to the volume of water
supplied to the turbine is called volumetric efficiency
 Overall efficiency (ηo).

 It is the ratio of power available at the shaft of the turbine to the power supplied by the
water at the inlet of the turbine
III. Maximum efficiency
 The maximum efficiency, the turbine can develop, depends upon the type of the
runner used.  In case of impulse turbine, low specific speed is not conducive to
efficiency, since the diameter of the wheel becomes relatively large in
proportion to the power developed so that the bearing tend to become too large.
Procedure in preliminary selection of Turbines
 1. From design Q and H, calculate approximate P that can be generated,
2) From calculate N (or assume) and compute Ns. From this, the type
of turbine can be suggested
3) Calculate ø from
 For approximate calculations of runner diameter, the following empirical formula

may be used (Mosony)
Cont’d…
Cont’d
 It is not uncommon to use a member of multiple jet wheels mounted on the same shaft so
as to develop the required power.
 Hydraulic turbines (runner) is designed for optimum speed & maximum efficiency at design
head.
 But in reality, head and load conditions change during operation & it is extremely
important to know the performance of the unit at other heads.
 This is furnished by manufacturer’s curve.
Runaway Speed
 If the external load on the machine suddenly drops to zero (sudden rejection) and
the governing mechanism fails at the same time, the turbine will tend to race up to
the maximum possible speed, known as runaway speed.  This limiting speed
under no-load, maximum-flow must be considered for safe design
Table: Runaway speed and acceptable head variation

Limits of use of turbine types
 For practical purposes there are some definite limits of use that need to be understood in the
selection of turbines for specific situations.
 Impulse turbines normally have most economical application at heads above 300m, but for small
units and cases where surge protection is important, impulse turbines are used with lower heads.
 For Francis turbines the units can be operated over a range of flows from approximately 50 to
115% best-efficiency discharge. The approximate limits of head range from 60 to 125% of design
head.
 Propeller turbines have been developed for heads from 5 to 60m but are normally used for heads
less than 30m. For fixed blade propeller turbines the limits of flow operation should be between
75 and 100% of best-efficiency flow.
Cont’d…
 Kaplan units may be operated between 25 and 125% of the best-efficiency discharge.
 The head range for satisfactory operation is from 20 to 140% of design head.
 Operational Envelopes
 The rated flow and the net head determine the set of turbine types applicable to the site and the flow
environment
 Suitable turbines are those for which the given rated flow and net head plot within the operational
envelope
Example 1
 The following data is available for a hydropower plant: Available head = 140 m; catchment area
=2000sq. Km; annual average rainfall =145 cm; turbine efficiency = 85%; generator efficiency = 90%;
percolation and evaporation losses = 16%. Determine the following
 a) Power developed
 b) Suggest type of turbines to be used if the runner speed is to be kept below 240 rpm
 i) power developed, P Quantity of water available for power generation per year
=Ax rainfall utilized
=200x10 1.45 (1 0.16) 2.436 10 / year
Hence, quantity of water available per second
 (ii) type of turbine to be used
pelton turbine can be used. Further since, head available is large and discharge
is low, pelton turbine works satisfactorly

Example
 At a location, the head available was 50 m. The power estimated is 40,000 kW. The speed
chosen is 600 rpm. Determine the specific speed and indicate the suitable type of turbine.
 Given: H = 50 m, P = 40,000 kW, N = 600 rpm
 Required: Ns and type of turbine
Solution
 Hence based on the given head & the calculated specific speed axial flow Kaplan turbine is
suitable
Exercise
 1) A hydroelectric station is to be designed to operate at a mean head of 205 m and supplied
from a reservoir lake having a catchment area of 1000 km2 with average annual rain fall of 125
cm of which 80% is available for power production. The expected load factor at the plant is
75%. Allowing a head loss of 5m and assuming efficiency of the turbine and generator to be
respectively 90% and 95%, calculate suitable MW rating of the station. Comment also on the
type of turbine to be installed
 2. A turbine is operating with a head of 400 m and speed of 500 rpm and flow rate of 5 m3/s
producing the power of 17.66 MW. The head available changed to 350 m. if no other corrective
action was taken what would be the speed, flow and power? Assume efficiency is maintained.

Hydraulic Turbine

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At the end the topic, students are able to:

 Describe the Introduction of turbine

 Turbines that operate in this way are called impulse turbines

 The most usual impulse turbine is the Pelton.

 Axial flow turbines (Propeller and Kaplan)

Where: N speed rpm; f- frequency of the generator (usually 50

II. Specific Speed

 Meaning of specific speed:

 Mechanical efficiency (ηm)

 Overall efficiency (ηo).

 For approximate calculations of runner diameter, the following empirical formula

Table: Runaway speed and acceptable head variation

is low, pelton turbine works satisfactorly

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