CE 111

Hydraulic Engineering

HYDRAULIC MACHINERY

Cornelio Q. Dizon
Associate Professor
Institute of Civil Engineering
University of the Philippines
 Objectives

• Identify various types of pumps and turbines, and understand

how they work
• Apply dimensional analysis to design new pumps or turbines that
are geometrically similar to existing pumps or turbines
• Perform basic vector analysis of the flow into and out of pumps
and turbines
• Use specific speed for preliminary design and selection of pumps
and turbines

Herrera, Eugene C.
Water Resources Engineering II
Hydraulic Machinery
Two-types

• Pump: adds energy to a

fluid, resulting in an
increase in pressure
across the pump.
• Turbine: extracts energy
from the fluid, resulting
in a decrease in pressure
across the turbine.
 Hydroelectric Generation
Physical Elements
Three Basic Elements for
Power Generation
 A means to create Head
- dam and reservoir
- intake structures
 Conduit to Convey Water
- intake structures
- penstocks
 Power Plant
- turbines/generators
- draft tubes
- tailrace

Draft tubes convey water from the discharge side of the turbine to the
tailrace.
Tailrace maintains a minimum tailwater elevation below the power plant and
keeps the draft tube submerged.
Hydroelectric Generation
Energy Elements

For a constant discharge, the energy relation between the forebay and any
other section is, z1  V1 / 2 g  z2  V2 / 2 g  hc
2 2

Forebay is a regulating reservoir that temporarily stores water to facilitate:

1) low-approach velocity to intake, 2) surge reduction, 3) sediment removal,
or 4) storage.
Turbines
Two basic types
Impulse-turbine, a free jet of water impinges on the revolving element of the
machine, which is exposed to atmospheric pressure. Kinetic to mechanical energy.
Reaction turbine, flow takes place under pressure in a closed chamber. Kinetic
and pressure head to mechanical energy.

Impulse-turbine Reaction-turbine
Turbines
Impulse-types
The impulse turbine is also called a tangential waterwheel or a Pelton wheel has
a runner with numerous spoon-shaped buckets attached to the periphery and are
driven by one or more jets of water issuing from fixed or adjustable nozzles.
Working heads can range between 30 to 300 meters.

 Jet on bucket is split into 2 parts that

discharge at sides of the bucket
 One jet for small turbines, many for big
 Wheel speed is kept constant under
varying load through a governor
 Bypass valves or deflectors are provided
to prevent water hammer
 Can be double overhung
 Provided with housing to prevent
splashing
 For efficiency: bucket width is 3-4x jet
diameter and 15-20x for wheel diameter
 Bucket angle is usually 165o.
Turbines
Reaction-types
Reaction turbines include Francis turbines, which are constructed so that water
enters the runner radially and then flows towards the center and along a turbine
shaft axis. Working heads can range between 30 to 450 meters and most
economical for 45-450 meters.

 Jet enters a scroll case, moves in to the

runner through a series of guide vanes
 Vanes convert pressure head to velocity head
 Vanes are controllable for regulating flows
 Relief valves/surge tanks are provided to
prevent water hammer
 Usually mounted on a vertical axis
 From the runner, water enters a draft tube
with a gradually increasing cross-sectional
area to reduce discharge velocity.
 To prevent flow separation, the divergence
angle should be less than 10o.
 To prevent cavitation, z1 should be limited.
Turbines
Other types
Fixed-blade propeller turbines are constructed so that water passes through the
propeller blades in an axial direction. Adjustable gates upstream are used to
regulate flow. These turbines are typically used in the 3-60 meter head range and
are economical for 15-45 meters.

Kaplan turbines are propeller turbines with adjustable pitch blades that operate in
the same range of heads. The usual runner has 4-8 blades mounted on a hub, with
very little clearance between the blades and the conduit wall. Adjustable gates
upstream of the runner regulate the flow.
Turbines
Other types
Tubular turbines have a guide vane assembly that is in line with the turbine and
contributes to the tubular shape. Economical choice for heads less than 15 meters.

Bulb turbines are horizontal axial-flow turbines with a turbine runner directly
connected to a generator or through a speed-increasing gear box. A rim turbine is
similar to the bulb turbine with the generator mounted on the periphery of the
turbine runner blades. Economical choice for heads less than 15 meters.
Turbines
Types and heads
Turbines
Hydraulics of Reaction-types
The following continuity equation can be used to determine the radial velocity
components,
Q  2 r1ZVr1  2 r2 ZVr 2
As with pumps, the concept of a turbine-specific speed is defined. For turbines, we
are more interested in the power of the turbine than the discharge. The
dimensional form of the specific speed ns used by the hydraulic turbine industry is,
N  rotational speed in rpm   overall efficiency
NP1/2
ns  5/4 P  power in horsepower (kilowatts)   hmv h  hydraulic efficiency
H H  head in turbine in feet (meters) m  mechanical efficiency
v  volumetric efficiency
Cavitation in turbines is very undesirable, since it causes pitting, mechanical
vibration, and loss of efficiency. Cavitation can be avoided by designing, installing,
and operating turbines so that the local absolute pressure never drops to the vapor
pressure of the water. The susceptibility to cavitation in turbines is given by the
cavitation index,
po  absolute atmospheric pressure
po /   pv /   ( z1  z0 ) pv  absolute vapor pressure of water
 z1  elevation of D/S side of turbine
H
z0  elevation of tailrace water
H  net head across the turbine
Turbines
Hydraulics of Reaction-types
For a given turbine operating with a given H and speed, if z1 is increased or p0
decreased, the pressure acting on the blades of the turbine decreases and
eventually reaches a point at which cavitation would occur. Then lower values of
σ indicate a greater tendency for cavitation. Cavitation susceptibility also changes
with the speed of the impeller because greater speed means greater relative
velocities and less pressure on the downstream side of the impeller. Critical σc
values are obtained from experiments.

Turbine Efficiency
Curves
 Selection of Type of Turbine

Looking at the
equation of the
specific speed, it
indicates that at high
heads for a given
speed and power
output, a low specific
turbine such as an
impulse turbine is
required/. Propeller
turbines with high
specific speeds are
needed for low heads.
 Turbines
Turbine Law
If the peripheral speed of a turbine is expressed as u1   2 gh , then:


u1

 r1

 2 N / 60  D / 2 
 2 gh   2 gh   2 gh 
1/2 1/2 1/2

DN DN D  nominal diameter of the runner

 ; English units  ; SI units N  rotative speed in revolutions per minute
153.3  h  84.6  h 
1/2 1/2
h  total effective head

For any turbine, there is a value of  that gives the highest efficiency. Designating
this as e , its magnitude for the various turbine types is about
Impulse wheel: 0.43-0.48  N should be constant for turbines
Francis turbine: 0.60-0.90  Φ is a function of h and Φ cannot be constant for
Propeller turbine: 1.4-2.0 varying h values resulting to efficiency drop
 Gate opening changes to vary with Q will maintain constant rotative speed
 Change in gate opening changes velocity vectors at runner entrance and exit
 Water will no longer enter blade tangentially, increasing headloss in runner,
lower efficiency
Turbines
Turbine Law
Two turbines of identical geometric shape but of different size will have the same
specific speed.
NP1/2
ns  5/4
H
The relative sizes of any two turbines is determined from,
1 D1 N1

2 D2 N 2
More power is developed by a reaction wheel of a given diameter than by an
impulse wheel of the same size and operating under the same head.
The trend of hydraulic turbine design is toward higher specific speed, leading to
smaller and higher-speed machines for the same design requirements and output.
Two turbines of identical geometric shape but of differing size will have practically
the same efficiency if operated so that their Φ values are the same, since the
velocity diagrams will be proportional.
 Turbines
Sample Problem

Herrera, Eugene C.
Water Resources Engineering II Hydraulic Machinery
 Turbines
Sample Problem
PROBLEM. A turbine is to be selected for an installation where the net head is 600 ft
and the permissible flow is 200 cfs. What type of turbine should be chosen if the
desired operating speed is 100 rpm?.

SOLUTION. Assuming 90 percent efficiency, the available power is,

 Qh 62.4 x 200 x 600 x 0.9
  12,300hp
550 550
Given an operating speed of 100 rpm,
100(12,300)1/2
s   3.7
6005/4
This indicates that an impulse wheel should be selected. This turbine will not be
subject to cavitation for the given operating conditions.
The required wheel diameter (assuming φ = 0.45) is found to be,
153.3(600)1/2 x 0.45
D  16.9 ft
100
A wheel diameter of 16.9 ft would be quite large, and a small size could be selected by
increasing the rotative speed.