TYPES OF HYDRAULIC TURBINES

Impulse Turbine Reaction Turbine

All the available energy of the fluid is Only a portion of the fluid energy is
converted into kinetic energy by an transformed into kinetic energy before
efficient nozzle that forms a free jet. the fluid enters the turbine runner.
The jet is unconfined and at the Water enters the runner with an excess
atmospheric pressure throughout the pressure, and the both the velocity and
action of water on the runner, and during pressure change as water passes through
is subsequent flow to the tail race. the runner
Blades are only in action when they are in Blades are in action all the time
front of the nozzle
Water may be allowed to enter a part or Water in admitted over the
whole of the wheel circumference. circumference of the wheel
The wheel does not run full and air has Water completely fills the vane passages
free access to the buckets. throughout the operation of the turbine.
Unit is installed above the tail race Unit is kept entirely submerged in water
below the tail race.
 PELTON WHEEL

Specifications:
1.Type –Impulse (free jet) turbine
2.Type of Flow- Tangential
3.Head- more than 250m (high)
4.Mainly Runner shaft is horizontal in pelton turbine
5.Specific speed- 8 to 30 for one nozzle (low)
Up to 50 for more than one nozzle
6. Discharge-low
EXPERIMENT6

TO STUDY THE CONSTRUCTIONAL FEATURES AND

WORKING OF KAPLAN TURBINES
 FRANCIS TURBINE

Specifications:
1.Type –Reaction Turbine
2.Type of Flow- Mixed (Radial and Axial)
3.Head- Medium 40 to 600 m
4.Specific speed- Medium 50 to 250
5.Shaft position-Mainly vertical (if may be horizontal also)
6.Discharge-Medium
7.RPM: 75 to 1000
8.Power output: Few KW to 800 MW
 FRANCIS TURBINE
❑ Turbines are subdivided into impulse and reaction machines.
❑ In the impulse turbines, the total head available is converted into the kinetic energy.
❑ This is usually accomplished in one or more nozzles
❑ In the reaction turbines, only some part of the available total head of the fluid is
converted into kinetic energy so that the fluid entering the runner has pressure energy
as well as kinetic energy.
❑ The pressure energy is then converted into kinetic energy in the runner.
❑ The Francis turbine is a type of reaction turbine that was developed by James B. Francis.
❑ They operate in a water head from 40 to 600 m and are primarily used for electrical
power production.
❑ The electric generators which most often use this type of turbine have a power output
which generally ranges just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW.
 APPLICATIONS OF FRANCIS TURBINE

❑ Francis turbine is the most widely used turbine in hydro-power plants to generate
electricity.
❑ Mixed flow turbine is also used in irrigation water pumping sets to pump water from
ground for irrigation.
❑ It is efficient over a wide range of water head and flow rate.
❑ It is most efficient hydro-turbine.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:

1. Spiral Casing
2. Stay Vanes
3. Guide Vanes
4. Runner
5. Runner Blades
6. Draft Tube
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:
1. Spiral Casing:
❑Most of these machines have vertical shafts although some smaller machines of this type
have horizontal shaft.
❑The fluid enters from the penstock (pipeline leading to the turbine from the reservoir at
high altitude) to a spiral casing which completely surrounds the runner.
❑This casing is known as scroll casing or volute.
❑The cross-sectional area of this casing decreases uniformly along the circumference to
keep the fluid velocity constant in magnitude along its path towards the stay vane.
❑This is so because the rate of flow along the fluid path in the volute decreases due to
continuous entry of the fluid to the runner through the openings of the stay vanes.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:

2. Stay Vanes:
❑Water flow is directed toward the runner by the stay vanes as it moves along the spiral
casing, and then it passes through the guide vanes.
❑Stay vanes remain stationary at their position and reduces the swirling of water due to
radial flow, as it enters the runner blades. Thus making turbine more efficient.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:

3. Guide Vanes:
❑Guide vanes are not stationary, they change their angle as per the requirement to
control the angle of striking of water to turbine blades to increase the efficiency.
❑They also regulate the flow rate of water into the runner blades thus controlling the
power output of a turbine according to the load on the turbine.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:
4. Runner:
❑It is the main part of the turbine that has blades on its periphery.
❑During operation, runner rotates and produces power.
❑For a mixed flow type Francis Turbine, the flow in the runner is not purely radial but a
combination of radial and axial.
❑The flow is inward, i.e. from the periphery towards the centre.
❑The main direction of flow changes as water passes through the runner and is finally
turned into the axial direction while entering the draft tube.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:

5. Runner Blades
❑The performance and efficiency of the turbine is dependent on the design of the runner
blades.
❑In a Francis turbine, runner blades are divided into 2 parts.
❑The lower half is made in the shape of small bucket so that it uses the impulse action of
water to rotate the turbine.
❑The upper part of the blades use the reaction force of water flowing through it. These
two forces together makes the runner to rotate.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:
4. Draft Tube:
❑After passing through the turbine runner, the exiting fluid still has appreciable kinetic energy.
❑To recover some of this kinetic energy the flow enters an expanding area (diffuser) called
draft tube, which slows down the flow speed, while increasing the pressure prior to
discharge into the downstream water.
❑Therefore, the primary function of the draft tube is to reduce the velocity of the discharged
water to minimize the loss of kinetic energy at the outlet.
❑This permits the turbine to be set above the tail water without any appreciable drop of
available head.
❑Moreover careful design of draft tube is vital, otherwise cavitation can occur inside the tube.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
❑ Water enters the turbine through spiral casing, and starts entering the runner blades,
passing through stay vanes and guide vanes, as it moves along the length of casing the
decreasing cross-section area of the spiral casing makes sure that the pressure energy
of water would remain uniform along its length, as a portion of water is also entering
the runner blades, which would reduce its flow rate along the length of the casing.
❑ The stay vanes being stationary at their place, removes the swirls from the water,
which are generated due to flow through spiral casing and tries it to make the flow of
water more linear to be deflected by adjustable guide vanes.
❑ The angle of guide vanes decides the angle of attack of water at the runner blades thus
make sure the output of the turbine.
❑ Guide vanes also controls the flow rate of water in-to the runner blades thus acting
according the load on the turbine.
❑ The runner blades are stationary and can-not pitch or change their angle so it’s all
about the guide vanes which controls the power output of a turbine.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
❑ Further-more the upper part of runner blades are designed in such a way that they use
the pressure difference between the opposite faces of a blade created by water flowing
through it, same as the air-foil uses the pressure difference to generate lift force.
❑ And the remaining part of the blade is designed like a small bucket, which makes use of
water’s kinetic energy.
❑ Thus runner blades make use of both pressure energy and kinetic energy of water and
rotates the runner in most efficient way.
❑ The water coming out of runner blades would lack both the kinetic energy and
pressure energy, so the draft tube is used to recover the pressure as it advances
towards tail race, but still we cannot recover the pressure to that extent that we can
stop air to enter into the runner housing thus causing cavitation.
ADVANTAGES OF FRANCIS TURBINE
❑ Its control is easy even with variable heads
❑ Very little change in efficiency with time
❑ It has small runner size
 DISADVANTAGES OF FRANCIS TURBINE
❑ Its inspection is relatively difficult
❑ Problem of cavitation
❑ Water with dirt can create extreme problems to turbine
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
❑ The reaction turbine consists of fixed guide vanes called stay vanes, adjustable guide
vanes called wicket gates, and rotating blades called runner blades.
❑ Flow enters tangentially at high pressure, is turned toward the runner by the stay vanes
as it moves along the spiral casing or volute, and then passes through the wicket gates
with a large tangential velocity component.
❑ Momentum is exchanged between the fluid and the runner as the runner rotates, and
there is a large pressure drop.
❑ Unlike the impulse turbine, the water completely fills the casing of a reaction turbine.
❑ For this reason, a reaction turbine generally produces more power than an impulse
turbine of the same diameter, net head, and volume flow rate.
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
❑ The angle of the wicket gates is adjustable so as to control the volume flow rate
through the runner.
❑ In most designs the wicket gates can close on each other, cutting off the flow of water
into the runner.
❑ At design conditions the flow leaving the wicket gates impinges parallel to the runner
blade leading edge to avoid shock losses.
❑ In Francis turbine, a reaction turbine, there is a drop in static pressure and a drop in
velocity head during energy transfer in the runner.
❑ Only part of the total head presented to the machine is converted to velocity head
before entering the runner.
❑ This is achieved in the adjustable guide vanes, shown in Fig.1.
WORKING PRINCIPLE
❑ Similarly to Pelton wheel, Francis turbine usually drives an alternator and, hence, its
speed must be constant.
❑ Since the total head available is constant and dissipation of energy by throttling is
undesirable, the regulation at part load is achieved by varying the guide vane angle.
❑ This is possible because there is no requirement for the speed ratio to remain
constant.
❑ In Francis turbines, sudden load changes are catered for either by a bypass valve or by
a surge tank.
 COMPONENTS OF THE FRANCIS TURBINE:

2. Stay Vanes and Wicket Gates:

❑Water flow is directed toward the runner by the stay vanes as it moves along the spiral
casing, and then it passes through the wicket gates.
❑The basic purpose of the wicket gate is to convert a part of pressure energy of the fluid to
the kinetic energy and then to direct the fluid on to the runner blades at the angle
appropriate to the design.
❑Moreover, they are pivoted and can be turned by a suitable governing mechanism to regulate
the flow while the load changes.
❑The wicket gates impart a tangential velocity and hence an angular momentum to the water
before its entry to the runner.