Objective of Experiment

The performance characteristics of a Pelton wheel hydraulic turbine are to be determined under
different range of water flows rates. Specifically, torque and power are to be presented as a
function of turbine speed. Theoretically a Pelton Wheel turbine is most efficient when the speed
of its buckets is half the speed of its water jet. The purpose of this lab is to check this prediction.
Theory
The primary feature of the impulse turbine is the power production as the jet is deflected by the
moving buckets. Assuming that the speed of the exiting jet is zero (all of the kinetic energy of
the jet is expended in driving the buckets), negligible head loss at the nozzle and at the impact
with the buckets (assuming that the entire available head is converted into jet velocity).
The angular speed of the Pelton wheel is,

=N

2
60

(1)

Where, N is the revolution of Pelton wheel in one minute.

The brake torque acting of the shaft of Pelton wheel is,

=( Ws ) gr

(2)

Where, W is the brake load weights,

s is the reading of spring balance,
g is the gravitational acceleration and r is the radius of shaft pulley.
By applying the angular momentum equation (assuming negligible angular momentum for the
exiting jet) to the same control volume about the axis of the turbine shaft the absolute value of
the mechanical power output by the turbine can be written as:

Po=
Substituting Equation (3) and (5) into Equation (6),

(3)

Po=[ ( W s ) gr ] [N

2
]
60

(4)

The efficiency of the Pelton wheel turbine is defined as the ratio between the power developed
by the turbine to the available water power:

Po
P

Where, Pin is the hydraulic power input.

(5)