Lecture 5

Draft tube and Cavitation

Draft Tube
The draft tube is a pipe of gradually increasing area, which connects the outlet of the
runner to the tailrace.
It is used for discharging water from the exit of the turbine to the tail race. This pipe of
gradually increasing area is called a draft tube.
One end of the draft tube is connected to the outlet of the runner while the other end is
submerged below the level of water in the tail race.
The draft tube, in addition to serve a passage for water discharge, has the following two
purposes also:
1. It permits a negative head to be established at the outlet of the runner and thereby
increase the net head on turbine.
2. It converts a large proportion of the kinetic energy rejected at the outlet of the turbine
into useful pressure energy.
Draft tube helps to convert the exit velocity head into pressure or potential head. The
energy recovered in the draft tube is large enough in high speed turbines. Especially, for
mixed flow turbines, this exit energy at rotor outlet varies from 4 to 25 % and for axial
flow turbines from 20 to 50% of the total available energy. This unused energy can be
extracted by the draft tube.
The conical type draft tube has the shape of a frustum of a cone with an angle of flare not
greater than 8
0
to avoid separation.
The length of the conical draft tube should be long enough (2.5 to 3times the diameter of
the runner) so that the exit velocity is about 1 m/s. This type is efficient and nearly 90%
of the energy is converted into potential head.
Model experiments also show that a flare of more than 6
0
results in loss of efficiency of
the draft tube.


H
s

H
s

H
s

Conicaldrafttube
Simpleelbowdrafttube
Prasildrafttube
MoodySpreadingdrafttube
Tailrace Tailrace
Tailrace
Figure6.11.:Differentformsofdrafttube
p = 9u%
p = 8u -8S%
p = 6u%
To determine the limiting height of a draft tube by which a turbine can be set above the
tailrace level, Bernoullis equation may be applied between the bottom of the runner
which is also the top of the draft tube and the tailrace water level.






Applying Bernoullis equation between points (2) and (4) as shown in the Figure above
and neglecting the losses in the draft tube, we have,
p
2
y
+
I
2
2
2g
+ Z
2
=
p
4
y
+
I
4
2
2g
+ Z
4

Or,
p
2
y
=
p
4
y
-|Z
2
- Z
4
] - j
v
2
2
-v
4
2
2g
[
But,
p
4
y
=
p
3
y
- |Z
3
- Z
4
]
Here, p
3
= atmospheric pressure; therefore,
p
2
y
=
p
3
y
- |Z
2
- Z
3
] - _
I
2
2
- I
4
2
2g
_
Or,
p
2
y
=
p
3
y
-[b
s
+
v
2
2
-v
4
2
2g

Here, h
s
= static suction head =height of the runner outlet above the tail race level;
Z
2
Z
4
Z
3
h
s
2

Figure6.12:Drafttube

v
2
2
-v
4
2
2g
=dynamic suction head.
To reduce the exit loss as much as possible and to avoid tailrace erosion, modern designs
limit the velocity at draft tube exit to 1.5 m/s to 1.8 m/s.
The efficiency of the draft tube is given by
p
dt
=
Rcco:cry o tbc prcssurc bcoJ
Iclocity bcoJ ot cxit

p
dt
=
I
2
2
- I
4
2
2g
- b
]dt
I
2
2
2g

Where, V
2
= velocity at the exit of the runner; V
4
= velocity at the tail race; h
fdt
= loss of
head in the draft tube 0.05
v
2
2
2g
.
Cavitations
The boiling temperature of a liquid depends directly upon the pressure and whenever, the
pressure at any point inside the turbine falls below the evaporation pressure, the liquid
water will boil and a large number of small bubbles of vapor and gases (are dissolved in
the liquid) will be formed, which leads to a phenomenon called cavitation.
Cavitation occurs when the static pressure of the liquid falls below its vapor pressure
Cavitation is defined as the formation of voids within a body of moving liquid (or around
a body moving in a liquid) when the local pressure is lower than vapour pressure and the
particles of liquid fail to adhere to the boundaries of the passageway.
The failure of the particles to adhere to boundaries occurs when there is insufficient
internal pressure within the liquid to overcome the inertia of the moving particles and
force them to take sufficiently curved paths along the boundary.
The liquid enters the hydraulic turbines at high pressure; this pressure is a combination of
static and dynamic components. Dynamic pressure of the liquid is by virtue of flow
velocity and the other component, static pressure is the actual fluid pressure which the
fluid applies and which is acted upon it. Static pressure governs the process of vapor
bubble formation or boiling.
The voids thus formed fill with vapour of the liquid and result in vapour bubbles.
Because the inertia of a moving particle of a liquid varies with the square of the velocity,
because the greater the inertia, the greater the pressure required to force the particles to
take a curved path, it becomes obvious that cavitations is associated with three
conditions: high-velocity flow, low pressures, and abrupt changes in the direction of the
flow.
The effect of cavitation is to cause pitting of the boundary surfaces. This pitting is the
actual removal of the metal because of the violent collapse of the vapour bubbles formed
by cavitation.
Prof. Thoma (Chandramouli, et al., 2012) has suggested a critical value for the cavitation
factor. That is,
o
c
=
(b
u
- b

) - b
s
E

Where, h
a
= average atmospheric pressure head; h
v
= vapor pressure head; h
s
= suction
head; H= working head of the turbine in meters of water.
Cavitation can be avoided in the turbines, if and only if, o > o
c

For Francis turbine: o
c
= u.62S[
N
s
380.78

2

For Kaplan turbine:o
c
= u.Su8 +_
1
6.82
[
N
s
380.78

2
]
Values of
c
for different values of specific speed
Francis turbine Propeller turbine
Specific speed
89 178 267 355 444 444 667 888
o
c
0.025 0.10 0.23 0.40 0.64 0.43 0.73 0.15