Pelton turbine

ME314
Applied Thermodynamics

Submitted by: Group 4

Roll No.: 1501ME22

1501ME23

1501ME24

1501ME25

1501ME26

1501ME27
1. Objective
To draw the performance characteristic curves for the given Pelton turbine.

2. Theory
A Pelton turbine is an impulse turbine where the high-speed water jets strike the buckets
mounted on the periphery of the wheel. The impact of the impinging jet causes the wheel to
rotate. In a hydroelectric power plant, the turbine is coupled with the electrical generator,
employed to produce the electricity.
Thus, the kinetic energy of the jets gets converted into the mechanical work (rotational
energy) inside the Pelton turbine. No pressure change occurs at the turbine blades (bucket)
and so the turbine doesn’t require a casing for the operation. However, the casing is
provided around the wheel for just to avoid the splashing of water. The conduit bringing
high-pressure water to the impulse wheel is called the penstock. The role of the pump in the
present setup is to generate a sufficient head to run the turbine. The purpose of the
spearhead control is to alter the flow rate of water into the turbine. The power developed
by the turbine is measured by means of a rope dynamometer. The power input to the
turbine is given by:
1
𝑃𝑖𝑛 = 𝑚𝑉 2 = 𝜌𝑄𝑔𝐻
2

Where ‘𝐻’ is the head available at the turbine inlet = Head developed by the pump

The discharge in the penstock is measured by means of an orifice meter and is given by the

𝐴1 𝐴2 𝑝1 − 𝑝2
𝑄 = 𝐶𝑑 √2 ( ) − 2𝑔∆𝑧
𝜌
√𝐴1 2 − 𝐴2 2

The output brake-power is measured by the rope dynamometer mounted on the turbine
shaft, is given by:

2𝜋𝑁𝑇 𝜋𝐷𝑒 𝑁𝐹
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = =
60 60
Where, 𝐷𝑒 is the effective diameter of the brake drum and 𝐹 is the effective load on the
brake drum and 𝑁 is the speed of the turbine in rpm.
The turbine efficiency is defined as the ratio power available at the brake drum to the
hydraulic power available at turbine inlet,

𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝜂=
𝑃𝑖𝑛

The specific speed of a turbine is defined as the speed of the geometrically similar turbine,
which produces unit power while operating under the unit head,
 𝑁√𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝑁𝑠 = 5
𝐻4
The speed and power in the above expression correspond to the maximum efficiency.

3. Setup Description
3.1 Equipment:
Pelton turbine, Pump, pressure, gauges/manometer, rope dynamometer and spearhead
control

Fig.1: Schematic diagram of Pelton Turbine

3.2 Setup Parameters:

The specifications of the experimental setup have been tabulated as follows:

S.No. Parameter Value

1. The diameter of the brake drum 218 mm
2. The diameter of the rope 16.7 mm
3. Effective diameter, 𝐷𝑒 218 + 16.7 = 234.7 mm
4. The diameter of the orifice, 𝑑2 27 mm
5. The diameter of the pipe, in which orifice is fitted, 𝑑1 52 mm
6. Discharge coefficient of the orifice, 𝐶𝑑 0.65
7. Inter-tap spacing, ∆𝑧 85 mm
8. Pump specifications 3 ph, 5 HP
9. Rated speed and rated power of the turbine 2880 rpm and 5 HP

Table 1: Setup Parameters

4. Sample Calculations
4.1 Head at the inlet:
𝐻 = 𝑝/𝜌𝑔

30×104
 𝐻= = 30.581 𝑚
1000×9.81

4.2 Discharge:

𝐴1 𝐴2 𝑝1 − 𝑝2
𝑄 = 𝐶𝑑 √2 ( ) − 2𝑔∆𝑧
𝜌
√𝐴1 2 − 𝐴2 2

𝐶𝑑 = 0.65

𝜋𝑑1 2 𝜋 × 0.0522
𝐴1 = = = 0.002123 𝑚2
4 4

𝜋𝑑2 2 𝜋 × 0.0272
𝐴2 = = = 0.000572 𝑚2
4 4
𝑝1 − 𝑝2 = 130000 𝑘𝑔/𝑚2

∆𝑧 = 0.085 𝑚

0.002123×0.000572 130000
 𝑄 = 0.65 ( ) √2 ( ) − 2 × 9.81 × 0.085
√0.0021232 −0.0005722 1000

 𝑄 = 0.0062 𝑚3 /𝑠

4.3 Input Power:

𝑃𝑖𝑛 = 𝜌𝑄𝑔𝐻

 𝑃𝑖𝑛 = 1000 × 0.0062 × 9.81 × 30.581 = 1860 𝑊 = 1.86 𝑘𝑊

4.4 Output Power:

𝑇 = 𝐹 × 𝐷𝑒 × 0.5 = 19.62 × 0.2347 × 0.5 = 2.3
2𝜋𝑁𝑇 2𝜋×793×2.3
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 = = = 0.191 𝑘𝑊
60 60

4.5 Efficiency:
𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 0.191
𝜂= = = 0.1
𝑃𝑖𝑛 1.86
 5. Observation Table

5.1 Constant Head:

S. No. Runner Inlet Head at Orifice meter Discharge Input Load on the brake drum Torque Output Efficiency
Speed Pressure the inlet Power Power
𝑵 (rpm) 𝒑 𝑯 = 𝒑/𝝆𝒈 𝒑𝟏 𝒑 ∆𝒑 𝑸 (m3/s) 𝑷𝒊𝒏 (kW) Spring Balance Effective 𝑫𝒆 (kW)
𝑻 = 𝑭×
𝟐
(kg/cm2) (m) kg/cm2 kg/cm2 kg/cm2 (kg) Load F (N) (N-m)
1. 914 30 30.581 38 25 13 0.0062 1.86 0 0 0 0 0
2. 793 30 30.581 38 26 12 0.0062 1.86 2 19.62 2.3 0.191 0.1
3. 710 30 30.581 39 26 13 0.0062 1.86 4 39.24 4.6 0.342 0.18
4. 640 30 30.581 39 26 13 0.0062 1.86 6 58.86 6.91 0.463 0.25
5. 575 30 30.581 39 26 13 0.0062 1.86 8 78.48 9.21 0.554 0.3
6. 528 30 30.581 39 26 13 0.0062 1.86 10 98.1 11.51 0.636 0.34
7. 448 30 30.581 38 25 13 0.0062 1.86 12 117.72 13.81 0.648 0.35

Average Turbine Efficiency = 0.253

𝑁√𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 448√648
Specific speed of the turbine, 𝑁𝑠 = = 30.5815/4 = 158.58
𝐻 5/4

5.2 Constant Speed:

S. No. Runner Inlet Head at Orifice meter Discharge Input Load on the brake drum Torque Output Efficiency
Speed Pressure the inlet Power Power
𝑵 (rpm) 𝒑 𝑯 = 𝒑/𝝆𝒈 𝒑𝟏 𝒑 ∆𝒑 𝑸 (m3/s) 𝑷𝒊𝒏 (kW) Spring Balance Effective 𝑫 (kW)
𝑻 = 𝑭 × 𝟐𝒆
(kg/cm2) (m) kg/cm2 kg/cm2 kg/cm2 (kg) Load F (N) (N-m)
1. 400 30 30.581 39 26 13 0.0062 1.86 15 147.15 17.27 0.723 0.39
2. 400 28 28.542 37 26 11 0.0057 1.6 14 137.34 16.12 0.675 0.42
3. 400 26 26.504 35 23 12 0.006 1.56 13 127.53 14.97 0.627 0.4
4. 400 25 25.484 34 22 12 0.006 1.5 12 117.72 13.81 0.578 0.39
5. 400 25 25.484 33 21 12 0.006 1.5 10.5 103.00 12.09 0.506 0.34
6. 400 22 22.426 30 20 10 0.0054 1.19 8.5 83.385 9.79 0.41 0.35
6. Results/Plots
6.1 Main characteristic curves:

0.0012
0.001
0.0008
Qu 0.0006
0.0004
0.0002
0
0 50 100 150 200
Nu

Fig.2: Qu vs Nu

0.0045
0.004
0.0035
0.003
0.0025
Pu 0.002
0.0015
0.001
0.0005
0
0 50 100 150 200
Nu

Fig.3: Pu vs Nu

0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
𝜂 0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 50 100 150 200
Nu

Fig.4: 𝜂 vs Nu
6.2 Operating characteristic curves:

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

Po 0.4
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0.0052 0.0054 0.0056 0.0058 0.006 0.0062 0.0064
Q

Fig.5: Po vs Q

0.41
0.4
0.39
0.38
𝜂o 0.37
0.36
0.35
0.34
0.33
0.0052 0.0054 0.0056 0.0058 0.006 0.0062 0.0064
Q

Fig.6: 𝜂o vs Q

0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
𝜂o 0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
Po

Fig.7: 𝜂o vs Po
Hariraj Meena (1501ME24)

Discussion
Objective: To test the Pelton Turbine at different loads and valve settings and produce
curves (main characteristic and operating characteristic curves) for the given Pelton turbine.

 The working principle of Pelton wheel turbine is water flows along the tangent to the
path of the runner.
 Nozzles direct forceful streams of water against a series of spoon-shaped buckets
mounted around the edge of a wheel.
 As water flows into the bucket, the direction of the water velocity changes to follow
the contour of the bucket.
 When the water-jet contacts the bucket, the water exerts pressure on the bucket
and the water is decelerated as it does a "U-turn" and flow out the other side of the
bucket at low velocity.
 In this process, the momentum of water is transferred to the turbine. This "impulse"
does work on the turbine.

Key Points:

a. From the results obtained, we can see how Pelton Wheel reacts to a different
kind of input. Different flow rates give a different value of work input. The
slower the flow rates, the larger the work is done onto the wheel. The
efficiency of the slower flow rates is also better than faster one. The speed of
the wheel also dropped when much weight is increased until it stops
suddenly when the weight is too much for it to go against.

b. We can conclude that different range of flow rates and rotational speeds
influences the performance of Pelton wheel turbine. The combination of flow
rate and jet velocity manipulates the power or work input.

c. The bigger the diameter nozzle the faster the flow rates but lower in velocity
jet. Therefore, we need the perfect combination of both. In general, impulse
turbine is high head, low flow rate device. Therefore, we can assume that our
experiment is successful due to the result we obtained.
Girijesh Tripathi (1501ME23)

Discussion:
AIM: - To test the Pelton Turbine at different loads and valve settings and
produce curves (main characteristic and operating characteristic curves) for the
given Pelton turbine.

 The working principle of Pelton wheel turbine is water flows along the
tangent to the path of the runner.
 Nozzles direct forceful streams of water against a series of spoon-shaped
buckets mounted around the edge of a wheel.
 As water flows into the bucket, the direction of the water velocity changes
to follow the contour of the bucket.
 When the water-jet contacts the bucket, the water exerts pressure on the
bucket and the water is decelerated as it does a "U-turn" and flows out the
other side of the bucket at low velocity.
 In the process, the water's momentum is transferred to the turbine. This
"impulse" does work on the turbine.

From the results obtained, we can see how Pelton Wheel reacts to a
different kind of input. Different flow rates give a different value of work input.
The slower the flow rates, the larger the work being put into the wheel. The
efficiency of the slower flow rates is also better than faster one. The speed of the
wheel also dropped when much weight is increased until it stops suddenly when
the weight is too much for it to go against.

We can conclude that different range of flow rates and rotational speeds
influences the performance of Pelton wheel turbine. The combination of flow rate
and jet velocity manipulates the power or work input.

The bigger the diameter nozzle the faster the flow rates but lower in
velocity jet. Therefore, we need the perfect combination of both. In general,
impulse turbine is high-head, low flow rate device. So we can assume that our
experiment is successful due to the result we obtained.
Hitarth Shah (1501ME25)

Discussion:
The data representing the performance of a turbine is represented by means of curves
known as characteristics of the machine. They are broadly classified as follows:

1. Main Characteristics Curves (For constant head)

2. Operating Characteristics Curves (For constant speed)

Main Characteristics:

To get the main characteristics of a turbine, the head is kept constant and other
parameters are varied. The parameters are calculated and plotted against the unit speed
for different gate openings. In our setup, gate opening was fixed at 100%.

In Pelton turbine, we saw that discharge was constant w.r.t. to speed. This should be
true because with the application of load, there is a reduction in the speed of the
runner and the discharge remains fixed as the position of the spear is fixed for a
particular gate opening.

We also obtained non-linear curves which represented the variation of power and
efficiency w.r.t to the speed of the turbine. Since, we didn’t do the experiment for
lower speeds; our curves don’t intersect the x-axis.

Operating Characteristics:

The constant speed curves are also known as operating characteristics because of the
fact that the turbine is required to operate at a constant speed to produce a constant
frequency electrical power while the available head at the turbine inlet keeps on
changing. These characteristics are drawn by varying the load in such a way that for a
given head the turbine speed remains constant.

After carefully analyzing the variation of efficiency and power w.r.t. to discharge, we
observed that a turbine starts rotating only after a particular value of the discharge 𝑄0 .
Below this value, the discharge is not enough to start the turbine. Hence, both power
output and the efficiency are zero till this value of discharge. Beyond this point, power
output varies almost linearly with discharge and hydraulic efficiency increases with
discharge but the behavior is non-linear. The non-linearity is due to different types of
losses like mechanical, etc.

Efficiency also varies non-linearly with power output. After attaining the maximum
value, there is a drop in the efficiency. Theoretically, the drop must be sudden, but the
drop obtained by us occurs at a finite interval.
Gaurav Srivastav (1501ME22)

In this experiment we tested the Pelton Turbine at different loads and valve
settings and plot curves for the given Pelton turbine. The basic principle of
Pelton wheel turbine is water flows along the tangent to the path and it is used
to generate work. Nozzles are used to direct streams of water against a series of
spoon-shaped buckets mounted around the edge of a wheel. When water flows
into the bucket, the direction of the water velocity changes and follows the
contour of the bucket. The water jet strikes the bucket & the water exerts
pressure on the bucket.

Water is decelerated as it follows bucket and ejects at low velocity. The water's
momentum is transferred to the turbine. Hence work is done.
Pelton Wheel reacts to different kind of inputs differently. Different flow rates
give a different value of work input. Slower the flow rates, the larger the work
being put into the wheel. The efficiency of the slower flow rates is also better
than faster one. The speed of the wheel also dropped when much weight is
increased until it stops suddenly when the weight is too much for it to go
against.

The combination of flow rate and jet velocity changes the power.

If we have a bigger diameter of the nozzle, the faster is the flow rate. But it
results in lower velocity jet. Hence we need a combination of both.

An impulse turbine is high-head, low flow rate device.

7.3 By Manik Manohar (1501ME32)
The working principle of Pelton wheel turbine is water flows along the tangent to the
path of the runner. Nozzles direct forceful streams of water against a series of spoon-
shaped buckets mounted around the edge of a wheel.
As water flows into the bucket, the direction of the water velocity changes to follow
the contour of the bucket.
When the water-jet contacts the bucket, the water exerts pressure on the bucket and
the water is decelerated as it does a "U-turn" and flows out the other side of the bucket
at low velocity. In the process, the water's momentum is transferred to the turbine.
This "impulse" does work on the turbine.
For maximum power and efficiency, the turbine system is designed such that the
water-jet velocity is twice the velocity of the bucket. A very small percentage of the
water's original kinetic energy will still remain in the water;
However, this allows the bucket to be emptied at the same rate it is filled, thus
allowing the water flow to continue uninterrupted.
From the results obtained, we can see how Pelton Wheel reacts to a different kind of
input. Different flow rates give a different value of work input. The slower the flow
rates, the larger the work being put into the wheel. The efficiency of the slower flow
rates is also better than faster one.
The speed of the wheel also dropped when much weight being dropped until it
stopped suddenly when the weight is too much for it to go against.
7.4 By Mantavya Agarwal (1501ME33)

Aim: - To draw the following performance characteristics of the hydraulic

turbine for constant head and constant speed
Main Characteristics: -

Maintaining a constant head, the speed is being varied by the different rates of flow by
adjusting the level of the gate opening.
For a constant head the unit discharge is fixed for a particular gate opening and if the
percentage of the opening increases the unit discharge will be increased. The reason is
that the discharge is controlled inside the nozzle using spearhead mechanism in a
Pelton turbine.

For a given gate opening, the discharge from the nozzle is constant.
The unit power will vary non-linearly with unit speed, like for small value of unit
speed the power will be small and as the speed will be increasing the unit power will
increase and after a maximum value of power further increase in unit speed leads to
decrease in unit power. If we increase the gate opening percentage the maximum
value of unit power will increase.

For a small value of speed, the overall coefficient is low. It increases to a certain level
(Maximum) and then starts decreasing. Its behavior is non-linear.

Operating Characteristics: -

After a particular value of discharge, the turbine starts rotating. So, both power output
and the efficiency are zero till this value of discharge.

Power output varies linearly beyond this point. The power developed by the runner is
proportional to discharge

Efficiency varies with discharge non-linearly. Efficiency will increase with discharge.

Efficiency varies with power output non-linearly. For a small value of power output,
the efficiency is low. It gradually starts increasing with increase in power output and
after attaining a maximum value it suddenly decreases. Due to increase in discharge or
head the efficiency decreases.