EXPERIMENT # 9

Title :

“ To make study of Francis and Kaplan Reaction Turbines “

Introduction:

From wind mills to hydro-power plants we have reaction turbines all around the world to
generate electricity efficiently. Almost 60% of turbines used in hydro-power plants are
reaction turbine. Unlike impulse turbines they remain dipped in water and use the
pressure energy of water to generate power . The working of the reaction turbine can be
well understand by taking a rotor having moving nozzles and water of high pressure is
coming out of the nozzle. As the water leaves the nozzle, a reaction force is
experienced by the nozzle. This reaction force rotates the rotor at very high speed.

Objective :

 To make study of Francis and Kaplan reaction turbines

Related Theory :

Kaplan Reaction Turbine :

The Kaplan turbine is an inward flow reaction turbine, which means that the working
fluid changes pressure as it moves through the turbine and gives up its energy. Power
is recovered from both the hydrostatic head and from the kinetic energy of the flowing
water. The design combines features of radial and axial turbines.

Kaplan turbines are widely used throughout the world for electrical power production.
They cover the lowest head hydro sites and are especially suited for high flow
conditions.

A Kaplan turbine is basically a propeller with adjustable blades inside a tube. It is an

axial-flow turbine, which means that the flow direction does not change as it crosses the
rotor Figure shows a simplified Kaplan turbine.
 1. Kaplan turbines are widely used throughout the world for electrical power
production. They cover the lowest head hydro sites and are especially suited
for high flow conditions.
2. Inexpensive micro turbines on the Kaplan turbine model are manufactured for
individual power production with as little as two feet of head.
3. Large Kaplan turbines are individually designed for each site to operate at the
highest possible efficiency, typically over 90%. They are very expensive to
design, manufacture and install, but operate for decades.
4. They have recently found a new home in offshore wave energy generation.

Kaplan turbines could technically work across a wide range of heads and flow rates, but
because of other turbine types being more effective on higher heads, and because
Kaplan’s are relative expensive, they are the turbine of choice for lower head sites with
high flow rates
Francis Turbine :

The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B.
Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1] It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines
radial and axial flow concepts.
Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today. They operate in
a water head from 40 to 600 m (130 to 2,000 ft) and are primarily used for electrical
power production. The electric generators that most often use this type of turbine have a
power output that generally ranges from just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW, though mini-
hydro installations may be lower. Penstock (input pipes) diameters are between 3 and
33 ft (0.91 and 10 m). The speed range of the turbine is from 75 to 1000 rpm. A wicket
gate around the outside of the turbine's rotating runner controls the rate of water flow
through the turbine for different power production rates. Francis turbines are almost
always mounted with the shaft vertical to isolate water from the generator. This also
facilitates installation and maintenance

Francis turbine blades are designed in such a way that one portion of the blade design
creates the pressure difference between the opposite faces of the blade when water
flows through it, and the remaining portion’s blade design use the impulse force of water
hitting it and this combined action of pressure difference and impulse force generates
enough power to get turbine moving at a required speed. Thus there would be a
decrease in both kinetic energy and potential energy of water at exit, then what it has
when it enters the turbine.
Components of Francis turbine =

Spiral casing :

It is a spiral casing, with uniformly decreasing cross- section area, along the
circumference. Its decreasing cross-section area makes sure that we have a uniform
velocity of the water striking the runner blades, as we have openings for water flow in-to
the runner blades from the very starting of the casing, so flow rate would decrease as it
travels along the casing. So we reduce its cross-section area along its circumference to
make pressure uniform, thus uniform momentum or velocity striking the runner blades.

Stay vanes :

Stay vanes and guide vanes guides the water to the runner blades. 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

Guide vanes :

Water after passing through stay vanes, glides through guide vanes to enter the runner
blades. Guide vanes can change their angle thus can control the angle of attack of
water to the runner blades, making them work more efficiently. Moreover 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.
Runner blades :

Design of the runner blades decides how well a turbine is going to perform. So runner
blades of mixed flow turbine can be divided into two parts, the upper part of the blades
use the reaction force of water flowing through it and the lower half is in the shape of a
small bucket using the impulse action of water flowing through it. These two forces
together makes the runner to rotate.

Draft Tube :

Draft tube connects the runner exit to the tail race. Its cross-section area increases
along its length, as the water coming out of runner blades is at considerably low
pressure, so its expanding cross-section area help it to recover the pressure as it flows
towards tail race.

Conclusion :

In this experiment we have study the Francis and Kaplan Reaction

Turbines and their characteristics, components and working and we concluded that
Kaplan turbine is more efficient than Francis turbine .

References:

 https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Francis_turbine
 LAB MANUAL