Renewable Energy Technology - MJ2411

Lecture Series on Hydropower

Large-scale Hydropower
Series 2.2

Babak Rezapoor
Babak.Rezapoor@sweco.se

Photo: Courtesy of Kvaerner

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Water Turbines
Impulse Turbines:

Pelton Cross flow

A pelton wheel has one or more free jets A cross-flow turbine is drum-shaped and
discharging water into an aerated space uses an elongated, rectangular-section
and impinging on the buckets of a runner. nozzle directed against curved vanes on
a cylindrically shaped runner.

Source: hydroroues.fr

Walchensee Power Station

P=124 MW, H=200 m
Source: Wikipedia
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Water Turbines
Reaction Turbines:

Francis turbine
Kaplan turbine
Propeller turbine
Deriaz turbine
Bulb turbine
Pump turbine (reversible reaction-type turbines )

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Water Turbines
Francis turbine

Francis turbine is the most widely used

type of turbine for large-scale hydropower

Source: Fluid Mechanics, John F. Douglas, Janusz Maria Gasiorek

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Water Turbines
Francis turbine

The water is accelerated in the guide

vane passages and given a definite
tangential velocity component as it
Source: Courtesy of Alstom Power enters to the runner.

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Water Turbines
Francis turbine

θ: Guide vane angle

Absolute velocity v1 has two components:

radial direction (velocity of flow), vf1
tangential direction, vw1

Energy output is maximum when there is

no tangential flow at exit. This means a
radial flow at entrance to the draft tube or in
other word, no whirl component at outlet.

FOR: Frame Of Reference

Absolute FOR
(r) Relative FOR

6, AREST
Course
Water Turbines
Francis turbine

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Francis turbine

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

61,5 MW guide apparatus, Indonesia

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

469 MW runner, Sweden

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Water Turbines
Francis turbine

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine
Axial flow turbines with variable pitch blades
are known as Kaplan turbines.

With rotating blades, very wide range of high

efficiency may be achieved. The efficiencies
of Kaplan turbines are between 90 and 93
percent.

The hub contains a mechanism, called

Combinator, which enables the blade tilt to
be changed automatically with respect to
opening of the guide vane (variable-pitch
blades), thus altering the stagger angle to
meet the fluid tangentially.

Source: Courtesy of Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine

Source: Courtesy of Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine
The angle between the chord line
and the turbine axial direction is the
stagger angle. It is also known as the
setting angle or rotor angel.

SourceThe Design of High-Efficiency Turbomachinery, J.D. Gordon Wilson

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Water Turbines
Kaplan turbine
The ability to change both runner and
guide vane angles simultaneously
enables to achieve maximum efficiency
under varying flow conditions.

Effects of rotor and guide vane angle adjustments on turbine efficiency

Source: Incompressible Flow Turbomachines, G.F. Round, 2004

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 Water Turbines
Propeller turbine
The propeller turbine is a fixed-blade type
turbine developed by Victor Kaplan and was
first produced in early 1900s. The propeller is
the axial-flow turbine.

Propeller turbines are suitable for very large

volume flows and low heads only few meters
(1.5 to 15 meter).

The turbine with fixed blades has a bit higher

peak efficiency (0.2 to 0.5%) than a Kaplan
turbine. But fixed blades result in a rapid fall of
efficiency under part-load conditions.

Source: NPTEL, http://nptel.ac.in

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Water Turbines
Deriaz turbine
The Deriaz turbine is a mixed-flow
radial turbine with adjustable runner
blades. It is a hybrid machine having
the characteristics of a Francis and a
Kaplan turbine.

Deriaz design is similar to a Kaplan

turbine but with inclined blades to
make it more suitable for higher
heads.

It can be used for reversible pump- Source: Mhylab, mhylab.com

turbine

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Water Turbines
Typical efficiency curves for different types of hydropower turbines

Source: Vinogg and Elstad, 2003

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Water Turbines
Bulb turbine
The bulb turbine was developed in the
mid 1900s and used for the lowest
heads. It has a propeller type turbine
runner and components enclosed in a
bulb.

The entire generator is mounted inside

the water passageway as an integral
unit with the turbine.

Bulb turbines can be used for low heads

and large heads discharge variations
and therefore, these turbines replaced
the Kaplan turbines for heads normally
below 25m. Source: visualdictionaryonline.com

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Water Turbines
Pump turbine (reversible reaction-type turbines )
A pump turbine is both a pump and turbine
in one device. The runner is designed to
also work in reverse mode as a turbine.

In pumped-storage plants, Pump turbines

transfer water to a high storage reservoir
during off-peak hours. The stored water can
then be used for hydroelectric power
generation to cover temporary peaks in
demand.

Source: Courtesy of Alstom Power

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Water Turbines
Pump turbine (reversible reaction-type turbines )

Source: Boving KMW Turbine

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Water Turbines
Pump turbine (reversible reaction-type turbines )

Source:Turbiner og turbinregulering, Elfrlaget

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Turbine Selection

In general, impulse turbines are used Turbinen type Head range (m)
for high head sites, and reaction Propeller 3 – 75
turbines are used for low head sites
Kaplan 20 – 50
Francis 30 – 600
Pelton 50 – 1500
Bulb 0,5 – 30

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Turbine Selection
Turbine Selection Chart

By turbine selection chart, a

turbine can be selected based
on the head and the flow rate
(flow rate is specified on the X
axis, while the net head is set
on Y axis)

Source: Courtesy of Sulzer Hydro Ltd.

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Turbine Selection
Specific Speed

The comparison of turbines with different design is achieved by the use of their
specific speed, sometimes referred as the type number. The specific speed of a
turbine characterizes the turbine's shape in a way that it is not related to its size
but to its geometrical design.

Dimensionless groups of variables

Dimensional analysis is a tool to understand the properties of physical quantities
independent of the units used to measure them.

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Turbine Selection
Dimensionless groups of variables

Head and power coefficients, Ψ and P, are both functions of the flow coefficient Φ

The functional relationship between Ψ , P and 𝛷 are determinable by experiment

(Nowadays CFD as well) and constitutes a set of performance characteristics that
represent the whole family of geometrically similar turbines.

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Water Turbines
Specific Speed

Specific speed for turbines can be expressed by eliminating turbine size (D) from
the ratio of power and head coefficients.

(dimensionless)

Since specific speed is obtained from dimensionless coefficients, it is also

dimensionless provided a consistent system of units, such as SI unit is used. It is
common practice to omit g and ρ from the equations and write the specific speed
as ns in non-dimensional form as:

(dimensional)

It is then essential to state the units used for all the relevant quantities!

ns in the above classification is based on rotational speed (N) in rpm, power (P) in
kw and head (H) in meter.

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Water Turbines
Specific Speed

The specific speed of a turbine can also be defined as the speed of an ideal,
geometrically similar turbine, which yields one unit of power for one unit of
head. The specific speed of a turbine is given by the manufacturer (along with
other ratings) and always refers to the point of maximum efficiency.

With the aid of specific number the various types of turbines may be classified
and compared together as shown in the next picture.

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Water Turbines
Specific Speed

Impulse turbines
0 < Ns < 45, high-head, low-flow rate

Radial-flow turbines/Francis-type
75 < Ns < 380, medium-head, medium-high flow rate

Axial-flow, propeller/Kaplan-type
380 < Ns, low-head, low-medium flow rate

In general low specific speed machines

correspond to low volume flow rates and
high heads, whereas high specific speed
machines correspond to high volume flow
rates and low heads.

Source: Wikipedia

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Water Turbines
Turbine Selection Chart Based on Specific Speed

Source: ?

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