INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

KANPUR

ME401A: Energy System II

Experiment-1

Francis Turbine

Batch No.: 2

Group Member:
Ramkesh Meena 170554
Objective:
 To understand how Francis Turbine efficiency varies with load for a fixed guide
vane position.
 To understand how Francis Turbine efficiency alters with guide vane position.

Introduction:
The Francis turbine is a water turbine developed by James B. Francis. It is an inward-
flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. It converts potential
energy of water into mechanical energy which is used to generate power. Advantage of
Francis turbine is high speeds can be achieved with low heads.

1. Spring Balance
2. Manometer
3. Water Inlet
4. Water outlet
5. Impeller
6. Guide Vanes
7. Adjustment of guide vanes
8. Adjustment of the band brake

1. Spiral casing
2. Guide Vane
3. Rotor with blades
4. Water flow

1. Spiral Casing- The fluid enters from the penstock (pipeline leading to the turbine
from the reservoir at high altitude) to a spiral casing which completely surrounds
the runner. This casing is known as scroll casing or volute. The cross-sectional area
of this casing decreases uniformly along the circumference to keep the fluid
velocity constant.
 2. Guide Vane- The basic purpose of the guide vane is to convert a part of pressure energy of
the fluid to the kinetic energy and then to direct the fluid on to the runner blades at the angle
appropriate to the design. Moreover, they are pivoted and can be turned by a suitable
governing mechanism to regulate the flow while the load changes.
3. Runner (Rotor with Blade) - Runner blades are the heart of any turbine. It consist moving
blades on its periphery. During operation, the fluid strikes on the blade and the tangential
force of the impact causes the shaft of the turbine to rotate, producing torque. For a mixed
flow type Francis Turbine, the flow in the runner is not purely radial but a combination of
radial and axial. The flow is inward, i.e. from the periphery towards the centre.

APPARATUS:
Francis turbine setup, tachometer, stopwatch

WORKING PRINCIPLE:
1. 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.
2. 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.

RESULTS
OBSERVATION TABLE
1. Vane Position = 5o Pressure = 0.3 bar Volume = 20 L , Time = 32.16 sec P hyd = 18.66 W

Reading T1 (N) T2 (N) Speed (RPM) Force (N) Torque (Nm) Power (W) Efficiency (η)
in (%)
1 0.5 0.1 1395 0.4 0.01 1.460 7.828

2 0.8 0.2 1225 0.6 0.015 1.923 10.312

3 1.2 0.3 1095 0.9 0.0225 2.579 13.826

4 1.7 0.4 893 1.3 0.0325 3.038 16.287

5 2.1 0.5 570 1.6 0.04 2.386 12.795

6 2.4 0.6 390 1.8 0.045 1.837 9.849

 2. Vane Position = 10o Pressure = 0.28 bar Volume = 20 L Time = 31.33 sec P hyd = 17.87W

Reading T1 (N) T2 (N) Speed (RPM) Force (N) Torque (Nm) Power (W) Efficiency (η)
in (%)
1 0.4 0.1 1213 0.3 0.0075 0.952 5.331

2 0.8 0.2 1035 0.6 0.015 1.625 9.097

3 1.4 0.3 895 1.1 0.0275 2.577 14.423

4 1.8 0.4 615 1.4 0.035 2.254 12.613

5 2.1 0.5 415 1.6 0.04 1.738 9.727

6 2.4 0.6 323 1.8 0.045 1.522 8.517

Reading T1 (N) T2 (N) Speed (RPM) Force (N) Torque (Nm) Power (W) Efficiency (η)
in (%)
1 0.6 0.1 1243 0.5 0.0125 1.627 9.177

2 1.1 0.2 991 0.9 0.0225 2.334 13.169

3 1.4 0.3 783 1.1 0.0275 2.254 12.717

4 1.8 0.4 573 1.4 0.035 2.100 11.845

5 2.1 0.5 387 1.6 0.04 1.621 9.143

6 2.6 0.6 228 2 0.05 1.193 6.733

3. Vane Position = 15o Pressure = 0.26 bar Volume = 20 L Time = 29.33 sec Phyd = 17.73 W
 Sample Calculation:
Vane position = 5o, Pressure(p)= 0.3bar, Volume(V) = 20 L, Time(T) = 32.1
Volumetric flow rate,
Q = V/T = 20/32.16 L/s=621.89cm3/s
Hydraulic Power
Phyd = p*Q*105/1000 = 18.66 W

Force(F) = T1-T2 = (2.1 - 0.5) N = 1.6 N, Speed, s = 570pm

Torque
T = F*D/2 = 1.6*0.05/2 Nm = 0.04 Nm
Angular speed
ω = s * 2π/60 = 570*2*π/60 = 59.69 rad/s
Power
P = T*ω = 0.04 Nm * 59.69 rad/s = 2.39 W

Efficiency
η = P/Phyd = 2.39/16.66 = 14.35%

GRAPHS:

Torque vs speed
Vane position 5 deg Vane position 10 deg Vane position 15 deg
0.06

0.05

0.04
Torque (in Nm)

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600

Speed (in rpm)

 Power vs speed
Vane position 5 deg Vane position 10 deg Vane position 15 deg
3.5

2.5
Power (in Watts)

1.5

0.5

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
speed (in rpm)

Efficiency vs speed
18 Vane position 5 deg Vane position 10 deg Vane position 15 deg

16

14

12
Efficinecy (in %)

10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600

Speed (in rpm)

 Results and Discussion:
1. The following results are obtained by changing the load on the turbine for a particular angle of
guide vane. On increasing the load from minimum load to maximum by using dynamometer
and measures the power generated by Francis turbine. The following results and graph are
obtained from the recorded data.
2. For the vane position 150, graphs have not followed the similar trends as it followed for the
vane position 50 and 100 and the reason for that may be due to human errors and
malfunctioning of the dynamometer.

Conclusion:
From the above results, it can be concluded that torque is almost inversely proportional to the
speed and average power generated on the shaft by turbine first increases and after a maxima it starts
decreasing with the speed. And similarly overall efficiency first increases and after a certain maxima
starts decreasing. And maximum overall efficiency decreases with increasing vane angle.

SOURCES OF ERROR
1. Error in measuring the time from stopwatch.
2. Parallax error in noting down the force values from spring balance and total volume filled.
3. Beam from tachometer not held at silver strip location.

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