EXPERIMENT - 5

PELTON TURBINE
 PELTON TURBINE
1. OBJECTIVES

 To familiarize with the working principle of Pelton wheel.

 To determine the performance of a pelton turbine.
 To determine the optimum efficiency point.
 To study the characteristics curve of a pelton turbine operating at a different fluid
flow rates with high head.
 Torque (Nm) against turbine rotational speed (Hz) curve.
 Power out put (W) against turbine rotational speed (Hz) curve.
 Turbine efficiency (%) against turbine rotational speed (Hz) curve.

2. THEORY

There are two types of turbine, reaction and the impulse, the difference being
the manner of head conversion. In the reaction turbine, the fluid fills the blade
passages, and the head change or pressure drop occurs within the runner. An impulse
turbine first converts the water head through a nozzle in to a high velocity jet, which
then strikes the buckets at one position as they pass by. The runner passages are not
fully filled, and the jet flow past the buckets is essentially at constant pressure.
Impulse turbine are ideally suited for high head and relatively low power. The pelton
turbine used this experiment is an impulse turbine.

The primary feature of the impulse turbine is the power production as the jet is
deflected by the moving buckets. Assuming that the speed of the exiting jet is zero (all
of the kinetic energy of the jet is expended in driving the buckets), negligible head
loss at the nozzle and at the impact with the buckets (assuming that the entire
available head is converted into jet velocity), the energy equation applied to the
control volume provides the power extracted from the available head by the turbine,

Ph= ρg HiQ
�1
Hi= ρg
Where, Q is the discharge of the incoming jet, and Hi is the available pressure head
on the nozzle.
By applying the angular momentum equation (assuming negligible angular
momentum for the exiting jet) to the same control volume about the axis of the
turbine shaft the absolute value of the power developed by the turbine can be written
as,

Pb= ωT =2� NT

T= Fbr
Where is the angular velocity of the runner, T is the torque acting on the turbine shaft,
r is the pulley radius, Fb is the force break, and N is the rotational speed of the runner.
The efficiency of the turbine is defined as the ratio between the powers
developed by the turbine to the available water power,
��
Et = �ℎ × 100%
in general the efficiency of the turbine is provided as isoefficiency curves.
They show the interrelationship among q, w, and h. Atypical isoefficiency plot is
provided in fig.

Fig 1: iso efficiency curve for a laboratory - scale pelton turbine

Under ideal conditions the maximum power generated is about 85%, but
experimental data shows the pelton turbine are somewhat less efficient
(approximately 80%) due to windage, mechanical friction, back- splashing, and non-
uniform bucket flow. The purpose of the present experiment is to determine the
efficiency of a laboratory-scale pelton turbine.
3.EXPERIMENT APPARATUS

 Pelton wheel experimental setup

 Tachometer (or stroboscope)
 Stopwatch
 Hydraulic bench

4.PROCEDURES

The experimental procedure is detailed in the below section and will be performed at
12.5m water head.
i. Before starting the experiment you need to record the inside diameter of the
Prony brake and diameter of the turbine
ii. After recording the diameters, switch on the hydraulic bench pump and fully
open the bench regulating valve.
iii. Fully open the spear regulator to produce maximum flow rate. Remove all
weights and the wight carrier and unhook the friction band from the pelton wheel
shaft. Observe the emerging jet from the pelton wheel and if required make an
assessment of the angle between the incident and emergent jets.
iv. Record the following data:
a. Turbine inlet pressure, p, from the pressure gauge.
b. Flow rate, Q, by recording a change in volume, vol, from the water meter and
time, t, with a stopwatch.
c. Turbine speed, ω (rpm), measured by focusing the tachometer light (or
stroboscope) on the location of the tape mark on the back of the pelton
Turbine.
d. Left and wright dynamo meter spring forces (N). note that the net force is
calculated by subtracting the right force from the left.
v. Regulate the applied torque by adjusting the electromagnetic break torque
vi. Repeat step v until the pelton wheel stalls. Record the measurements for each
condition including the stalled condition, adjusting the break by such that the net
force increases by about 2N for each trial until you have 8 or 9 data points.
5. RESULT

SAMPLE CALCULATIONS

Given, Acceleration due to gravity, g = 9.81 m/s2

Diameter of turbine, D = 0.03m r = 0.015m
Inlet water head (given, H =12.5m)
Density of water, ρ =1000kg/m3
Flow rate of water, Qa = (given, t = 30sec) volume, V =14L = 0.014m3

�
Qa = t
0.014m3
= 30���
= 0.000467m3/s

a) The theoretical power input (Pth) of the turbine given by the expression:
Pth = ht Q ρ g
= 12.5m × 0.000467m3/s ×1000kg/m3 × 9.81 m/s2
= 57.266 W

b) The actual power out put (Pa) of the turbine is obtained from the expression :
2�
Pa = ωT where, ω = 60 N T = F. r
2�
= 60 N × F. r
Where, r = length of the torque arm (given as 0.045m)
N = revolution per minute of the turbine
F = the impulse force

Example for N6 = 975rpm & F6 =10N

2�
Pa = 60 N × F. r &Torque, T = F. r
= 10N × 0.045
2�
= 60 975rpm × 10N × 0.045m = 0.45 N m
= 45.946W

c) The overall efficiency of the pelton turbine (ηov) is given by the formula :
Pa
ηov = Pth × 100%

The overall efficiencies of the pelton turbin at each discharge

Example
45.946�
ηov = 57.266� × 100%

= 80.2326%
OPERATION DATA

No Head Flow Input Speed Force Torque Out put Efficiency

(m) rate power (rpm) (F2 - F1) (N m) power(W) (%)
(m3/s) (W) (N)
1 12.5 0.000467 57.266 2016 0 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 12.5 0.000467 57.266 1864 2 0.09 17.57 30.68
3 12.5 0.000467 57.266 1745 4 0.18 32.89 57.43
4 12.5 0.000467 57.266 1549 6 0.27 43.80 76.48
5 12.5 0.000467 57.266 1302 8 0.36 49.08 85.70
6 12.5 0.000467 57.266 975 10 0.45 45.94 80.23
7 12.5 0.000467 57.266 758 12 0.54 42.86 74.84
8 12.5 0.000467 57.266 376 14 0.63 24.08 42.05
9 12.5 0.000467 57.266 0 16 0.72 0.00 0.00
6. DISSCUSION

Pelton turbine is used in the area of high water head. If the head of water is low then
the force required to move the turbine wheel is not enough to rotate its wheels. The
turbine works best when the head of water is high. In the experiment, we provided a
very low head that is 12.5m due to which the efficiency of the turbine is reduced. So
if we want to install a pelton turbine, we need to make sure that there must be a high
head of water. Otherwise the turbine doesn’t give you desired efficiency. As you can
see in the graphs, that torque plays a very important part in the efficiency of the
turbine. Greater the torque, greater will be the efficiency of the turbine. Torque
mainly depends upon the force. If we increase the effect of pony brake, the torque
value reduces due to frictional effects and the efficiency of the turbine.
In the experiment torque and angular velocity seems to be inversely proportional to
each other. As we are reducing the pony break value due to which force reduces and
the angular velocity of the bucket increase, same in the cause velocity and efficiency.
The efficiency of turbine reduces as angular velocity increases, because efficiency
doesn’t depend on angular velocity, it mainly depends on the torque. Efficiency is
reducing because of rotational effect i.e torque is reducing. Torque is the backbone for
the efficiency of the pelton turbine.
There is a difference between the theoretical efficiency and experimental efficiency,
The main difference in efficiency is frictional effect. In theoretical calculation, we
neglect the effect of friction but in experiment friction plays a major in determining
the efficiency. Also there are some human errors like handling of equipment, taking
reading and calculation of results. These factor also diversify the difference in
efficiencies of actual theoretical values. So in order to reduce the difference in
efficiencies we need to consider frictional losses and human error in our calculation.

7. CONCLUSION

Pelton turbine design is one the best in getting high efficiency. The pelton turbine
works best when we provide high head to the turbine. Due to which a great amount of
torque produced which rotates the shaft connected with the turbine and electrical
energy is produced. We can calculate the output power and efficiency of turbine in the
lab and compare it with the theoretical efficiency and with some modification we can
make the actual pelton turbine for a Dam.