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Introduction
 The basic elements that are necessary to generate
power from water:

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Structures for storage (dam)
 Dam is used to create head and to impound water.
 Reservoir: water impoundment behind a dam.
 Storage is divided into active storage (portion of the storage
capacity in which water will normally be stored or withdrawn for
beneficial uses) and inactive storage (portion of the storage
capacity from which water is not normally withdrawn).

Water Intake structures

 Used to convey water to a waterway (a power channel or a pressure

conduit directly supplying water to fore bay, surge Tank and finally
the turbine, via a penstock).
 intakes can be classified based on the type of the power plant
and its layout as: runoff river plant intake, canal intake, dam
intake ( tower intake and shaft intake).

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 runoff river plant intake
 They are an integral part of the powerhouse.
 They are usually for low head power development

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 Canal intakes
 like the run- of- river intakes are also low head intakes,
but instead of leading water directly to the turbines,
The silt excluders or the silt traps are usually necessary

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 Tower intake-
 when it is not convenient to provide the simple intake
directly on the u/s face of the dam.
 They are also used when there are large discharges or
 when there is a wide fluctuation of water level

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 Waterways(conveyance)
Open channels

 For hydropower schemes the flow in the channels can be

computed using Manning equation

 The suspended sediment should be deposited before reaching

the power house as it may damage turbine or its parts.
 Design of settling basin

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2) Power Tunnels
 A structure b/n used convey water between reservoir and
forbay or surge tank.
 Are popular in hydropower schemes for the following
reasons:
 provides direct and short route for water passage;
 the work can be started at many points, thus leading
quick completion;
 natural landscape is not disturbed;
 tunneling work has become easier with the development
of drilling, blasting, and new mechanical equipment; and
 development of rock mechanics and stress analysis has
given great confidence regarding to the stability of
tunnels.

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1. Water carrying tunnels: It carries water from the reservoir to the
surge tank.
2. Service tunnels: these are classified as:
a) Ventilation tunnels: fitted with fans and provide fresh air to
under ground power house.
b) Cable tunnels: carries cables from underground power house to
the switch yard.
c) Access or approach tunnels: it provides passage from surface to
under ground power house.

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 Pressure tunnels
 Can be classified based on the pressure head along the tunnels:
1. Low pressure tunnels (H<5m)
2. Medium pressure tunnels (5<H<l00m)
3. High pressure tunnels (H>100m) :-
 Usually steel lining is used
 Relative higher velocities in tunnels are permitted
 Force resisting structures should be provided:
Anchor blocks:- massive concrete blocks, encasing the penstock pipe at interval in
order to anchor down the pipe to the ground securely.
Supporting pier:-carries the weight of pipe and water, and restrains the pipe from
upward and sideway movements.

 Lining o tunnels is based :

 The tunnel heads
 The expected seepage water above the tunnels
 The types overburden
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 Lining may be done :
 Lean concrete
 Reinforced concrete
 Steel

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 Surge Tank
Necessary when the pressure conduit conveyance
system is long.
Purpose:- protection of long pressure tunnel against
high water hammer pressure arising from sudden
rejection or acceptance of load.
It converts this high frequency, high pressure water
hammer in to low frequency, low pressure mass
oscillation.
The selection of location, size, shape and type of surge
tank involves complex economic considerations,
topography and geology of the site.
The surge tank should be located as close to the
powerhouse as possible
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Surge Tanks and Surge Chambers

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 Function of Surge Tank…
Surge tanks serves to meet the following purposes:
a) It provides a free reservoir surface close to the
discharge regulation mechanism. This will shorten
& limit the conduit length liable to water hammer.
b) It supplies the additional water required by the
turbine during load demand (during starting up)
until the conduit velocity has accelerated to the
final steady state level.
c) It sores water during load rejection i.e. closure
until the conduit velocity has decelerated to the
new steady state condition.
d) It ensures that the water level oscillation following
small and large load changes are dissipated rapidly.
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 3 Penstocks
 is large diameter pipes, usually steel or concrete, used for
conveying water from the source (reservoir or forbay) to PH
 Thus penstocks are pressure tunnels.
 In designing penstocks, Water hammer pressure should be
considered.

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 Classification of penstocks
 Penstocks can be classified on the basis of:
a. Material of construction
b. Method of their support
c. Number of penstocks
a) Material of construction: - depending upon the functions, penstocks
can be fabricated from variety of materials: steel , RCC , banded steel & cast
steel and asbestos cement
b) Method of support: - penstock may buried, embodied underground or
exposed above ground surface & supported on piers.
 Buried penstocks:- supported on the soil in a trench at a depth of 1 to
1.5m and back filled.

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 Classification of penstocks…
c) Number of Penstocks:- can be single or multiple.
 When a single penstock feeds a number of turbines, manifolds are used at
the lower end of the penstock to direct flow to individual units.
 The advantages of using a single penstock over the use of multiple
penstocks is on reduction of cost as:
 It requires less amount of material to be manufactured
 It requires less amount of components such as penstock supports and
anchors.
 The disadvantage of using single penstock is that reduction of safety on
operation and maintenance and complete shutdown will become necessary
in case of repair.
 For economical design,
 low-head plants with short penstocks (multiple penstocks); and
 for high head plants requiring long penstocks (single penstock with manifold at
the end).

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 Hydraulic design of penstocks
1. Penstock diameter: - selection is a trade-off between
penstock cost and power losses.
 A simple criterion for diameter selection is to limit the head
loss to a certain percentage (Loss in power of 4% is usually
acceptable).
 A more exact approach is:
 Select several possible diameters and compute power and
annual energy.
 Calculate and plot the present value of this energy loss over
the life of the plant for each diameter.
 Calculate and plot the cost of the pipe for each diameter.
 Both curves are added graphically and the optimum
diameter would be that closest to the theoretical optimum.

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 Hydraulic design of penstocks …

 The friction losses are computing using Manning equation

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 Tail race
 After water passes through the turbine it returns to the river
trough a short canal called a tailrace.
 Protection with rock riprap or concrete aprons should be
provided between the powerhouse and the stream.
 The design should also ensure that during relatively high flows
the water in the tailrace does not rise so far that it interferes
with the turbine runner.
 This level also determines the available net head

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 Thank you
3 rd
Civil Engineering
year
Students
your instructor
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QUIZ
 Write the classification of service tunnel

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