Wollo University

Institute of Technology

Hydropower Engineering
Chapter seven
Hydraulic Turbines

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Outlines
▪ Introduction
▪ Classifications of hydraulic turbines
▪ Impulse turbines
▪ Reaction turbines
▪ Turbine selection criteria
▪ Specific speed
▪ Rotational speed
▪ Efficiency
▪ Cavitation

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 Introduction
▪ Hydraulic turbines may be considered as hydraulic motors or prime
movers of a water power development, which convert water energy
(hydropower) in to mechanical energy (shaft power).
▪ The shaft power developed is used in running electricity generators
directly coupled to the shaft of the turbine, thus producing electrical
power.
▪ It consists of a runner connected to a shaft, a mechanism of controlling
the quantity of water and the passages leading to and from the runner.
▪ A turbine runner is a wheel having vanes or buckets along its periphery.
Water impinges on the vanes and imparts its energy (while passing over
them) to the wheel that revolves.
▪ The rotational motion occurs as a result of impulse and/or reaction.

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 Turbines classification
▪ Based on the way the hydraulic energy is converted in to
mechanical energy:
▪ Impulse
▪ Reaction
▪ Impulse turbine
▪ The whole water pressure is converted into kinetic energy before entering
the runner with the help of contracting nozzle
▪ The kinetic energy is in the form of a high-speed jet that strikes the buckets,
mounted on the periphery of the runner
▪ Turbines that operate in this way are called impulse turbines.
▪ The most usual impulse turbine is the Pelton.
..

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 cont’d…
The Pelton Turbine: Patented by Lester Pelton 1880

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• Nozzle and flow regulation
• The water from the source is transferred through penstock
to which end a nozzle is provided.
• To control the water jet from nozzle, movable needle spear
is arranged inside the nozzle .
• The spear will move backward and forward in axial
direction. When it is move forward the flow will reduced
or stopped and when it moved backward the flow will
increase.
• .Runner and Buckets
• A Pelton turbine consists of a runner, which is a circular
disc on the periphery of which a number of buckets are
mounted with equal spacing between them.

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• Braking Jet
• Braking jet is used to stop the running wheel when it is not working.
This situation arises when the nozzle inlet is closed with the help of
spear then the water jet is stopped on the buckets. But Due to inertia,
the runner will not stop revolving even after complete closure of inlet
nozzle. To stop this, a brake nozzle is provided as shown in figure 1.
The brake nozzle directs the jet of water on the back of buckets to stop
the wheel. The jet directed by brake nozzle is called braking jet.
• Jet Deflector
• Jet deflectors have the function of diverting the water flow or part of it
between the nozzle and the rotor in such a way that it does not hit the
buckets. These may be used for an emergency stop or to regulate the
turbine.
• If the power has to be reduced quickly, the governor moves the jet
deflector into the jet, thus diverting part of the water from the buckets
and reducing the power transferred to the rotor. The governor then
adjusts the discharge by slowly moving the needle. Meanwhile the
deflector is gradually withdrawn.
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 cont’d…
Pelton turbine: runner

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 cont’d…
Turgo Impulse turbine
▪ The turbine is designed so that the jet of water strikes the buckets
at an angle to the face of the runner and the water passes over the
buckets in an axial direction before being discharged at the opposite
side.
▪ Turgo turbine has smaller runners and faster rotational speeds
than the other type of impulse turbines, Pelton.

Impulse turbine invented by Eric Crewdson of

Gilbert Gilkes and Co. Ltd. Of gland in 1920.

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 The Cross-flow impulse turbine
▪ An impulse turbine also called the Banki or Michell turbine.
▪ The name "cross-flow" comes from the fact that the water crosses
through the runner vanes twice in producing the rotation.
▪ The cross-flow principle was developed by Michell, an Austrian
engineer, in 1903.
▪ Professor Banki, a Hungarian engineer, developed the machine
further.
▪ On the first pass, water flows from outside of the blades to the
inside; the second pass goes from the inside back out

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Reaction Turbine types:
▪ Reaction turbine: the turbine runner is entirely submerged and
both the velocity and pressure head are varying while water
flows through the runner.
▪ In this type the water enters the turbine in a circumferential
direction in to the scroll case and moves into the runner through
a series of guide vanes, called wicket gates.
▪ The available energy partly converted to kinetic energy &
substantial magnitude remains in the form of pressure energy

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• Spiral Casing
The water, from a pipeline, is distributed around the guides ring in a casing. .
• Guide Mechanism
• The guide vanes are fixed between two rings in the form of a wheel. This
wheel is fixed in the spiral casing.
• Guid vans guide the flow of water to strike the runner blade at proper angel
to produce maximum power output
• The guide vanes are properly designed in order to:
• To allow the water to enter the runner without shock.
• Allow the water to flow over them, without forming eddies.
• Allow the required quantity of water to enter the turbine. (this is done by adjusting the
opening of the vanes).

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• turbine Runner
• The runner of a reaction turbine consists of runner blades fixed to a shaft .
The blades are properly designed, in order to allow the water to enter and
leave the runner without shock.
• Draft Tube
• The water, after passing through the runner, flows down through a tube
called draft tube.
▪ Depending upon the arrangement of flow pattern:
▪ Axial flow turbines (Propeller and Kaplan)
▪ Radial flow turbines (Francis)
▪ Diagonal flow (Mixed flow) turbine (Deriaze,odern Francis)

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• Radial Flow Turbines
• In such turbines, the flow of water is radial (i.e., along with the radius
of the wheel). The radial flow turbines may be further sub-division
into the following two classes:

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• Axial Flow Turbines
• In such turbines, the water flows parallel to the axial of the wheel.
Such turbines are also called parallel flow turbines.
• Types of Reaction Turbine in Axial Flow Turbine:
• Kaplan turbine
• Propeller turbines

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Mixed Flow Turbines
These are the latest type of turbines, in which the flow is partly radial and partly axial.
Types of Reaction Turbine in Mixed Flow Turbine: Francis turbine.

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 Classification based on head and discharge:
▪ Head:
▪ Low head, 1.5-15m ------------ Reaction - Propeller
▪ Medium head, 16-70m--------- Reaction - Kaplan
▪ High head, 71-500m------------ Reaction - Francis
▪ Very high head, >500m---------Impulse - Pelton
▪ Discharge:
▪ Low discharge ------------------ Impulse- Pelton
▪ Intermediate discharge ---------Reaction-Francis
▪ High discharge ------------------ Reaction-Kaplan

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 Turbine selection criteria
▪ The usual practice is to base selection on the annual energy output of the plant
and the least cost of that energy for the particular scale of hydropower
installation.
▪ In a theoretical sense, the energy output, E, can be expressed mathematically as
plant output or annual energy in a functional relation as follows:
E = F(h, q, TW, d, n, Hs, Pmax)
Where:
▪ h = net effective head
▪ q = plant discharge capacity
▪ TW = tail water elevation
▪ d = diameter of runner
▪ n = generator speed
▪ Hs = turbine setting elevation above tail water
▪ Pmax = maximum output expected or desired at plant.

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 Cont’d…
▪ Generally the selection shall be based on: Available head, Available
discharge, Power demand fluctuation and Cost
▪ For small head, the discharge requirement is high, requiring bigger
turbines; thus costly.
▪ For larger head, the discharge requirement is low, requiring smaller
turbines; thus cheaper.
▪ The choice of a suitable hydraulic prime-mover depend upon various
considerations for the given head and discharge at a particular site of
the power plant.
▪ The type of the turbine can be determined if the head available, power
to be developed and speed at which it has to run are known to the
engineer beforehand.

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 Cont’d…
▪ Thus in general
▪ Pelton turbines are used for high
heads & low discharges
▪ Francis types are used for medium
discharge & high head plants (has
adjustable guide vanes but the
runner is a disc with fixed passage)
▪ Propeller & Kaplan (Kaplan has
adjustable blades) types are used
for lows head plants with large
discharges.

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 Cont’d…
▪ The following factors have the bearing on the selection of the
right type of hydraulic turbine:
i. Rotational Speed – Generator
ii. Specific Speed;
iii. Maximum Efficiency;

I. Rotational speed
▪ Turbine or synchronous speed: Since turbine and generator are
fixed, the rated speed of the turbine is the same as the speed of
the generator.

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 Cont’d…
▪ In all modern hydraulic power plants, the turbines are directly
coupled to the generator to reduce the transmission losses.
▪ This arrangement of coupling narrows down the range of the
speed to be used for the prime-mover.
▪ The generator generates the power at constant voltage and
frequency and, therefore, the generator has to operate at its
synchronous speed.
▪ The synchronous speed of a generator is given by

60 f
N= Where: N speed rpm; f- frequency of the generator
(usually 50 hz or 60 hz), p- number of pair of poles of the
p
generator f and p are constants thus N is constant.

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 Cont’d…
▪ The speed of a turbine is an important parameter of design.
▪ The higher the speed, the smaller the diameter of the turbine runner &
the cheaper the generator coupled to the turbine
▪ Problems associated with the high speed turbines are the danger of
cavitation and centrifugal forces acting on the turbine parts which
require robust construction.
▪ No doubt, the overall cost of the plant will be reduced by adopting
higher rotational speed as smaller turbine and smaller generator are
required to generate the same power.
▪ The construction cost of the power house is also reduced.

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 Cavitation
▪ A reduced pressure under the blades (or buckets) of a turbine runner
may lead to cavitation – phenomenon detrimental to the turbine.
▪ The term cavitation basically refers to the ability of cold water to boil
under low pressure.
▪ Under a normal absolute barometric pressure of 1 bar water starts to
boil at 100 oC. However, when the pressure drops to 0.033 bar (which is
called the critical pressure, Pcr) it may begin to bubble at 25 oC, that is, at
normal river water temperature.
▪ When the pressure under a runner approaches Pcr, the water in the
stream starts boiling, giving rise to cavities (known as cavitation bubbles)
filled with water vapor.

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 Cont’d…
▪ Cavitation result is pitting, vibration & reduction in efficiency & is certainly
undesirable.
▪ Cavitation may be avoided by suitably designing, installing, and operating the
turbine in such a way that the pressures with is the units are above the vapor
pressure of water.

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 II. Specific Speed
▪ Specific speed: is a speed at which a turbine is running to produce 1kW
power through a head of 1m.
▪ It is a useful parameter for the selection of turbine for a given condition
▪ It is expressed as (from dimension analysis)
Where: Ns = Specific speed
N = rotational speed. (rpm)
N P
Ns = 5 P = Power developed (kw)
4
H H = effective head (m)

Runner Specific Speed Ns

Slow Medium Fast

Pelton 4 – 15 16 – 30 32 – 70

Francis 60 – 130 151 – 250 251 – 400

Kaplan 300 – 400 451 – 700 701 – 1100

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 Efficiency of the turbine
▪ The important efficiency of a turbine are as under
1)Hydraulic efficiency , ηh
2)Mechanical efficiency, ηm
3)Volumetric efficiency, ηv
4)Overall efficiency, ηo
▪ Hydraulic efficiency, (ηh).
▪ It is defined as the ratio of power developed by the runner of a turbine to the
power supplied by the water at the inlet of the turbine
Power developed by runner
h =
Power developed at inlet

▪ Mechanical efficiency (ηm)

▪ The ratio of power available at the shaft of the turbine to the power
developed by the runner
Power available at the shaft of the turbine
m =
Power developed by the runner
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Cont’d…
▪ Volumetric efficiency (ηv)
▪ The ratio of the volume of the water actually striking the runner to the
volume of water supplied to the turbine is called volumetric efficiency

Volume of water actually striking the runner

v =
Volume of water supplied to the turbine
▪ Overall efficiency (ηo). It is the ratio of power available at the shaft of
the turbine to the power supplied by the water at the inlet of the
turbine

Power available at the shaft of the turbine Shaft power

o = =
Power supplied at the inlet of the runner Water power

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