2022/23 B59FC

Heriot-Watt University
School of Engineering and Physical Science
Mechanical & Chemical Engineering

B58FC Fluid Mechanics B

Tutorial Hydropower & Turbomachinery Weeks 7-11

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1- Review of fundamentals
• Calculate the energy density and specific energy of water in a reservoir 300 m above a turbine house.
• Calculate the flow rate of water required to generate 270 MW from a static head of 200 m, and that
required for a generation of 1 GW from a static head of 7 m.
• Imagine a pipe with a length of 500 m and a diameter of 0.8 m leading from a reservoir 75 m above a
turbine house to a discharge valve. Ignore all losses.
a. Calculate the pressure if the valve is closed.
b. Calculate the velocity, volume flow rate, and power in the water jet if the valve is opened to the
atmosphere to a degree such that the outlet diameter is 0.4 m and 0.8 m, respectively.
c. Assuming that the pipe is made from concrete, estimate the frictional loss of energy density, specific
energy, and head, from the flow through the pipe
d. d. Now connect the pipe to a turbine, and calculate the velocity of water with a dynamic head of
7% of the elevation difference. From that, work out the volume flow rate, the flow rate of the kinetic
energy. Then work out the frictional head loss. Finally work out the remaining pressure and static
head at the inlet to the turbine, and the hydraulic power entering the turbine.
e. Calculate the torque on a turbine shaft rotating at 600 rpm.

2- Hydropower resource
For a reservoir 250 m above the river bed, and an available flow rate of 75 m3/s, calculate the diameter of
the penstock for a single turbine and for three turbines to keep the frictional losses to 10% of the elevation.
Assume that the penstock is 300 m long.
Calculate the dynamic head of the fluid in the penstock
Assuming that the tailrace has a similar diameter but is only 40 m long, and that minor losses add up to a
total minor loss coefficient of K= 10, calculate the available head and the hydraulic power through the
turbine(s).

3- Introduction to hydroturbines
Select a suitable turbine or set of turbines, and recommend suitable generator designs to generate from an
available head and flow rate of
• 650 m and 15 m3/s
• 250 m and 25 m3/s
• 150 m and 54 m3/s
• 30 m and 5 m3/s
• 7 m and 300 m3/s
(Remember, the available head is the part of the total head available for power generation, ie after having
taken off all losses in the penstock and tailrace as well as the dynamic head associated with the velocity of
the water leaving the turbine.)

4- The Pelton Wheel

Design one (or several identical) Pelton turbines for an available level difference of 202 m, linked to
generators turning at 250 rpm, with an available flow rate of 32 m3/s.

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5- Reaction turbine principles

For available heads of 25 m and 780 m and flow rates of 10 and 43 m3/s, calculate the tangential velocities
required for turbines of inlet radius (area) of 0.6 m (0.8 m2) and 2.7 m (2 m2) if they rotate at 250 and 600
rpm, respectively, if the fluid has no tangential velocity at the outlet. Determine the guide vane angles
required. Also, calculate the torque on the rotating shaft.

6- The ideal Francis turbine – Velocity triangle

A mized-flow reaction turbine, installed in Canada has the following specifications:
• Power rating: 169 MW
• Available Head: 72 m
• Flow rate: 265 m3/s
• Diameter of wicket gate with guide vanes: 6.68 m
• Outer diameter of runner: 5.71 m
• Blade height at outer rim: 1.4 m
• Mean diameter of runner outlet: 2.35 m (which is less than the diameter of the draft tube for a mixed-
flow turbine; assume the outlet area out of the runner is identical to the inlet area)
• Rotation rate to generate electricity at 60 Hz: 112.5 rpm
Determine
• The guide vane angle,
• The two blade angles,
• The dynamic head at runner inlet and outlet,
• The diameter of the penstock required to ensure a dynamic head inside the penstock equal to that
at the runner inlet,
• The specific speed of the turbine, and the efficiency of the turbine

7- Comparison with some real Francis turbines

Fill in the missing bit for the 715 MW Francis turbines from the Itaipu dam:
Net head 126 m; Flow rate 645 m3/s; Rotation rate 90.9 rpm for 50 Hz; Runner diameter 8.1 m.

8- Centrifugal pumps
Determine the required blade angles for optimum conditions at a flow rate of 9 l/s at a pump head of 12 m.
For outer and inner impeller of diameters 25 cm and 3 cm, constant blade height of 10 mm, and motor speed
of 1200 rpm. Then determine and plot the ideal performance curve for the pump covering the entire
theoretical range of flow rates.

9- Other reaction turbines

Design a Kaplan turbine (position and angle of guide vanes, Diameter of runner and hub, ideal blade angles
at inlet and outlet (or leading and trailing edge) – either giving the entire profile in graphical form, or
calculating the angles at the hub, the tip, and half way along the blade
Design parameters: From an available head of 20 m and allowing a dynamic head of 2 m, produce 40 MW at
a frequency of 50Hz using a Kaplan turbine with a nondimensional specific speed near 3.0 (Hints: To get the
flow rate, you can either assume ideal conversion or a typical efficiency. You also need to assume a typical
hub radius to work out the diameter from the dynamic head and flow rate)

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Heriot-Watt University
School of Engineering and Physical Science
Mechanical & Chemical Engineering

B58FC Fluid Mechanics B

Tutorial Hydropower & Turbomachinery Weeks 7-11

SOLUTIONS

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1- Solution

2-
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2- Solution

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3- Solution

• The hydraulic power in that head and flow rate is PH= ρgHQ = 96 MW. Assuming a typical efficiency of
around 90 to 94%, we could expect an output of around 90 MW.
For a head of 650 m, the only feasible option is a Pelton Wheel. Since this is a low-specific speed
machine, one would expect that a slower rotation rate is likely to be preferred. So, let’s choose a
generator with 12 windings:
fT = 50Hz/12= 4.1667 Hz= 250 rpm= 26.18 rad/s
A typical single-jet Pelton Wheel has a nondimensional specific speed of around 0.1. So, the power
output from a jet would be, using the specific speed equation:

We could therefore recommend a 2-jet Pelton Wheel, each jet producing 45 MW. This machine then
has a specific speed of 0.097 per jet, or 0.138 for the entire 2-jet turbine.

• Here you would go through the same procedure, except that this head is ideal for a Francis turbine,
with a typical specific speed between 0.25 and 1. For a generator with 6 windings (you could choose
anything between 3 and 12): fT = 50Hz/6= 8.333 Hz= 500 rpm= 52.4 rad/s.
Using a typical specific speed value around 0.5, we then up with two 28 MW turbines. Alternatively,
you could also specify that you want to install a single 55 MW turbine. That would have a specific speed
of 0.71 which confirms that a Francis turbine design would be right for this.

• 150 m and 54 m3/s: capacity of around 70 MW:

150 m: a mixed turbine.
Examples: Two 600-rpm, 35 MW turbines OR one 500-rpm 70MW turbine

• 30 m and 5 m3/s: capacity of around 1.3 MW:

30 m: Kaplan or a mixed turbine. However, at that small power output, you would
need a very high rotation rate for a Kaplan turbine.
Examples: a 750-rpm Kaplan turbine or a 500-rpm mixed-flow turbine

• 7 m and 300 m3/s: capacity of around 20 MW:

At such a low head, the only feasible option is really a bulb turbine.
For example twenty 250-rpm, 1 MW turbines or forty 300-rpm 500 kW turbines.

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4- Solution

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5- Solution

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6- Solution

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7- Solution
Rotation rate: 90.9 rpm = 1.515 Hz = 9.52 rad /s
Number of poles: n = 50 Hz / 1.515 Hz = 33

Nondimensional speed: 1.515*sqrt(715 000)/(9.81*126)^1.25 = 1.098

(Alarm bells should start ringing – this value is actually above the typical range for a Francis turbine
– we will see why when we get to the diameter of the draft tube)

Hydraulic power = rho g HQ = 1000 * 9.81*126* 645 = 797 MW

Efficiency = 715 MW / 797 MW = 89.8 %

Let’s allow a dynamic head of at most 10 m at the outlet:

Velocity: = sqrt(2gHD) = 14 m/s
Area = Q/V = 645/14 = 46.1 m2

Assuming the shape of a Francis turbine, where the diameter of the outlet is roughly equal to that of the
draft tube, we would have diameter of = sqrt(4A/pi)= 7.66 m.
Hmm – unlikely to be a true Francis turbine (or difficult to fit a runner in the space between the inlet
diameter 8.1 m and the outlet diameter of 7.66 m)

Anyway, let’s continue with a radial velocity at the inlet of around 14 m/s.
This gives a blade height of b = 46.1 m2 / (pi*8.1 m)= 1.81 m.
The blade velocity at the inlet is R*omega = 4.05 m * 9.52 rad/s = 38.56 m/s
The tangential fluid velocity to give 715 MW is VT = P/(rho*omega*R*Q)= 28.8 m/s
(using the hydraulic power, VT is 32 m/s)

So the blade angle will be tan beta = Vr / (U – VT) = 1.4286 or beta = 55° (using 28.8 m/s).
(Using 32 m/s: tan beta= 2.1212 ; beta = 64.8°)

The guide vane angle will be alpha = atan(VT/VR) = 64° (for 28.8 m/s) or 66.4° (for 32 m/s)

The outlet angle: at a radius of 7.66 m, the blade velocity is 36.46 m/s, and the blade angle to have VT = 0
would have to be atan beta (14 / 36.46) = 21°. If the outlet can move closer to the centre, then we would
have at a radius of r a blade angle of atan (VT / (rω)):

at r = 3.5 m: 22.8°; at 3 m: 26.1°; at 2.5 m: 30.5°; at 2 m: 36°; at 1.5 m: 44°, at 1 m: 56°; at 0.5 m: 71°

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8- Solution
At a motor speed of 1200 rpm = 125.7 rad/s the blade velocity is U=r*omega = 1.885 m/s at the inlet and
15.71 m/s at the outlet.

To give a pump head of 12 m (H = P/(rho*g*Q)), the tangential velocity at the outlet must be
VT = P/(rho*omega*R*Q)= gH/(omega*r) = gH/U = 9.81*12 / 15.71 = 7.49 m/s.

At a flow rate of 9 l/s = 0.009 m3/s and an outlet area of A=pi*0.25m*0.01m= 0.00785m2, the radial velocity
at the outlet is Vr = Q/A = 1.146 m/s

That gives an outlet blade angle of beta = atan(VR/ (U – VT ) )= 7.9°.

To have zero whirl at the inlet, we work out the radial velocity at the inlet as VR= 0.009 / (pi*0.03*0.01) =
9.549 m/s and then beta = atan(VR/ U ) = 78.8°.

Then the head produced by the pump is gH =ω(R2VT,2 −R1VT,1), but the tangential velocities are
VT,1 = U1 – VR,1/tanβ1 = ωR1 – Q/(A1 tanβ1 ) (and similarly for outlet with subscript 2)

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9- Solution

Assuming an efficiency of 90%, we need to have a hydraulic power of 40/0.9= 44.4 MW. This requires a flow
rate of Q = PH/(rho*g*H)= 228 m3/s.

A - Since the head is relatively small, we use a fairly slow turbine with a large generator (say, 18 poles).
This then gives a rotation rate of ω = 50 Hz/ 182.778 Hz = 166.7 rpm= 17.45 rad/s. With that, the power
output from a turbine with a specific speed is 21.68 MW – so we need two turbines.

B - Alternative: If we want to use a single turbine, it must have a rotation rate near

To generate electricity at 50 Hz, we therefore need a generator with 50 Hz/ 1.753 Hz= 28.52 = 29 poles.
So, the rotation rate is 1.724 Hz = 103.45 rpm = 10.83 rad/s.

In the following, we design a turbine for the set of two 20 MW turbines rotating at 166.7 rpm:

1- Flow rate through each turbine: 114 m3/s.

2- To have a dynamic head of 2 m, we need a flow (axial) velocity of VA = sqrt(2gHD) = 6.26 m/s.
3- At this flow rate, we need a flow area of A = Q/VA = 114/6.26 = 18.2 m2.
4- This gives a draft tube diameter of sqrt(4A/pi)= 4.81 m.
5- If the hub diameter is 30% of the runner diameter, the flow area through the runner is
AR = pi RR2 – pi RH2 = pi RR2 – pi 0.32 RR2 = pi RR2 (1 – 0.09) = 0.91 pi RR2
If that AR is equal to 18.2 m2, then the runner must have a radius of RR = sqrt(4.81/0.91/pi)= 2.52 m, or a
rotor diameter of 5.046 m and a hub diameter of 1.51 m (radius of 0.76 m).

6- The intermediate radius, half way along the blade is then at a radius of 1.64 m.
7- The blade velocity at the three places is
U = rω = {0.76 1.64 2.52} m * 17.45 rad/s = {13.27 28.62 43.98} m/s.
8- At the outlet, the blade angles must be
tan beta = VA/U = {0.472 0.219 0.142}, giving blade angles of {25.3 12.3 8.1}°.
9- To generate 20 MW, we need tangential velocities at the inlet
VT = P/(rho*omega*R*Q)= {13.22 6.13 3.99} m/s, which in turn gives blade angles of
beta1= atan (VA/(U- VT)) = {89.6 15.6 8.9}°
10- The guide vane angle is alpha = atan (VT/VA). Placing the outlet of the guide vanes just above the rotor
tips (r=2.52 m) gives 64.7°.

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