Experiment: 1

To determine the operating characteristics of a Pelton turbine at various

speeds.
Method
By measurement of torque, brake power and efficiencies against rotor speed.

Equipment
In order to complete the demonstration you need a number of pieces of equipment:

The F 1-10 Hydraulics Bench which allows you to measure flow by timed volume collection.
The F1-25 Pelton Turbine Apparatus.
A stopwatch to allow you to determine the flow rate of water.
A tachometer to measure rotor speed

Theory:
Fluid machinery _An Introduction:
Hydraulic energy is that which may be possessed by a fluid. It may be in the form of kinetic, pressure,
potential, strain or thermal energy. Fluid machinery is used to convert hydraulic energy into mechanical
energy (turbines) or mechanical energy into hydraulic energy (pumps, compressors). Turbines can be
impulse or reaction based on type of fluid head they utilize. Pelton turbine (or Pelton wheel), an impulse
turbine, is one of the well-known type of water turbines. The water turbines converts the energy
possessed by the water to mechanical energy.

Pelton Wheel Turbine:

The Pelton wheel is an impulse turbine in which vanes, sometimes called buckets, of elliptical shape are
attached to the periphery of a rotating wheel. One or two nozzles project a jet of water tangentially to
the vane pitch circle. The vanes are of double-outlet section so that the jet is split and leaves
symmetrically on both sides of the vane. This type of turbine is used for high head and low flow rates. It
is named after the American engineer Lester Pelton.
Components of Pelton Wheel Turbine:
Impeller with bucket: Impeller (runner) of Pelton turbine consists of a circular disc on the periphery of
which a number of buckets are fixed.

Nozzle: The water coming from the reservoir through penstock is accelerated to a certain velocity by
means of a nozzle.

Spear Valve: The spear (spear valve) is a conical needle which is operated either by a hand wheel or
automatically in an axial direction depending upon the size of the unit. The amount of water striking the
buckets of the runner is controlled the spear in the nozzle.

Casing: Casing is used to prevent the splashing of the water and to discharge water to tail race. It is
made up of cast iron or steel plate.

Working:
The Pelton wheel turbine equipment is designed to be positioned on the side channel of the
hydraulics bench and the inlet pipe should be connected to the bench supply
The flow is controlled by a fully retractable spear valve. Water discharges into the volumetric
tank through an orifice in the base of the Pelton turbine base plate
The Pelton wheel buckets are clearly visible due to the transparent turbine cover
A simple band brake connected to two spring balances allows the load applied to the turbine to
be varied by adjustment of the tensioning device
The speed of the turbine shaft can be determined by a tachometer

In the Pelton wheel turbine, the total head available is first converted into the kinetic energy. This is
usually accomplished in one or more nozzles. The jets issuing from the nozzles strike vanes attached to
the periphery of a rotating wheel. Because of the rate of change of angular momentum and the motion
of the vanes, work is done on the runner (impeller) by the fluid and, thus, energy is transferred. The
process can by shown as:
 water brake
rotor
jet wheel

Pelton wheel turbine is highly efficient turbine. Ideally, the fluid should impart all of its kinetic energy to
Pelton buckets resulting in zero exit velocity. Now, the buckets will not be empty rendering the
possibility of 100 percent efficiency. The fluid must have some exit velocity so that the fluid should leave
the buckets.

Also, the fluid energy which is reduced on passing through the runner is entirely kinetic, it follows that
the absolute velocity at outlet is smaller than the absolute velocity at inlet (jet velocity). Furthermore,
the fluid pressure is atmospheric throughout and the relative velocity is constant except for a slight
reduction due to friction.

Torque measurement:
The water jet striking the runner generates a torque of and rotates the runner with certain (rev/m), then
power obtained from the runner can be expressed as:

Brake power=

The torque produced can be measured by applying braking force with the help of band belt as there is
some relative motion between shaft and belt. The braking force is then measured through spring
balance attached at belt ends.

T= (w-w) r

Where,

r= radius of shaft

w-w = difference between braking force shown on spring balances

Efficiency of Pelton turbine:

During conversion of energy (hydraulic energy to mechanic energy or vice versa) there occur some
losses like:

The bearings which enable the shaft to rotate cant have frictionless motion.
All kinetic energy of fluid cant be converted into mechanical motion.

For a turbine,

Fluid Input Power = (Mechanical loss) + (Hydraulic losses) + (Useful shaft power output)

Where,

Hydraulic Losses = (Impeller loss) + (Casing loss) + (Leakage loss)

The useful power supplied by fluid can be expressed as:

=
Where,
H= input head of fluid
= Volume flow rate of fluid
The efficiencies of Pelton turbine can be expressed as:

= 100


= 100


= 100


= 100


=

The operating characteristics of a turbine are shown by plotting torque T, brake power , and overall
turbine efficiency t against turbine rotational speed n for a series of volume flow rates Qv.

The maximum efficiency of Pelton turbine will occur when rotor speed becomes half of the water jet
speed

Procedure:
Position the apparatus in the working channel of the bench and connect to the bench supply.
Lift the band brake assembly until it is clear of the brake drum.
Switch on the bench pump and open the bench control valve fully. Adjust the spear valve until
the maximum rev/min are indicated on the tachometer.
Lift the band brake assembly over the brake drum and adjust the band brake for a range of
readings on the spring balances.
Record the spring balance and tachometer readings for each band brake setting.
Measure the flow rate using a timed volume collection, and record the reading from the inlet
pressure gauge.
Adjust the flow rate using the spear valve, and repeat the experiment. Continue to do this until
you have sets of readings for a variety of different flow rates.
For each flow rate, plot a graph of rotational speed n against Torque T, Brake (mechanical)
Power Pb and Efficiency t.
Observations and Calculations:

Graphs:

Variation of Brake power with rotor speed

12

10
Brake power (W)

0
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400
Rotor speed (rpm)

Variation of Torque with Rotor speed

0.07

0.06

0.05
Torque (Nm)

0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

0
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400
Rotor speed (rpm)
 Variation of Overall efficiency with Rotor
speed
50
OVERALL EFFICIENCY (%) 45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1000 1050 1100 1150 1200 1250 1300 1350 1400
ROTOR SPEED (RPM)

Specimen Calculations:
Diameter of shaft= 0.06m

Diameter of tachometer device= 0.033m

Using relation,

nD=nD
Putting values,

(0.06) n = 2300(0.033)

n= 1265 rpm
0.005
= =
25

= .

T= (w-w) r = (2-1)*0.03

T= 0.03 Nm
2nT
=
60

= 3.9721 W

= = 1000*9.81*8*0.0002

= 15.696 W
2nT
= 60

 = 25.3%

Comments:
The torque produced varies inversely with the rotor speed as evident from the graph.
The brake power increases as rotor speed increases because the fluid is imparting more kinetic
energy to the rotor of turbine.
The overall efficiency increases with increase in rotor speed because maximum energy is being
converted into mechanical work.
The efficiency of Pelton wheel turbine depends upon proper measurement of torque and
rotational speed of shaft by tachometer. If either of these measurements have any error, then
efficiency will decrease.