Turbines

Turbines are used in hydroelectric power stations to move the alternators and generate
electricity.How do they work? - The turbines receive the water through a narrow
channel. -The water impacts strongly on the blades or blades of the rotor. -The rotor
rotates due to the strength of the water.

Francis turbines
Francis turbines are characterized by incomparable longevity, durability, reliability, and
robustness and are available in varying configurations, horizontal or vertical, with
flexibility in design to ensure best efficiency and reliability of operation under the most
extreme conditions

The Francis turbine is an inward reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow
concepts. It is the most common water turbine in use today, are ideally suited for energy
applications with a medium head of up to 700m and an output of up to 800 MW per unit.
Kaplan turbines
Kaplan turbine is a propeller type water turbine with 4 to 7 adjustable blades that are
moveable, allowing to adjust the water discharge and turbine output. It is an outward
reaction turbine, resulting in a changed water pressure as the water moves through the
turbine and gives up its energy. The runner consists of the stainless steel runner blades
mounted on the runner hub and the runner cap at the lower side of the hub, enhancing
the optimized hydraulic shape.
Pelton turbines

Pelton runner is an impulse type water turbine, extracting energy from the impulse of the
moving water. The water is directed with high speed through nozzles against the buckets,
arranged around the circumferential rim of a drive wheel – the runner. The shaft design
can be either in horizontal position in combination with one or two nozzles per runner, or
in vertical position with up to six nozzles per runner.

ANDRITZ HYDRO manufactured different methods for Pelton runners.

Fully forged: The buckets are manufactured out of the runner disk.

HIWELDTM: Cast or forged bucket parts are welded onto the disk.

MicroGussTM: The buckets are overlay-welded onto the forged disk.

Main Parts of Pelton turbines

1. Nozzle and Flow Regulating Arrangement (Spear)

 Nozzle is used to increase the kinetic energy of the water that is going to strike the
buckets or vanes attached to the runner.

 The quantity of water that strikes the buckets is controlled by spear. The spear is
installed inside the nozzle and regulates the flow of water that is going to strike on
the vanes of the runner. A nozzle containing spear is shown in the figure given
below.

 The spear is a conical needle present in the nozzle. It is operated by a hand wheel
or automatically in an axial direction.

 When the spear is move backward the rate of flow of water increases and when it
is pushed forward the rate of flow of water decreases.

2. Runner and Buckets

The runner with buckets is shown in the figure given below.

 Runner is a rotating part of the turbine. It is a circular disc on the periphery of

which a number of buckets evenly spaced are fixed.

 The buckets are made by two hemispherical bowl joined together. Each buckets
have a wall in between two hemispherical bowl called splitter.

 The splitter splits the jet of water striking the buckets into two equal parts and the
jet of water comes out at the outer edge of the bucket.

 The buckets are designed in such a way that the jet of water strike the buckets,
deflected through 160 degree to 170 degree.

 The buckets of the Pelton turbine are made up of cast iron, cast steel bronze or
stainless steel.

3. Casing:

The outer covering of the this turbine is called casing. The Pelton turbine with the casing is
shown in the figure given below.

 It prevents the splashing of the water and helps to discharge the water to the trail
race. It also acts as a safeguard in the case of any accident occurs.

 Cast iron or fabricated steel plates are used to make the casing of the Pelton
Turbine.
4. Breaking jet

 When the jet of water is completely closed by pushing the spear in forward
direction than the amount of water striking the runner becomes zero. But still the
runner keeps moving due to the inertia of the runner.

 In order to stop the runner in the shortest possible time a small nozzle is provided
which directs the jet of water at the back of the vanes. This jet of water used to
stop the runner of the turbine is called breaking jet.

Working
 The water stored at high head is made to flow through the penstock and reaches
the nozzle of the Pelton turbine.

 The nozzle increases the K.E. of the water and directs the water in the form of jet.

 The jet of water from the nozzle strikes the buckets (vanes) of the runner. This
made the runner to rotate at very high speed.

 The quantity of water striking the vanes or buckets is controlled by the spear
present inside the nozzle.

 The generator is attached to the shaft of the runner which converts the mechanical
energy ( i.e. rotational energy) of the runner into electrical energy.
HYDRAULIC pumps
Hydraulic pumps are used in hydraulic drive systems and can be hydrostatic or
hydrodynamic. A hydraulic pump is a mechanical source of power that converts mechanical
power into hydraulic energy (hydrostatic energy i.e. flow, pressure). It generates flow with
enough power to overcome pressure induced by the load at the pump outlet. When a
hydraulic pump operates, it creates a vacuum at the pump inlet, which forces liquid from the
reservoir into the inlet line to the pump and by mechanical action delivers this liquid to the
pump outlet and forces it into the hydraulic system

Types of Pumps
Working of Centrifugal Pumps
One of such pump (single suction, semi-open) is shown in figure below, with one part of its
casing removed for ease of understanding.

Working of centrifugal pump is simple; as the impeller rotates it creates very low pressure at
inlet of the impeller, called as eye of impeller. This low pressure helps in sucking fluid
surrounding in. The fluid is pushed radially along the impeller to the casing. Casing collects
the fluid , and it is pumped out through discharge nozzle.These processes are shown
schematically in following figure. We will go through main components of a centrifugal
pump in a detailed way.
Impeller

Impeller is the device which rotates, and transfer energy to fluid. It has got collection of
vanes fitted to a hub plate. Shape and geometry of impeller blades are critical in pump
performance.

Casing

Casing collects fluid from impeller in an efficient way. The casing has got a special shape,
with area of cross section increases from inlet to outlet. As the impeller ejects fluid
throughout casing, along length of casing mass flow rate increases. But, increasing area of
casing helps in maintaining almost same velocity. Thus volute shaped casing helps in
converting dynamic part of fluid energy to static part.

Construction Details of Casing

Casing is made on 2 volute curves, which are at offset. A three dimensional volute is made
from this curves. A portion is removed from volute shape, in order to accommodate the
impeller in it. A discharge nozzle is fit at exit portion of the casing, most of the time
discharge nozzle is diverging in shape. The steps followed are shown in following figure.
Use of Diffuser blades

For centrifugal pumps of small capacity as we discussed, impeller and casing are its main
components. But for larger centrifugal pumps, there will be additional diffuser blades also
present, in order to reduce velocity further. Or they aid in dynamic to static energy
conversion.
Propeller

Axial flow pumps, also called propeller pumps, are centrifugal pumps which move fluid
axially through an impeller. They provide high flow rate and low head, but some models can
be adjusted to run efficiently at different conditions by changing the impeller pitch.

Operation

Axial flow pumps are dynamic pumps, meaning they utilize fluid momentum and velocity to
generate pump pressure. Specifically, they are centrifugal pumps, which generate this
velocity by using an impeller to apply centrifugal force to the moving liquid. To learn more
about selecting centrifugal pumps, go to the Centrifugal Pumps Selection Guide page on IEEE
GlobalSpec.

Axial flow pumps are one of three subtypes of centrifugal pumps, the others being mixed
flow and radial flow. Of these three types, axial flow pumps are characterized by the highest
flow rates and lowest discharge pressures. They direct flow in a straight line parallel to the
impeller shaft (see image below) rather than radially (perpendicular to the shaft). The
impeller is shaped like a propeller and contains only a few (typically three or four) vanes. The
impeller is driven by a motor that is either sealed directly in the pump body or by a drive
shaft that enters the pump tube from the side. The impeller looks and operates similar to a
boat propeller, which is the reason why axial flow pumps are also called propeller pumps.