A turbine is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fast moving flow of water, steam, gas,

air, or other fluid and converts it into useful work.  A turbine is a turbo-machine with at least one moving
part called a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. ... Basic types of turbines.

 any of various types of machine in which the kinetic energy of a moving fluid is converted into
mechanical energy by causing a bladed rotor to rotate. The moving fluid may be water, steam, air,
or combustion products of a fuel
 A turbine is a machine or engine which uses a stream of air, gas, water, or steam to turn a wheel
and produce power.

 turbine in Electrical Engineering
 (tɜrbaɪn)

A turbine is a machine that uses a moving stream of air, water, steam, or hot gas to turn a
wheel to produce mechanical power.
 Should the wind turbine produce more power than the demand of the house, this excess
power is fed into the grid via a meter which counts the units fed in.
 Water is used as a coolant and moderator and turned directly into steam to drive the turbine
which turns the generator.

 A turbine is a machine that uses a moving stream of air, water, steam, or hot gas to turn a
wheel to produce mechanical power.

Types of Turbines
Turbines are also divided by their principle of operation and can be:

1. An Impulse turbine, which is driven by a high-velocity jet (or multiple jets) of water.
2. A Reaction turbine. The rotor of a reaction turbine is fully immersed in water and is enclosed in
a pressure casing. The runner blades are profiled so that pressure differences across them impose
lift forces, just as on aircraft wings, which cause the runner to rotate faster than is possible with a
jet.
3. A Gravity turbine is driven simply by the weight of water entering the top of the turbine and
falling to the bottom, where it is released – for example, an overshot waterwheel. These are
inherently slow-running machines.

There are 3 main types of impulse turbine in use: the Pelton, the Turgo, and the Crossflow turbine.
The two main types of reaction turbine are the propeller turbine (with Kaplan variant) and the
Francis turbine. The reverse Archimedes Screw and the overshot waterwheel are both gravity
turbines.
The approximate ranges of head, flow and power applicable to the different turbine types are
summarised in the chart of Figure 1 (up to 500kW power). These are approximate and depend on
the precise design of each manufacturer.

Modern Turbine-Types
The principal types of turbine in use today.

Impulse Turbines
The Pelton Turbine consists of a wheel with a series of split buckets set around its rim; a high
velocity jet of water is directed tangentially at the wheel. The jet hits each bucket and is split in
half, so that each half is turned and deflected back almost through 180º. Nearly all the energy of
the water goes into propelling the bucket and the deflected water falls into a discharge channel
below.

The Turgo turbine is similar to the Pelton but the jet strikes the plane of the runner at an angle
(typically 20° to 25°) so that the water enters the runner on one side and exits on the other.
Therefore the flow rate is not limited by the discharged fluid interfering with the incoming jet (as
is the case with Pelton turbines). As a consequence, a Turgo turbine can have a smaller diameter
runner and rotate faster than a Pelton for an equivalent flow rate.

The Crossflow turbine has a drum-like rotor with a solid disk at each end and gutter-shaped “slats”
joining the two disks. A jet of water enters the top of the rotor through the curved blades, emerging
on the far side of the rotor by passing through the blades a 2nd time. The shape of the blades is
such that on each passage through the periphery of the rotor the water transfers some of its
momentum, before falling away with little residual energy.
Reaction Turbines
Reaction turbines exploit the oncoming flow of water to generate hydrodynamic lift forces to
propel the runner blades. They are distinguished from the impulse type by having a runner that
always functions within a completely water-filled casing.

All reaction turbines have a diffuser known as a ‘draft tube’ below the runner through which the
water discharges. The draft tube slows the discharged water and so creates suction below the runner
which increases the effective head.

Propeller-type turbines are similar in principle to the propeller of a ship, but operating in reversed
mode.

A set of inlet guide vanes admits the flow to the propeller and these are often adjustable so as to
allow the flow passing through the machine to be varied. In some cases the blades of the runner
can also be adjusted, in which case the turbine is called a Kaplan. The mechanics for adjusting
turbine blades and guide vanes can be costly and tend to be more affordable for large systems, but
can greatly improve efficiency over a wide range of flows.

The Francis turbine is essentially a modified form of propeller turbine in which water flows
radially inwards into the runner and is turned to emerge axially. For medium-head schemes, the
runner is most commonly mounted in a spiral casing with internal adjustable guide vanes.

Since the cross-flow turbine is now a less costly (though less efficient) alternative to the spiral-
case Francis, it is rare for these turbines to be used on sites of less than 100 kW output.

Pit-Francis. The Francis turbine was originally designed as a low-head machine, installed in an
open chamber (or ‘pit’) without a spiral casing. Thousands of such machines were installed in the
UK and the rest of Europe from the 1920s to the 1960s. Although an efficient turbine, it was
eventually superseded by the propeller turbine which is more compact and faster-running for the
same head and flow conditions. However, many of these ‘open-flume’ or ‘wall plate’ Francis
turbines are still in place, hence this technology is still relevant for refurbishment schemes.

Gravity Turbines
The Archimedes Screw has been used as a pump for centuries, but has only recently been used in
reverse as a turbine. It’s principle of operation is the same as the overshot waterwheel, but the
clever shape of the helix allows the turbine to rotate faster than the equivalent waterwheel and with
high efficiency of power conversion (over 80%). However they are still slow-running machines,
which require a multi-stage gearbox to drive a standard generator. A key advantage of the Screw
is that it avoids the need for a fine screen and automatic screen cleaner because most debris can
pass safely through the turbine. The Archimedian screw is proven to be a ‘fish-friendly’ turbine.

Relative Efficiencies
A water turbine running at a certain speed will draw a particular flow. If there is not sufficient flow
in the river to meet this demand, the turbine could start to drain the river and its performance
rapidly degrades. It therefore either has to shut down, or it has to change its internal geometry – a
process known as regulation. Regulated turbines can move their inlet guide vanes and/or runner
blades in order to increase or reduce the amount of flow they draw. The efficiency of the different
turbines will inevitably reduce as they draw less flow. The typical variation is shown in below.
Therefore a significant factor in the comparison of different turbine types is their relative
efficiencies both at their design point and at reduced flows. For example, Pelton and Kaplan
turbines retain very high efficiencies when running below design flow; whereas the efficiency of
Crossflow and Francis turbines falls away more rapidly if run at below half their normal flow.

Applications
Turbines are used in many different areas, and each type of turbine has a slightly different
construction to perform its job properly. Turbines are used in wind power, hydropower, in heat
engines, and for propulsion. Turbines are extremely important because of the fact that nearly all
electricity is generated by them.[
These devices are generally used in electrical generation, engines, and propulsion systems

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What are Turbines ? | Types of turbines & their applications

1
Sounds cool, eh? Yeah, well, they are cool ! So in this detailed post we are going to see what is
turbine, what are the types of turbines, their working & applications in various powerplants.

What is turbine ?
A turbine is a rotating part which converts kinetic energy of a working fluid into useful mechanical
energy and/or electrical energy. Simple, right? Well, nothing is simple when you go deeper.
There are set of blades mounted on a rotor which helps in extracting energy from the moving fluid.
The efficiency of turbines depend on the design of the blades.
Different applications need different designs & designing them isn’t a layman’s job.

The 4 types of turbines are-

1. Water turbines
2. Steam turbines
3. Gas turbines &
4. Wind turbines

Turbines used in hydro powerplants :-

The turbines used in hydroelectric powerplants are water turbines which have water as their
working fluid.
First of all, millions of litres of water is collected in the dam. More the height of dam, more the
pressure. The highly pressurized water is then made to flow via large pipe called as penstock.
The turbine is located at the end of penstock from where the pressurized water strike the blades of
turbine at high velocity making it to rotate. This turbine is connected to a generator which generates
electricity.
The shape of turbine blades depend upon the pressure & velocity of water. Water turbines are
classified into 2 types-

1. Impulse type
2. Reaction type
 Types of
water turbines with Francis being most widely used.
Impulse type turbines-

Impulse turbines basically work on Newton’s 2nd law.

In impulse turbines, number of elliptical half sized buckets are fitted instead of blades on the rotor
hub. When water strike the buckets at high speed, the rotor starts rotating. In short, the kinetic
energy of water gets converted into rotational mechanical energy !
Thus electricity is generated when one end of turbine shaft is connected to generator !
Example – Pelton turbine

Reaction turbines-

The turbine blades or the impeller blades are designed in such a way that a force is generated on
one side when water flows through it just like an airfoil. The force produced by airfoil is
responsible for lift of aeroplane. Similarly here, that force makes the blades rotate.
Example – Kaplan turbine

Different types of turbines have their own ideal operating conditions. For eg.

→ Pelton turbines are preferred where low discharge rate can be obtained & high head(80-1600m)
is available.
→ Kaplan turbines require high discharge rate along with low or medium head(2-70m).
→ Francis turbine work on medium flow rate & medium head. Francis turbine is a combination of
impulse & reaction turbine. Francis turbines are most widely used turbines because they offer the
highest efficiency & could also work in wide range of operating conditions.

1m head of water = 9810 Pa (100m of head is almost 7 times of atmospheric pressure)

Turbines used in thermal powerplants :-

Also called as steam turbines, they are used in nuclear & thermal powerplants where water is
heated to form steam & then flowed through turbines to produce electricity. Alike water turbines,
steam turbines are also classified into impulse & reaction types but the arrangement & design is
different. All the modern steam turbines are a combination of impulse & reaction type.

Blades of Impulse &

Reaction turbines

Steam turbines consist not only rotating blades called as rotor but also static blades called as stator.
Rotors & stators are placed alternately in order to extract most energy out of it. This method is
called as compounding.

Also, if you observe, the moving buckets in impulse turbine are designed to get pushed by the
steam. While the rotor blades in reaction turbine are aerofoiled shape, which lets itself generate
reaction & also let steam maintain its velocity !
Section view of a steam turbine

In the image: The steam first flows through high pressure(H.P) turbine followed by intermediate
pressure(I.P) turbine. Then again after reheating the steam, it is made to flow through low
pressure(L.P) turbines(huge set of blades).
The reason behind increase in blade sizes from inner side to outer side is because steam expands
while losing its pressure & kinetic energy & giving it to turbines.
Gas turbines :-

Parts of a gas
turbine, popularly called as jet engine.

Gas turbines in other words are internal combustion engines, which are not only used in
powerplants for generating electricity but also for propelling airplanes & helicopters. Gas turbines
as a whole system has a axial compressor at the inlet. These are sets of rotating blades which suck
huge amount of air & compress it which also increases the temperature. This air is then supplied
to the combustion chamber. Fuel is added into the combustion chamber & ignitor ignites the fuel.
Thus large amount of exhaust gases are produced which are made to flow through turbines.
The different types of gas turbines/jet engines are –

1. Turbojet
2. Turbofan
3. Turbojet
4. Turboshaft
5. Ramjet

The above mentioned are open cycle gas turbines where the exhaust gases are let directly into
atmosphere. The other type i.e closed cycle gas turbines where the exhaused are reused again for
reheating are used in powerplants.
Here is more detailed working of gas turbines & different types of gas turbines in detail.
Wind turbines :-

Parts in wind turbine

Wind turbines are a boon to mankind- affordable, clean & sustainable ! Some windfarms are so
big that they could produce 50MW of power.
Well, coming to working of wind turbines, the story remains same as other turbines. The rotor has
3 blades & are designed in such a way that when wind flows straight through them, they start
rotating. The only problem here is wind turbines rotate at a very low of RPM. The low RPM
doesn’t produce electricity of required frequency & that is why we require a gearbox which
increases the speed of shaft. The output shaft is then connected to the generator.
The 3 primary types of wind turbines are –

1. Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT)

2. Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine (Savonius VAWT)
3. Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbine (Darrieus VAWT)
 3
main types of wind turbines

HAWTs are much older & common while VAWTs produce less power, are less efficient & hence
are not used commonly.

Well, what’s interesting is why do wind turbines have 3 blades ?

Adding more number of blades increases torque which is not the need here. Increase in torque
decreases the RPM which is undesirable. Also cost increases significantly.
Also lowering the number of blades to 2 leads to gyroscopic instability & periodic stresses which
makes it unsafe.

Hence, 3 blades makes wind turbines the most efficient in all terms