What is Turbomachinery ?

turbo or turbinis is Latin in origin and implies that which spins

or whirls around.

A turbomachine is a rotating (as opposed to reciprocating) device

that extracts energy from or adds energy to fluids.

There are two main categories of turbomachines, i.e.

those absorbs power (e.g., pumps, fans, compressors), and
those generates power (e.g. hydraulic, steam, and gas turbines)

A turbomachine changes the enthalpy of the working fluids

 Why enthalpy?
First Law of Thermodynamics for an open
system (based on control volume
analysis)
1 2 2
Q W = m (h2 h1 ) + (c2 c1 ) + g ( z 2 z1 )

2
There
fore,
What is
enthalpy
h = u + pv
?
pv: flow
u: internal
work
energy
 Hydraulic turbine(Prime mover)
The device which converts hydraulic(water) energy into
mechanical energy or vice versa is known as Hydraulic
Machines.

The hydraulic machines which convert hydraulic

energy into mechanical energy are known as
Turbines and that convert mechanical energy into
hydraulic energy is known as Pumps.
Fig. shows a general
layout of a hydroelectric
Contd
 Contd
Net Head (H): Net head or effective head
is the actual head available at the inlet of
the to work on the turbine.
H = Hg - hL
Where hL is the total head loss during the
transit of water from the headrace to
tailrace which is mainly head loss due to
friction, and is given by
 Contd
Where, f = the coefficient of friction of
penstock depending on the

type of material of penstock

L = the total length of penstock

V = the mean flow velocity of water

through the penstock

d = the diameter of penstock and

g = the acceleration due to gravity

 Types of turbines
Turbines can be classified on the basis of:

Head and quantity of water available

Hydraulic action of water

Direction of flow of water in the runner

Specific speed of turbines

Disposition of the shaft of the runner

 Contd
Based on head and quantity of water
According to head and quantity of water
available, the turbines can be classified into:
a) High head turbines b) Medium head turbines c)
Low head turbines

A)High head turbines

High head turbines are the turbines which work
under heads more than 250m.
The quantity of water needed in case of high
head turbines is usually small.
The Pelton turbines are the usual choice for
high heads.
 Contd
b) Medium head turbines
The turbines that work under a head of 45m to
250m are called medium
head turbines. It requires medium flow of water.
Francis turbines are
used for medium heads.
c) Low head turbines
Turbines which work under a head of less than
45m are called low head

turbines. Owing to low head, large quantity of

water is required. Kaplan turbines are used for low
heads.
 Contd
Based on hydraulic action of
water

According to hydraulic action of

water, turbines can be classified
into:
a) Impulse turbines
b) Reaction turbines
 Contd
a) Impulse turbines
If the runner of a turbine rotates by the
impact or impulse action of water, it is
an impulse turbine.
Impulse turbines change the velocity
of a water jet. The jet pushes on the
turbine's curved blades which changes
the direction of the flow.
The resulting change in momentum
(impulse) causes a force on the turbine
blades.
 Contd
Since the turbine is spinning, the force acts
through a distance
(work) and the diverted water flow is left with
diminished energy
Prior to hitting the turbine blades, the water's
pressure (potential
energy) is converted to kinetic energy by a
nozzle and focused
on the turbine. No pressure change occurs at
the turbine blades,
and the turbine doesn't require a housing for
operation
 Contd
b) Reaction turbines
These turbines work due to reaction of the pressure
difference between the inlet and the outlet of the
runner.

Reaction turbines are acted on by water, which

changes pressure as it

moves through the turbine and gives up its energy.

They must be encased to contain the water pressure

or suction), or
they must be fully submerged in the water flow.
 Contd
Based on direction of flow of water
in the runner
Depending upon the direction of flow
through the runner, following types of
turbines are there:
a) Tangential flow turbines
b) Radial flow turbines
c) Axial flow turbines
d) Mixed flow turbines
 Contd
a) Tangential flow turbines
When the flow is tangential to the
wheel circle, it is a tangential flow
turbine. A Pelton turbine is a Tangential
flow turbine.
b) Radial flow turbines
In a radial flow, the path of the flow of
water remains in the radial direction
and in a plane normal to the runner
shaft. No pure radial flow turbine is in
use these days.
 Contd
c) Axial flow turbines
When the path of flow water remains
parallel to the axis of the shaft, it is an
axial flow turbine. The Kaplan turbine
is axial flow turbine.
d) Mixed flow turbines
When there is gradual change of flow
from radial to axial in the runner, the
flow is called mixed flow. The Francis
turbine is a mixed flow turbine.
 Contd
Based on specific speed of turbines
Specific speed of a turbine is defined as
the speed of a geometrically similar
turbine which produces a unit power
when working under a unit head.
The specific speed of Pelton turbine
ranges between 8-35, Francis turbines
have specific speed between 60-300,
Specific speed of Kaplan turbines lies
between 300-1000.
 Contd
: Based on disposition of shaft of runner
Usually, Pelton turbines are setup with horizontal shafts,
where as other types have vertical shafts

The hydraulic turbines can be classified based on type

of energy at the inlet, direction of flow through the
vanes, head available at the inlet, discharge through
the vanes and specific speed. They can be summarized
in the following table
Contd
 Contd
Pelton wheel or turbine
Pelton wheel, named after an eminent engineer, is an
impulse turbine where in the flow is tangential to the
runner and the available energy at the entrance is
completely kinetic energy.

Further, it is preferred at a very high head and low

discharges with low specific speeds. The pressure
available at the inlet and the outlet is atmospheric.
Fourth level
Fifth l
evel
 Contd
The main components of a Pelton turbine are:

(i) Nozzle and flow regulating arrangement :

Water is brought to the hydroelectric plant site through large

penstocks at the end of which there will be a nozzle, which
converts the pressure energy completely into kinetic energy. This
will convert the liquid flow into a high-speed jet, which strikes the
buckets or vanes mounted on the runner, which in-turn rotates
the runner of the turbine.
 Contd

Fifth level

The amount of water striking the vanes is

controlled by the forward and backward
motion of the spear.
As the water is flowing in the annular
 Contd
(ii) Runner with buckets:
Runner is a circular disk mounted on a
shaft on the periphery of which a
number of buckets are fixed equally
spaced as shown in Fig.
 Contd
The buckets are made of cast -iron cast -steel,
bronze or stainless steel depending upon the head at
the inlet of the turbine.

The water jet strikes the bucket on the splitter of the

bucket and gets deflected through ( = 160 -170 ).

(iii) Casing:

It is made of cast -iron or fabricated steel plates.

The main function of the casing is to prevent splashing
of water and to discharge the water into tailrace.
 Contd
(iv) Breaking jet:

Even after the amount of water striking the buckets

is completely stopped, the runner goes on rotating
for a very long time due to inertia.

To stop the runner in a short time, a small nozzle is

provided which directs the jet of water on the back
of bucket with which the rotation of the runner is
reversed. This jet is called as breaking jet.
Velocity triangles for the jet
striking the bucket
 Contd
From the impulse-momentum
theorem, the force with which the jet
strikes the bucket along the direction
of vane is given by
Fx = rate of change of momentum
of the jet along the direction of vane
motion
 Contd
Where V1 is absolute velocity of water jet

Vr1 and Vr2 are the velocities of the jet

relative to the bucket at its inlet and outlet

U1 absolute linear velocity

is density water

A is area of the water jet

 Contd
Work done per second by the jet on the
vane is given by the product of Force
exerted on the vane and the distance
moved by the vane in one Second.

C
Contd
Contd
Contd
 Contd
From the above it can be seen that more the
value of cos, more will be the efficiency.

Form maximum efficiency, the value of cos

should be 1 and the value of should be 0 . This
condition makes the jet to completely deviate by
180 and this, forces the jet striking the bucket
to strike the successive bucket on the back of it
acting like a breaking jet.

Hence to avoid this situation, at least a small

angle of =5 should be provided
The
Francis turbines
water enters the turbine through the outer
periphery of the runner in the radial direction and
leaves the runner in the axial direction, and hence
it is called mixed flow turbine.

It is a reaction turbine and therefore only a part of

the available head is converted into the velocity
head before water enters the runner.
The pressure head goes on decreasing as the water
flows over the runner blades.
 Contd
The static pressure at the runner exit may be less than the
atmospheric pressure and as such, water fills all the passages
of the runner blades.

The change in pressure while water is gliding over the blades is

called reaction pressure and is partly responsible for the
rotation of the runner.

A Francis turbine is suitable for medium heads and requires a

relatively large quantity of water.
 Contd
Click to edit Master text styles
Second level
Third level
Fourth level
Fifth level
 Contd

Traditional X blade
runner runner
 Contd
Francis turbine

Spiral
casing

runner Guide vanes

draft
tube
 Contd
Spiral Casing:Most of these machines have vertical shafts although
some smaller machines of this type have horizontal shaft. The fluid enters
from the penstock (pipeline leading to the turbine from the reservoir at
high altitude) to a spiral casing which completely surrounds the runner.
This casing is known as scroll casing or volute.

The cross-sectional area of this casing decreases uniformly along the

circumference to keep the fluid velocity constant in magnitude along its
path towards the guide vane.
 Contd
Guide or Stay vane: The basic purpose of the guide vanes or stay
vanes is to convert a part of pressure energy of the fluid at its
entrance to the kinetic energy and then to direct the fluid on to the
runner blades at the angle appropriate to the design.

Moreover, the guides vanes are pivoted and can be turned by a

suitable governing mechanism to regulate the flow while the load
changes.
 Contd
The guide vanes are also known as wicket
gates. The guide vanes impart a tangential
velocity and hence an angular momentum to
the water before its entry to the runner.

The flow in the runner of a Francis turbine is

not purely radial but a combination of radial
and tangential. The flow is inward, i.e. from the
periphery towards the centre.
 Contd
The height of the runner depends upon the
specific speed. The height increases with the
increase in the specific speed.

The main direction of flow change as water

passes through the runner and is finally turned
into the axial direction while entering the draft
tube.
 Losses in Francis Turbines
Draft tube
Hydraulic Efficiency [%]

Output Energy

Head [m]
Hydraulic Efficiency [%] Contd

Output Energy

Output [%]
 Gap losses
.

Gap losses
 Francis Turbine Power Plant : A Continuous
Hydraulic System

Figure 3.3 Head across a reaction turbine

 Contd
Net head across a reaction turbine and the purpose to providing
a draft tube.

The effective head across any turbine is the difference between the
head at inlet to the machine and the head at outlet from it. A reaction
turbine always runs completely filled with the working fluid.

The kinetic energy of the fluid finally discharged into the tail race is
wasted. A draft tube is made divergent so as to reduce the velocity at
outlet to a minimum.
 Contd
Therefore a draft tube is basically a diffuser and should be
designed properly with the angle between the walls of the
tube to be limited to about 8 degree so as to prevent the flow
separation from the wall and to reduce accordingly the loss of
energy in the tube(shown in figure 3.3).

The headH1 at the entrance to the turbine can be found out

by applying the Bernoulli's equation between the free
surface of the reservoir and the inlet to the turbine as:
 Contd
Influid dynamics,Bernoulli's principlestates that for aninviscid flowof ano
conductingfluid, an increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a
decrease inpressureor a decrease in thefluid'spotential energy.

Bernoulli's principle can be derived from the principle ofconservation of energy.

This states that, in a steady flow, the sum of all forms of energy in a fluid along
astreamlineis the same at all points on that streamline. This requires that the sum
ofkinetic energy,potential energyandinternal energyremains constant.
 implying an increase in both itsdynam
pressureand kinetic energy occurs with
simultaneous decrease in (the sum of) itssta
pressure, potential energy and internal energy.
the fluid is flowing out of a reservoir, the sum
all forms of energy is the same on all streamlin
because in a reservoir the energy per unit volum
(the sum ofpressureandgravitation
(3.1)
potential(gh) is the same everywhere
(3
2)
Where hfis the head lost due to friction in the pipeline connecting the reservoir and the turbine.
Since the draft tube is a part of the turbine, the net head across the turbine, for the conversion of
mechanical work, is the difference of total head at inlet to the machine and the total head at
discharge from the draft tube at tail race and is shown as Hin figure 3.3.

Therefore,H= total head at inlet to

machine (1) - total head at discharge (3)

(3.3)

(3.
4)
 Friction losses between runner and covers

Friction losses
 Contd
The pressures are defined in terms of their values
above the atmospheric pressure. Section 2 and 3 in
Figure 3.3 represent the exits from the runner and
the draft tube respectively. If the losses in the draft
tube are neglected, then the total head at 2
becomes equal to that at 3.

Therefore, the net head across the machine is either

or
 Contd
Applying the Bernoull's equation between 2 and 3
in consideration of flow, without losses, through
the draft tube, we can write.
(3.5)

(3.6)

SinceV3 V2, both the terms in the bracket are

positive and henceP2/g is always negative,
which implies that the static pressure at the
 Runner of the Francis Turbine

The shape of the blades of a Francis runner is complex. The exact shape
depends on its specific speed. It is obvious from the equation of specific
speed that higher specific speed means lower head.

In a purely radial flow runner, as developed by James B. Francis, the bulk flow
is in the radial direction. To be clearer, the flow is tangential and radial at the
inlet but is entirely radial with a negligible tangential component at the outlet.
The flow, under the situation, has to make a 90oturn after passing through
the rotor for its inlet to the draft tube.
Contd
 Contd
At the outlet of this type of runner, the flow is mostly axial
with negligible radial and tangential components. Because
of a large discharge area (area perpendicular to the axial
direction), this type of runner can pass a large amount of
water with a low exit velocity from the runner.

The blades for a reaction turbine are always so shaped that

the tangential or whirling component of velocity at the
outlet becomes zero (Vw2 = 0). This is made to keep the
kinetic energy at outlet a minimum.
 Contd
The above figure shows the velocity triangles at inlet and outlet
of a typical blade of a Francis turbine. Usually the flow velocity
(velocity perpendicular to the tangential direction) remains
constant throughout, i.e. Vf1 = Vf2 and is equal to that at the
inlet to the draft tube. The Euler's equation for turbine in this
case reduces to
E/m = e = Vw1U1 4.1
where,eis the energy transfer to the rotor per unit mass of the
fluid. From the inlet velocity triangle shown in the above figure.
 Contd
4.2a

4.2
b

Substituting the values of Vw1 and U1 from

Eqs. (4.2a) and (4.2b) respectively into Eq.
(4.1), we have 4.3

The loss of kinetic energy per unit mass

becomes equal to . Therefore neglecting
friction, the blade efficiency becomes
Contd
 Contd
The change in pressure energy of the fluid in the
rotor can be found out by subtracting the change
in its kinetic energy from the total energy
released. Therefore, we can write for the degree
of reaction.

since

Using the expression ofefrom

Eq. (4.3), we have
4.4
 Contd
The inlet blade angle1 of a Francis runner varies45
to 120 and the guide vane angle1 from 10 to 40 .
The ratio of blade width to the diameter of runner B/D,
at blade inlet, depends upon the required specific
speed and varies from 1/20 to 2/3.

Expression for specific speed. The dimensional specific

speed of a turbine, can be written as
 Contd
Power generatedPfor a turbine
can be expressed in terms of
available headHand hydraulic
efficiencyh as l

Hence, it
4.
becomes 5

Substituting U1
from Eq. (4.2b)
4.6

N is rotational speed of
 Contd
Available headHequals the head delivered by
the turbine plus the head lost at the exit. Thus,

sinc
e
with the help of Eq.
(4.3), it becomes

4.
7
 Contd
Substituting the values of H and N from Eqs
(4.7)nd (4.6) respectively into the expres
given by Eq. (4.5), we get,

Flow velocity at inlet can be substituted

from the equation of continuity as

where B is the width of the

runner at its inlet
 Contd
Finally, the expression forspecific speed
becomes

4.8

For a Francis turbine, the variations of

geometrical parameters like 1, 1 andB/D
have been described earlier. These
variations cover a range of specific speed
 Kaplan turbine
The Kaplan is of the propeller type, similar to an airplane
propeller.

The difference between the Propeller and Kaplan turbines is

that the Propeller turbine has fixed runner blades while the
Kaplan turbine has adjustable runner blades.

It is a pure axial flow turbine uses basic aerofoil theory.

The Kaplan's blades are adjustable for pitch and will handle
a great variation of flow very efficiently.
 Contd
They are 90% or better in efficiency and are
used in place some of the old (but great)
Francis types in a good many of
installations.

They are very expensive.

The kaplan turbine, unlike all other

turbines, the runner's blades are movable.
 Contd
Kaplan turbine
Electrical
generator

Blade angle can be

controlled

spiral
casing

Guide
vanes runner
 Losses and Efficiencies of Hydraulic Turbines

Losses
Various types of losses that occur in a power plant
are given below:
(a) Head loss in the penstock: This is the friction loss
in the pipe of a penstock.
(b) Head loss in the nozzle: In case of impulse
turbines, there is head loss due to nozzle friction.
(c) Hydraulic losses: In case of impulse turbines,
these losses occur due to blade friction, eddy formation
and kinetic energy of the leaving water. In a reaction
turbine, apart from above losses, losses due to friction
in the draft tube and disc friction also occur.
 Contd
(d) Leakage losses: In case of impulse turbines, whole of the water
may not be striking the buckets and therefore some of the water
power may go waste. In a reaction turbine, some of the water may be
passing through the clearance between the casing and the runner
without striking the blades and thus not doing any work. These losses
are called leakage losses.
(e) Mechanical losses: The power produced by the runner is not
available as useful work of the shaft because some power may be lost
in bearing friction as mechanical losses.
f) Generator losses: Due to generator loss, power produced by the
generator is still lesser than the power obtained at the shaft output.
 Contd
Efficiencies
Various types of efficiencies are defined as under:
(a) Hydraulic efficiency: It is the ratio of the power
developed by the runner to the actual power supplied by
water to the runner. It takes into account the hydraulic
losses occurring in the turbine
h = Runner output / Actual power supplied to runner
= Runner output / (QgH)
Where, Q = Quantity of water actually striking the runner
blades
H = Net head available at the turbine inlet
 Contd
(b) Volumetric efficiency: It is the ratio of the actual
quantity of water striking the runner blades to the
quantity supplied to the turbine. It takes into account
the volumetric losses.
Let Q = Quantity of water leaking or not striking
the runner blades
v = Q / (Q+ Q)
(c) Mechanical efficiency: The ratio of the shaft
output to the runner output is called the mechanical
efficiency and it accounts for the mechanical losses.
m = Shaft output / Runner output
 Contd
(d) Overall efficiency: Ratio of shaft output
to the net power available at the turbine
inlet gives overall efficiency of the turbine
0 = Shaft output / Net power
available o =
Shaft .output
(Q + Q ) gH
Shaft .output Runner.output Q
o =
Runner.output QgH ( Q + Q )

o = m h v