In The Name Of Allah

The Most Beneficent The

Most Merciful

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 Analyzing Mathematical
and Software Methods for
Selecting and Designing
Francis Turbine in
Hydropower Plants

2
 Talal B. Ahmed
Group 17-MS-PT-EnE-20
Members
M. Mehboob
17-MS-PT-EnE-08

Khansa Anjum
18-MS-PT-AMD-19

Faraz ul Haq
17-MS-Pt-EnE-16
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 Introduction

References Abstract

Literature
Conclusion Contents Review

Results Softwares

Mathematical
Method
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 Introduction
A turbine converts energy in the form of falling water into rotating shaft power. The
selection of the best turbine for any particular hydro site depends on:

 Site Characteristics
 Desired Running Speed of the Generator
 Diameter of the Runner
 Diameter of Shaft
 Dimension of the Draft Tube
 Spiral Casing.

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 Francis Turbine
The Francis Turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis.
• It operates under a working head of 40 to 600 m.
• The Speed range is about 75 to 1000 rpm.

It consists of:
• Spiral Casing
• Guide and Stay Vanes
• Runner Blades
• Draft Tube.

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 This paper introduces result reliability of a commercial software
that has special equations to calculate
 Turbine.
 Draft Tube.
Abstract  Spiral Case.

Analyzing and comparing results of mathematical method with

actual values of 6 hydropower plants:
 Maroon.
 Abbaspour II.
 Dez.
 Masjid Suleiman.
 Karkheh.
 Karun III.

Located in Khuzestan Province, Iran.

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Comparing results of Software and Mathematical average errors with Actual Values
indicated that only 6 Parameters In Software Method and 4 Parameters In
Mathematical Method among 14 parameters have reliable results in Francis Turbine.
The parameters in Software Method are:
 Runaway Speed
 Runner Diameter
 Shaft Diameter
 A, D (Spiral Case Parameters)
 σ (Thoma Number)

While parameters in Mathematical Model are:

 B, C, E (Spiral Case Parameters)
 σ (Thoma Number).

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Literature Review
1. De Siervo and De Leva attempted to find appropriate
equations for estimating the dimensions of turbine.
2. In 1989 Gordon, Schweiger and Gregori studied Kaplan
turbine. This research provided special equations for
calculating the runner diameter, Thoma number and suction
head.
3. In 2006, Kyaw et al. designed runner diameter, bucket size
and nozzle diameter of Pelton wheel.
4. In 2007, Hydraulic machinery research institute in Iran
presented the Francis hydro turbine design process describing
a function to estimate the runner perpendicular plan which
decreases design process.
5. In 2010, Soni et al. used CFD tool to find optimum design of
draft tube.
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In 2011, Albuquerque et al. have
introduced a system for Francis
turbines for optimization based on
two different techniques coupled
with the flow solver.

In 2001, VATECH used CFD

designs to rehabilitate hydro power
turbine and focused on
manufacturing and welding of the
runner technology.

In 2013, Nasir presented a

complete design of cross-flow
turbines.

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 In 2013, Odesola and Oririable designed a small-
scale Francis turbine runner. In this research,
designed head and flow rate were 6m and 0.244
m3/s respectively. The research was based on 2D
and 3D, steady state and singe phase model.

 In 2013, Obrovsky et al. introduced designing

process of high specific speed. This research was
based on CFD method and had three main parts:
o Optimizing the process of the runner design
o Prediction of cavitation by using CFD model
o Preliminary verification by using CFD model
for the entire turbine unit.

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 Software

Many types of software have been designed for hydro turbine calculations since 1990s.

Hydra- HP is one of the most important software designed for hydro turbine
calculations. The small hydro power potential at any given site can be estimated by this
software. On the other hand the software contains a group of flow duration curves.

10 different turbine configurations are covered by Turbine Selection Program. This

program is used especially for low-head small hydro turbines.

VAPIDRO ASTE is a GIS integrated tool. This program includes calculating of the
hydropower potential and identifies promising small scale hydro plants sites.
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TURBNPRO Software is developed for estimating size and technical data in hydraulic
turbines.
• Input data include: unit discharge, net head, gross head, desired turbine type,
system frequency (50 Hz or 60 Hz), efficiency, site elevation and water
temperature.

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 Since there are several special equations for
calculating the Speed, Runner Diameter,
Mathematical Dimensions of Draft Tube and Spiral Case
for Francis turbine, it is absolutely necessary
to analyze all of them and select the
Model appropriate ones.

After studying all accessible references and

comparing their results with the actual
values, and equations of this paper have been
selected.

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 Construction of hydro power plant and
selection of hydro turbine are based on
calculation of output power.

Output Power
In order to determine the amount of installed
capacity, the important considerations are:
1. Head Range
2. Discharge
3. Efficiency
(Considered about 92% in this research
paper)

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  Specific Speed is the most important
parameter, Low specific speeds and
high specific speed are concerned with
high heads and low heads respectively.

 The specific speed is given by:

Specific Speed

where n speed is in rpm, p is nominal power

in kilowatt and hd is design head in meter.

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Discharge Diameter

De Siervo And De Leva Proposed The Following

Equation For Academic Purposes. Therefore,
Discharge Diameter Is Given By:
ℎ𝑑
𝐷3 = 84.5 𝐾𝑢
𝑛

Where Ku is Interpolation function and given by:

𝐾𝑢 = 0.31 + 2.5 𝑥 10−3 𝑛𝑠

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Spiral Casing
Figure (a)
The main dimensions [A, B, C, D, E] of
the spiral case indicated in Fig. (a) would
be obtained in equations.

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Draft Tube The main dimensions [R, S, T, U, V]
of the draft tube indicated in Fig. (b)
would be obtained in following
equation

Figure (b) 19
 Shaft Diameter

The diameter of the shaft can be estimated from the mentioned

equation.

Where Ds is shaft diameter in meter, P is nominal power in

kilowatt and n is design rotational speed in rpm.

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 When unit is at full gate, the
governor is not working and the
generator is disconnected from the
Runaway system, runaway speed is
occurred.
Speed
In this research the runaway speed
would be obtained from the
following equation:

𝑛𝑟 = 1.52 + 1.52 𝑥 10−3 𝑛𝑠 𝑛

Where n and ns are the speed and

specific speed, respectively.

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Thoma Number ‘σ’
Cavitation commonly occurs in
hydroelectric turbines, generally
appearing around turbine runner,
and in the draft tube. To resolve this
problem, suction head (Hs) should
be estimated.

where,
The recommended suction head
L is site elevation in meter was established by Thoma number
hb is barometric pressure height in meter ‘σ’.
σ is cavitation coefficient
hd is design head in meter.

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 Head Discharge Speed Specific
Power Results
Parameters Developed
(m) (m3/sec) (rpm) Speed
(MW)
Table shows the head,
Maroon 121 70 250 172.18 76.4 discharge, speed, specific
speed and nominal power of 6
Abbaspour
150 187.5 187.5 179.9 253.68 plants:
II

Karun III 161 172 187.5 190.7 249.77 In this table, the value of ns
has been calculated based on
Masjid 92% efficiency. This
140 190 187.5 133.45 239.92
Suleiman assumption leads to small
difference between actual
Karkheh 93 158.42 150 189.39 132.89
values & calculated values of
Dez 152 59.2 250 163.4 81.16 specific speed.

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 Comparison b/w Mathematical & Software Error
40

35 33.77
33.7
32.32

30

25.99
25
22.64

20.16 20.02
20
18.19
16.01 15.58
15
12.17
10.89
10 9.28
7.98 8.51
6.51 6.68 6.93 7.38 6.58
5.99
4.57 4.92 4.95
5 4.2
3.44
1.5
0.55
0
Runaway Runner Shaft Runner Thoma A B C D E R S S-T 2V+U
Speed Diameter Diameter Weight

Mathematical Method Software Method 24

 All parameters in TURBNPRO software and mathematical method were
calculated separately.
 According to Figure above parameters such as R, S, S-T and 2V+U have
similar error values in both mathematical and software methods.
 The value of software errors in parameters such as Runaway Speed,
Runner Diameter, Shaft Diameter, A and D are smaller than mathematical
errors. Therefore, software method is more reliable for the above
mentioned parameters.
 In B, C and E parameters, the mathematical errors are smaller than
software errors. Therefore, mathematical errors in these parameters are
more reliable for the above mentioned parameters.

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Conclusion

 This paper introduced result reliability of TURBNPRO software and mathematical method
for Francis turbine.
 Results were analyzed and compared with the actual values which shows that only 6
parameters in software method and 4 parameters in mathematical method among 14
parameters have reliable results.
 Existing accordance of 6 parameters among 14 parameters between actual and software
method values demonstrated that they have used same equations.
 Furthermore, considering using empirical equations in mathematical method, only 4
parameters among 14 parameters have the same equations.
 Therefore remaining parameters in software and mathematical method are used only for
initial estimations.
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 References
 F. de Siervo and F. de Leva, “Modern trends in selecting and designing Francis
turbines,” Water Power & Dam Construction, vol. 28, no. 8, pp. 28-35, 1976.
 F. de Siervos and F. de Leva, “Modern trend in selecting and designing kaplan
turbines (part one),” Water Power & Dam Construction, vol. 29, pp. 51-56, 1977.
 F. de Siervos and F. de Leva, “Modern trend in selecting and designing kaplan
turbines (part two),” Water Power & Dam Constructions, vol. 30, pp. 51-57,
1978.
 F. de Siervos and F. de Leva, “Modern trend in selecting and designing pelton
turbines,” Water Power & Dam Constructions, vol. 30, pp. 40-47, 1978.
 F. Schweiger and J. Gregori, “Developments in the design of Kaplan Turbines,”
Water Power & Dam Constructions, vol. 39, no. 11, pp. 16-20, November 1987.
 J. L. Gordon, “A new approach to turbine speed,” Water Power & Dam
Constructions, vol. 42, no. 8, pp. 39-46, August 1990.
 M. G. Harding, “Turbine selection for micro-hydropower stations in developing
countries,” College of Engineering and Technology Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah, United States, 1995.
 M. Sallaberger, C. Michaud, H. Born, S. Winkler, and M. Peron, “Design and
manufacturing of francis runners for rehabilitation projects,” Report of VA
TECH Hydro, Company, 2001.
 M. N. Kyaw, N. P. Win, M. W. Khin, E. C. Ei, W. H. San et al., “Basic design of
pelton wheel turbine,” Government Technological College Meiktila, Department
of Mechanical Engineering, Myanmar, 2006.

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