PENGAJIAN KEJURUTERAAN MEKANIK

KAMPUS KEJURUTERAAN
UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
14300 NIBONG TEBAL, PULAU PINANG
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EML 331/2
MAKMAL KEJURUTERAAN II
2018/19

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Title: Hydraulic Turbines (Francis & Pelton)
Title: Performance Test on Francis Turbine

Objective:
To carry out the performance test on Francis Turbine, draw the inlet and exit velocity diagrams
and calculate specific work, shaft power, hydraulic power output, overall efficiency, degree of
reaction at various speeds and blade positions.

Introduction:
The Francis turbine is a type of reaction turbine that was developed by James B. Francis.
Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today. They operate in a water
head from 40 to 600 m and are primarily used for electrical power production. The electric
generators which most often use this type of turbine have a power output which generally
ranges just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW. Francis turbines operates at a very low head but at
high flow rate. Francis turbines inward flow reaction turbine. In old Francis turbine, the
discharge was radial. The modern Francis turbine is an inward mixed flow (radial and axial)
reaction turbine. In this turbine, water under pressure enters the runner through the guide
blade radially in inward direction and leaves the runner axially

Apparatus:
Laboratory model Francis turbine with adjustable blades, runner blades and measuring
devices for speed, torque, flow rate and pressures.

Operation Procedure:
 Constant speed (rpm)
1. The fixed blades are opened and the pressure control valve is closed.
2. The blade of the Francis turbine is set into the initial position of position 0.
3. The experimental rig is switched on.
4. The turbine speed is adjusted to 1200rpm
5. The volume flow rate, torque and pressure readings 1,2 and 3 is recorded.
6. The test is carried out again with increasing blade position from position 0 to position
10 or until the pump can achieve turbine speed of 1200rpm
 Fixed Blade Position
1. The blades are set to position 7
2. The experimental rig is switched on
3. The turbine speed is adjusted to 200rpm.
4. The volume flow rate, torque and pressure readings 1,2
and 3 is recorded.
5. Step 2 to 4 is repeated using increasing turbine speed of
400rpm, 600rpm, 800rpm, 1000rpm and 1200rpm for
each set.
Figure 1: Fixed blade at
position 7……..

Available Data

Atmospheric Pressure, Po 1.013 bar

Outside Runner Diameter, D1 0.08 m
Inside Runner Diameter, D2 0.04 m
Blade Width, b1 0.01 m
Blade Thickness Projection, t 0.0025 m
Number of Runner Blades, z 11
Inlet Angle of Runner Blade, β1 165 degree
Outlet Angle of Runner Blades, β2 50 degree
Blade Efficiency, ηb 0.9
Mechanical Efficiency, ηm 0.9
Results:
Turbine Speed N=1200rpm
Pressure, P (bar) Volume Flow
Volume flow rate,Q Rate Q, Torque,
Blade Position P1 P2 P3 liter/min m^3/s Nm
0 2.083 1.913 1.049 62.6 0.00104 0.57
1 1.923 1.745 1.048 70.5 0.00118 0.57
2 1.993 1.788 1.047 84.4 0.00141 0.57
3 2.031 1.729 1.046 103.8 0.00173 0.57
4 2.174 1.785 1.046 122.1 0.00204 0.57
5 2.411 1.883 1.044 146.1 0.00244 0.57
6 2.573 1.925 1.042 167.4 0.00279 0.57
7 2.788 1.988 1.039 191.9 0.0032 0.57
8 3.015 2.042 1.036 218.4 0.00364 0.57
9 2.988 1.95 1.032 227.5 0.00379 0.57

Table 1: Results for Francis turbine readings at

constant turbine speed

Blade Position = 7

Pressure, P (bar) Volume flow

Turbine Speed Volume flow rate, Q rate, Q Torque,
rpm P1 P2 P3 liter/min m^3/s Nm
200 1.284 1.088 1.046 75.2 0.00125 0.61
400 1.475 1.182 1.047 99.3 0.00166 0.61
600 1.642 1.304 1.045 110.3 0.00184 0.57
800 1.986 1.493 1.044 140.1 0.00234 0.57
1000 2.341 1.707 1.041 164.6 0.00274 0.57
1200 2.779 1.988 1.038 193.4 0.00322 0.57

Table 2: Results for Francis turbine readings at constant blade position

 Analysis

Peripheral
Velocities (m/s) Radial Inlet Radial Exit Specific
Inlet Exit Flow
Component Absolute Component Absolute Blade Turbine Effective Hydraulic Overall
Blade Relative Flow Inlet Relative Inlet
of Inlet Velocity of Exit Velocity Work, Power, P Power, Power, Efficiency,
Position Velocity, Angle, α1 Velocity, Angle,
Velocity, Component, Velocity, Component, Es (W) Peff (W) Phyd (W) ηo (%)
W1 (m/s) W2 (m/s) α2
U1 U2 C1r (m/s) C1u (m/s) C2r (m/s) C2u (m/s) (J/kg)

0 5.027 2.513 0.4661 1.801 6.766 3.941 1.0629 1.3875 1.621 33.24 29.94 31.23 25.30 185.32 13.65%
1 5.027 2.513 0.5250 2.028 6.986 4.298 1.1970 1.5625 1.509 38.42 31.32 36.80 29.81 177.50 16.80%
2 5.027 2.513 0.6285 2.428 7.372 4.873 1.4330 1.8706 1.311 47.55 33.76 47.49 38.47 228.84 16.81%
3 5.027 2.513 0.7729 2.986 7.911 5.580 1.7624 2.3006 1.034 59.59 37.17 64.30 52.08 292.35 17.81%
4 5.027 2.513 0.9092 3.513 8.420 6.163 2.0731 2.7062 0.774 69.53 40.38 82.17 66.56 392.20 16.97%
5 5.027 2.513 1.0879 4.203 9.087 6.827 2.4806 3.2381 0.432 80.12 44.59 108.57 87.95 565.09 15.56%
6 5.027 2.513 1.2465 4.816 9.679 7.339 2.8422 3.7102 0.128 87.41 48.33 134.83 109.21 722.50 15.12%
7 5.027 2.513 1.4289 5.521 10.359 7.854 3.2582 4.2532 -0.221 -86.13 52.63 168.32 136.34 942.39 14.47%
8 5.027 2.513 1.6263 6.283 11.096 8.338 3.7081 4.8406 -0.598 -80.84 57.28 208.49 168.88 1209.69 13.96%
9 5.027 2.513 1.6940 6.545 11.349 8.490 3.8626 5.0423 -0.728 -79.33 58.87 223.23 180.82 1243.10 14.55%

Table 3: Analysis for Francis turbine at different blade position

 Peripheral
Velocities Exit
(m/s) Radial Inlet Inlet Radial Exit
Flow Absolute Specific
Componen Relative Absolute Componen Relative Turbine Effectiv Hydrauli Overall
Inlet Velocity Flow Inlet Blade
rpm t of Inlet Velocity Velocity t of Exit Velocity Power, e Power, c Power, Efficiency
Angle Compone Angle, α2 Work,
Velocity, , W1 Componen Velocity, , W2 P (W) Peff (W) Phyd (W) , ηo (%)
, α1 nt, C2u Es (J/kg)
U1 U2 C1r (m/s) (m/s) t, C1u (m/s) C2r (m/s) (m/s)
(m/s)

0.41 10.83
200 0.837 0.5603 2.165 2.928 1.2768 1.6667 -0.653 -62.92 2.73 3.42 2.77 56.38 4.91%
9 2
0.83
400 1.675 0.7398 2.858 4.436 9.469 1.6860 2.2009 -0.577 -71.10 7.91 13.09 10.61 126.93 8.36%
7
1.25
600 2.512 0.8218 3.175 5.579 8.379 1.8727 2.4447 -0.315 -80.44 14.41 26.49 21.46 191.95 11.18%
6
1.67
800 3.349 1.0438 4.033 7.245 8.198 2.3787 3.1051 -0.321 -82.31 24.80 57.92 46.91 377.14 12.44%
5
2.09
1000 4.187 1.2263 4.738 8.763 7.966 2.7947 3.6482 -0.252 -84.85 37.22 102.10 82.70 604.76 13.67%
3
2.51
1200 5.024 1.4409 5.567 10.402 7.887 3.2836 4.2865 -0.243 -85.76 52.87 170.41 138.03 944.94 14.61%
2

Table 4: Analysis for Francis turbine at different blade position

Analysis of Table 1 (Constant turbine speed)

Hydraulic Power against Blade Position

1400

1200
Hydraulic Power, W

1000

800

600

400

200

0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Blade Position

Plot 1: Graph of hydraulic power against blade position

Effective Power Against Blade Position

200
180
160
Effective Power, W

140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10
Blade Position

Plot 2: Graph of effective power against blade position

Analysis of table 2 (Constant blade position)

Overall Efficiency Against Turbine Speed

0.16
0.14
Overall Efficiency 0.12
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Turbine Speed, RPM

Figure 3: Graph of overall efficiency against turbine speed

Effective Power, Peff (W)

160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Figure 4: Graph of effective power against turbine speed

Hydraulic Power Against Turbine Speed

1000
900
800
Hydraulic Power, W

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400
Turbine Speed, RPM

Figure 5: Graph of hydraulic power against turbine speed

Discussion:

Referring to table 1 results at plot 1 and plot 2, the effective power and hydraulic
power of the Francis turbine against fixed blade at 1200 rpm, the trend of all the graph lines
are increasing but only until position of fixed blade reach 9. The effective power is lower
than the hydraulic power of the turbine. This is due to the calculation of mechanical power
does not include the volume flow rate, the blade efficiency and mechanical efficiency. The
volume flow rate of water coming out from the turbine after loss of energy is deducted from
hydraulic power is calculated, the value obtained is the effective power.

Based on figure 4 and figure 5, at static blade position, the hydraulic power and the
effective power shows a trend of increasing exponentially with increasing turbine speed. This
is due to the increase in speed of turbine will turn the rotor blades faster hence increasing the
power generated. The overall efficiency on figure 3 also increases as the speed of the turbine
increases. However, the maximum value for the speed of the turbine can be set is only up
1200rpm. This is due to the limitation of the pump supplying the water into the Francis
turbine and the blade position also contributes in the limitation. Lower blade positions (0 to
6) have a higher capability to be set at higher speed than 1200rpm while higher blade position
(7 to 10) limits the maximum speed that the pump can achieve.

There are some errors occur during this experiment. Firstly, the reading from un-
calibrated electronic sensor change rapidly which has a hard time taking which an exact
reading, so we can only take the random readings that suitable. Next, the water that used is
not pure, which there are impurities in water, so the density of liquid used is not the same as
pure water as in theory. There are some leakages along the pipe. This will affect the reading
values. Moreover, there are water bubbles throughout the pipe that can cause cavitation effect
in the turbine which will damage the vanes and this will reduce the head and local static
pressure drop to the vapour pressure level. The noise and vibration of the turbine will be
produced because of the cavitation effect. This reduces the accuracy of the experiment. The
vibration of the pipe due to motor, pump and water flow will affect the accuracy of the result.
There is also minor loss due to friction inside the pipe.

Besides that, the sensor to measure the torque is not responsive as the belt is loose and
not in contact with the wheel. The value of torque is not constant throughout the experiment
due to the increase in wheel speed but, the recorded data shows an almost constant value for
torque which deviates from the actual value. However, the value of torque is not used in the
analysis of data thus, not interfering with the outcome of the experiment.

Figure 6: loose torque belt

 There are some precautions needed in this experiment in order to reduce the errors.
Firstly, for accurate readings, make sure to take the readings after 3 minutes for the fluid in
stable condition. The readings should be taken for a few times in order to get the average value.
The electronic sensor used can be hooked up to a closed loop system that feedback the result
by adjusting the sampling rate of each parameter. Next, make sure the water that being used is
pure water. Make sure there are no leakages along the pipe. Besides, a closed piping system
should be installed where the output of the water directly flow into the hydraulic bench instead
of letting water being drained off from the piping system. A damper as a good vibration
absorber should be installed in order to reduce vibration of the turbine. Lastly, we need to
consider the minor loss due to friction inside the pipe

Conclusion

The result obtained has been tabulated and graphs have been plotted to show the characteristic
and performance of the Francis turbine.

Reference

1. Pg 31-35. (2018) “Buku Makmal EML332/2, Makmal Kejuruteraan II, Sidang 2018-
2019”, Universiti Sains Malaysia
2. Fillo, Noelle. (2015) “Francis Turbines”, Colorado State University
3. T Nguyen, (2015), “Guide Vanes in Francis Turbine”, Ho Chi Minh City University
of Technology
4. Avellan, F. (2004). “Introduction to cavitation n hydraulic machinery”. Lausanne,
Switzerlan: EPFL Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.
Title: Performance Test on Pelton Turbine

Objective: To determine the operating characteristic of Pelton turbine

Introduction:

The Pelton wheel is an impulse type water turbine. It was invented by Lester Allan Pelton in
the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to
water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel. On the Pelton turbine the torque
is generated by deflection of the free jet in the double buckets of the runner. That is why the
Pelton turbine is also called free jet turbine. The free jet turbine was invented around 1880 by
the American Pelton, after whom it got its name. The greatest improvement that Pelton made
was to introduce symmetrical double buckets. This shape is basically still valid today. The
splitter ridge separates the jet into two equal halves, which are diverted sideways. Since then
the turbine has been considerably improved in all respects and the output of power has
increased. Pelton's paddle geometry was designed so that when the rim ran at half the speed of
the water jet, the water left the wheel with very little speed. The design extracted almost all the
water impulse energy which allowed for a very efficient turbine.

Apparatus: Hydraulic bench, Pelton turbine, Tachometer

Methodology:

1. The pump is started and water is supplied to the turbine by the volumetric bench
2. A nozzle is adjusted until the water head reach 9 m.
3. The band brake is adjusted until the reading of spring balance W1 is 0.1N
4. The reading of spring balance W2, wheel speed and volume flow rate is recorded.
5. Step 4 is repeated using increasing load for spring balance W1 by an incremental of
0.1N until 10 readings is taken and one maximum load is taken by increasing the load
until the wheel stops.
6. The experiment is repeated with a different water head of 10m.
Results:

Water head= 9m

Load (N)
Wheel Speed, N
No
(rpm)
W1 W2 ΔW
1 0.1 1 0.9 1068
2 0.2 1.6 1.4 1029
3 0.3 3.4 3.1 934
4 0.4 4.4 4.0 898
5 0.5 5.8 5.3 849
6 0.6 7.7 7.1 744
7 0.7 8.9 8.2 656
8 0.8 10.2 9.4 576
9 0.9 11.8 10.9 500
10 1 12.6 11.6 450
11 2 17.4 15.4 0
Table 4: Results for Pelton turbine at water head = 9 m

Water head= 10m

Load (N)
Wheel Speed, N
No
(rpm)
W1 W2 ΔW
1 0.1 1.7 1.6 1078
2 0.2 1.4 1.2 1092
3 0.3 3 2.7 1003
4 0.4 7 6.6 838
5 0.5 7.5 7 810
6 0.6 8.3 7.7 740
7 0.7 9.5 8.8 685
8 0.8 10.4 9.6 643
9 0.9 10.9 10 619
10 1 12.2 11.2 562
11 2 18 16 0
Table 5: Results for Pelton turbine at water head = 10m
Analysis:

Torque, T Volume Flow Volume Flow Rate, Mechanical Power, Hydraulic Efficiency,
(Nm) Rate, Ql (l/min) Qm (m3/s) Pm (W) Power, Pw (W) η (%)

0.027 23.0 0.0003833 3.020 33.845 8.92%

0.042 23.0 0.0003833 4.526 33.845 13.37%
0.093 23.0 0.0003833 9.096 33.845 26.88%
0.12 23.0 0.0003833 11.285 33.845 33.34%
0.159 23.0 0.0003833 14.136 33.845 41.77%
0.213 23.0 0.0003833 16.595 33.845 49.03%
0.246 23.0 0.0003833 16.899 33.845 49.93%
0.282 22.8 0.0003800 17.010 33.550 50.70%
0.327 23.0 0.0003833 17.122 33.845 50.59%
0.348 22.8 0.0003800 16.399 33.550 48.88%
0.462 23.0 0.0003833 0.000 33.845 0.00%
Table 6: Analysis of Pelton turbine at water head of 9m

Torque Against Pelton Speed

0.6

0.5

0.4
Torque, Nm

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 6: Graph of torque against Pelton speed

 Turbine Efficiency Against Pelton Speed
60.00%

Turbine Efficiency, % 50.00%

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 7: Graph of turbine efficiency against Pelton speed

Mechanical Power, W
18
16
Mechanical Power, W

14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 8: Graph of mechanical power against Pelton speed

 Hydraulic Power. W
33.9

33.85

33.8

33.75

33.7

33.65

33.6

33.55

33.5
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Figure 9: Graph of hydraulic power against Pelton speed

Torque, T Volume Flow Volume Flow Rate, Mechanical Power, Hydraulic Efficiency,
(Nm) Rate, Ql (l/min) Qm (m3/s) Pm (W) Power, Pw (W) η (%)

0.048 23.5 0.0003917 5.419 38.423 14.10%

0.036 24.0 0.0004000 4.117 39.240 10.49%
0.081 24.0 0.0004000 8.508 39.240 21.68%
0.198 23.8 0.0003967 17.376 38.913 44.65%
0.210 24.0 0.0004000 17.813 39.240 45.39%
0.231 24.0 0.0004000 17.901 39.240 45.62%
0.264 24.0 0.0004000 18.938 39.240 48.26%
0.288 24.0 0.0004000 19.392 39.240 49.42%
0.30 24.0 0.0004000 19.446 39.240 49.56%
0.336 24.0 0.0004000 19.774 39.240 50.39%
0.480 24.0 0.0004000 0.000 39.240 0.00%
Table 7: Analysis of Pelton turbine at water head of 10m
 Torque Against Pelton Speed
0.6

0.5

0.4
Torque, Nm

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 10: Graph of torque against Pelton speed

Turbine Efficiency Against Pelton Speed

60.00%

50.00%
Turbine Efficiency, %

40.00%

30.00%

20.00%

10.00%

0.00%
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 11: Graph of turbine efficiency against Pelton speed

 Mechanical Power, W
25

Mechanical Power, W 20

15

10

0
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Pelton Speed, Rpm

Figure 12: Graph of mechanical power against Pelton speed

Hydraulic Power. W
39.3
39.2
39.1
39
38.9
38.8
38.7
38.6
38.5
38.4
38.3
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

Figure 13: Graph of hydraulic power against Pelton speed

Discussion

In figure 8 and figure 12, the graph of mechanical power vs turbine speed, both graph
of water head of 9m and 10m shows a bell curve behavior that indicate the maximum
mechanical power that can be obtained from the Pelton turbine which is at 500rpm and 562rpm
respectively. Besides that, in figure 11 and figure 7, the graph of overall efficiency vs turbine
speed also exhibits the same behavior as in the graph of mechanical power vs turbine speed.
This is because the value of turbine efficiency is manipulated by the value of the mechanical
power and the hydraulic power where the hydraulic power is mostly constant throughout the
experiment which can be seen form figure 9 and figure 13.

Figure 11 and 12 shows this trend because for any mechanical system, it takes certain
time to perform a work. So, close to the optimum speed ratio of U/V = 0., the buckets
experience sufficient impact force from the water jet, making the wheel rotate faster and thus,
generating more power. However, as the speed of the wheel is made to increase further and
exceeds the optimum ratio, each of the buckets get very little time to experience the impact of
jet and eventually convert it into power. The optimum runner speed is when the water exits the
bucket backward at the same relative speed as the bucket is moving forward. This brings the
water to a virtual halt, and all of the energy is converted to driving the generator. This will
happen when runner speed is about half of the jet speed. The prime reason why Pelton turbines
tend to lose efficiency when operating beyond the optimum speed ratio which can be seen in
figure 14.

Figure 14: Example of Graph of efficiency of

Pelton turbine against turbine speed

For the graph of torque against turbine speed, torque is decreasing as the speed of
turbine increases which can be seen in figure 6 and figure 10. This is because if the bucket is
not moving at all, the water will exit the bucket at high speed. Forced backward, it provides
good torque, but no captured energy. This is the situation at startup. At the other extreme, if the
bucket moves as fast as the water, the jet of water will spray out beyond the turbine without
creating any torque. Figure 15 simplifies this.
 Figure 15: Turbine max power spot

Experimental errors occur in the experiment leads to the deviation of the readings
obtained as compared to the expected results. The first error is the fluctuation of the machine’s
readings whereby when taking the readings of loads, the readings fluctuate and the exact value
of the loads’ readings is hard to obtain. This may be caused by the vibration of the operating
motor and water flow through the pipe. These vibrations will affect the sensors and cause the
instruments’ readings to fluctuate. This leads to less accurate net weight of load, torque and
mechanical power readings. Besides, there is also pipe leakage which may also contribute to
the deviation of the experimental readings. The zero errors also contribute to the experimental
errors whereby the measuring instrument show negative readings at the beginning of the
experiment before the readings are taken. The frictional force between the wheel and the wheel
shaft also causes the readings obtained to be less accurate. The old brake band unable to give
a constant friction with the wheel drum.

There are some errors in the experiment and precaution steps are required to improve the
experimental results. First, the experiment should be carried out for a few more times and the
average readings are taken to improve the experimental result. The readings should only be
taken when they are stable to give more accurate experimental results. The installation of the
damper in motor and pump will minimize the system vibration. Furthermore, new piping
system should be designed with no leakages, smooth inner piping and less bending, valves or
other factors which will contribute to the minor head losses and affect the hydraulic power
obtained. Besides, the measuring instruments should also be set zero before the readings are
taken to avoid the zero errors. Furthermore, the contact area between the wheel and its shaft
should be lubricated frequently to ensure the minimum amount of friction subjected which
affect the experimental readings. The brake band should be replaced to improve the
experimental result. The adjusting knob used for adjusting the turbine speed is loose and this
will cause the value of impeller speed can’t be set accurately. The adjusting knob can be
replaced by using a digital control system to control the speed which can improve the accuracy
of the readings.
Conclusion

In can be concluded that the optimum turbine speed for maximum mechanical power and
maximum turbine efficiency for water head at 9 meter and 10 meter is 500rpm and 562rpm
respectively. The torque is maximum at startup (zero revolution per minute) and decreases as
the wheel speed increases.

Reference

1. Pg 31-35. (2018) “Buku Makmal EML332/2, Makmal Kejuruteraan II, Sidang 2018-
2019”, Universiti Sains Malaysia
2. (2014), “Specific Speed and Unit Conditions”, CodeCogs. Zyba Ltd
3. http://webcabinet.tripod.com/Assignment/pelton.htm. 14 Oct 2018
4. https://www.homepower.com/optimizing-turbines-runner-rpm. 15 Oct 2018
Calculate:

i. Torque, T

= Wnet x r

ii. Volume flow rate, Q

𝑄
=
𝑡

iii. Mechanical Power, Pmech

2𝜋𝑁
= 𝑥𝑇
60

iv. Hydraulic Power, Phyd

=pwgQH

v. Turbine Efficiency, ηT

Pmech
=
Phyd