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Hydraulic Turbines transfer the energy from a flowing fluid to a rotating shaft. Turbine itself means a thing which rotates or spins. To know more about what are Hydraulic Turbines, what is the working principle of Hydraulic Turbines and how are they classified, read on through this article series. Leonardo da Vinci once said The power of water has changed more in this world than emperors or kings. It was very rightly stated by him as in present time Hydropower, the power generated from water, has a major contribution to the worlds total power production. This all was made possible by the development of Hydraulic Turbines which can transfer the energy from flowing water to the shafts of dynamos producing electrical power.
Hydraulic Turbines
Hydraulic Turbines have a row of blades fitted to the rotating shaft or a rotating plate. Flowing liquid, mostly water, when pass through the Hydraulic Turbine it strikes the blades of the turbine and makes the shaft rotate. While flowing through the Hydraulic Turbine the velocity and pressure of the liquid reduce, these result in the development of torque and rotation of the turbine shaft. There are different forms of Hydraulic Turbines in use depending on the operational requirements. For every specific use a particular type of Hydraulic Turbine provides the optimum output.
example of mixed flow type, in Francis Turbine water enters in radial direction and exits in axial direction. None of the Hydraulic Turbines are purely axial flow or purely radial flow. There is always a component of radial flow in axial flow turbines and of axial flow in radial flow turbines.
Francis Turbine is the first hydraulic turbine with radial inflow. It was designed by American scientist James Francis. Francis Turbine is a reaction turbine. Reaction Turbines have some primary features which differentiate them from Impulse Turbines. The major part of pressure drop occurs in the turbine itself, unlike the impulse turbine where complete pressure drop takes place up to the entry point and the turbine passage is completely filled by the water flow during the operation.
Most of the turbines developed earlier were suitable for large heads of water. With increasing demand of power need was felt to harness power from sources of low head water, such as, rivers flowing at low heights. For such low head applications Viktor Kaplan designed a turbine similar to the propellers of ships. Its working is just reverse to that of propellers. The Kaplan Turbine is also called as Propeller Turbine.
Causes of Cavitation
The liquid enters hydraulic turbines at high pressure; this pressure is a combination of static and dynamic components. Dynamic pressure of the liquid is by the virtue of flow velocity and the other component, static pressure, is the actual fluid pressure which the fluid applies and which is acted upon it. Static pressure governs the process of vapor bubble formation or boiling. Thus, Cavitation can occur near the fast moving blades of the turbine where local dynamic head increases due to action of blades which causes static pressure to fall. Cavitation also occurs at the exit of the turbine as the liquid has lost major part of its pressure heads and any increase in dynamic head will lead to fall in static pressure causing Cavitation.
Avoiding Cavitation
To avoid cavitation while operating Hydraulic Turbines parameters should be set such that at any point of flow static pressure may not fall below the vapor pressure of the liquid. These parameters to control cavitation are pressure head, flow rate and exit pressure of the liquid. The control parameters for cavitation free operation of hydraulic turbines can be obtained by conducting tests on model of the turbine under consideration. The parameters beyond which cavitation starts and turbine efficiency falls significantly should be avoided while operation of hydraulic turbines. Flow separation at the exit of the turbine in the draft tube causes vibrations which can damage the draft tube. To dampen the vibration and stabilize the flow air is injected in the draft tube. To totally avoid the flow separation and cavitation in the draft tube it is submerged below the level of the water in tailrace.