000

http://www.developmentbookshelf.com/doi/pdf/10.3362/9781780445519.000 - Kanye G. Radabaugh <rivadeneirarafaelnazareno@gmail.com> - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 4:26:13 PM - IP Address:190.139.125.
34
Publishing
PRACTICAL
JEREMY THAKE
\!!1
for Small-scale Hydropower
Design, Manufacture and Installation
The Micro-hydro Pelton Turbine Manual
http://www.developmentbookshelf.com/doi/pdf/10.3362/9781780445519.000 - Kanye G. Radabaugh <rivadeneirarafaelnazareno@gmail.com> - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 4:26:13 PM - IP Address:190.139.125.34
Practical Action Publishing Ltd

The Schumacher Centre
Bourton on Dunsmore, Rugby,
Warwickshire CV23 9QZ, UK
www.practicalactionpublishing.org
Intermediate Technology Publications 2000.
First published 2000\Digitised 2013
ISBN 10: 1 85339 460 2

ISBN 13: 9781853394607
ISBN Library Ebook: 9781780445519
Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/9781780445519
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without the written permission of the publishers.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
The authors, contributors and/or editors have asserted their rights under the Copyright
Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as authors of this work.
Since 1974, Practical Action Publishing (formerly Intermediate Technology Publications and
ITDG Publishing) has published and disseminated books and information in support of
international development work throughout the world. Practical Action Publishing is a trading
name of Practical Action Publishing Ltd (Company Reg. No. 1159018), the wholly owned
publishing company of Practical Action. Practical Action Publishing trades only in support of
its parent charity objectives and any profits are covenanted back to Practical Action (Charity
Reg. No. 247257, Group VAT Registration No. 880 9924 76).
CONTENTS
Preface ix
Acknowledgements X
Introduction xi
1. The Pelton Turbine 1
1.1 Why Pelton turbines? 1
1.2 General description of a Pelton turbine 2
1.3 The origins of the Pelton wheel 5
1.3.1 Early water mills 5
1.3.2 Tangential wheels 6
1.3.3 The Pelton wheel 8
2. Basic Theory 11
2.1 Impulse and reaction turbines 11
2.2 Water jets 11
2.2.1 Nozzles 11
2.2.2 Spear valves 12
2.2.3 Jets 12
2.3 Buckets and the runner 15
2.3.1 Simple theory 15
2.3.2 Flow into the buckets 15
2.3.3 A more complete theory 17
2.3.4 Windage and mechanical friction losses 18
2.3.5 Overall efficiency 19
2.3.6 Optimum speed 21
2.3.7 Runaway speed 22
2.4 Casing design and multiple jets 22
3. Turbine Selection 24
3.1 Pelton turbine selection 24
3.1.1 Flow equation 24
3.1.2 Speed equation 26
3.1.3 Power equation 26
3.1.4 General procedure 27
3.1.5 Worked example 27
3.1.6 Making a final choice 27
3.1.7 Further examples 29
4. Design 32
4.1 The buckets 32
4.1.1 Bucket shape 32
4.1.2 A bucket design 33
4.1.3 Bucket materials 34
4.1.4 Stress calculations 37
4.2 The runner 39
4.2.1 The number of buckets 39
4.2.2 Attaching the bucket to the hub 39
4.3 Spear valves and nozzles 44
4.3.1 Nozzles or spear valves? 44
4.3.2 Nozzles 45
v
4.3.3 Spear valves 46
4.3.4 The number of jets and jet spacing 50
4.3.5 The effect of the nozzles or spear valves on the penstock 51

4.4 Overspeed protection: deflectors and other mechanisms 52
4.4.1 The need for overspeed protection 52
4.4.2 Deflectors 52
4.4.3 Other shut-down mechanisms 54
4.4.4 Overspeed sensing 55
4.5 General shaft and bearing layout 55
4.5.1 Direct shaft mounting 55
4.5.2 'Peltric' sets 56
4.5.3 Separately mounted runners 56
4.6 Shaft and bearing forces 58
4.7 Runner shaft bearings 60
4.7.1 General considerations 60
4.7.2 Bearing arrangement 61
4.7.3 Selecting the correct bearing size 63
4.7.4 Tolerancing of mating components 64
4.7.5 Bearing lubrication and sealing 65
4.8 Shafts 67
4.8.1 Shaft design 67
4.8.2 Shaft stress 67
4.8.3 Attaching the runner to the shaft 68
4.8.4 Corrosion protection 71
4.9 Turbine shaft seals 72
4.10 Manifolds 73
4.10.1 Determining the size of the manifold 73
4.10.2 Manifold losses 74
4.10.3 Manifold stresses 74
4.11 Shut-off valves 76
4.11.1 Gate valves 77
4.11.2 Butterfly valves 77
4.11.3 Ball valves 77
4.12 Turbine housing 78
4.12.1 Controlling flow within the casing 78
4.12.2 Casing construction 80
4.12.3 Open turbines 81
4.13 Baseframes, foundations and tailrace 81
4.13.1 Baseframes 81
4.13.2 Foundations, floors and anchor bolts 83
4.13.3 Tailrace 85
4.14 Associated components 87
4.14.1 Desilting basin 87
4.14.2 Trashrack 87
4.14.3 Generators 87
4.14.4 Governors, load controllers and flywheels 87
5. Manufacture 91
5.1 Buckets 91
5.1.1 Pattern making 91
5.1.2 Casting single buckets 96
5.1.3 Casting runners in one piece 105
5.1.4 Balancing 110
5.2 Fabricated runners 111
5.2.1 Bolted assemblies 111
5.2.2 Welded assemblies 113
5.2.3 Testing 114
vi
5.2.4 Other methods of manufacturing runners 115
5.3 Spear valves 116
5.4 Manifolds 116

5.5 Turbine housing 116
5.6 Assembly 117
5.6.1 General bearing assembly 117
5.6.2 Fitting taper-sleeve bearings to the shaft 119
5.7 Packing and transport 120
6. Installation, Commissioning and Testing 121

6.1 Installation 121
6.2 Commissioning 121
6.2.1 Commissioning procedure 121
7. Maintenance and Problem Solving 123

7.1 Maintenance 123
7.1.1 Regular inspection 123
7.1.2 Bearings 123
7.1.3 Major inspection 124
7.2 Problem solving 124
7.2.1 Low output power 124
7.2.2 Noise and vibration 128
7.2.3 Leaks 128
8. Conclusion 129
8.1 Further developments 129
9. Appendix: Standard Units, Formulae and Notation 130

9.1 Standard units 130
9.2 Multiplication factors 130
9.3 Other SI units 130
9.4 Basic formulae 130
9.4.1 Turbine output power 130
9.4.2 Power/torque relationship 131
9.5 Unit conversion 131
9.6 Greek alphabet 132
9.7 Accuracy and the acceleration due to gravity 132
10. Appendix: Derivation of Formulae 133

10.1 Nozzles 133
10.2 Spear valves 134
10.3 Turbine power and efficiency 136
10.3.1 Simple theory 136
10.3.2 Water missing the runner 137
10.3.3 Three-dimensional theory 140
10.3.4 Windage losses 142
10.3.5 Mechanical friction losses 143
10.4 Bucket stem stress calculations 143
10.4.1 Runaway load 144
10.4.2 Fatigue load 145
10.4.3 Stress limits 146
10.5 Bolted buckets 148
10.5.1 Standard analysis 148
vii
10.5.2 Analysis of a bolted bucket 148
10.6 Shaft design 149
10.6.1 Static loads 149

10.6.2 Fatigue loads 150
10.7 Manifold loss calculations 151
10.7.1 Pipe losses 151
10.7.2 Bend losses 152
10.7.3 Bifurcation losses 153
10.7.4 Diameter transition losses 154
10.7.5 Worked example 154
10.8 Baseframe anchor bolt loads 157
11. Appendix: Full System Calculation Spreadsheet 158

11.1 Using the spreadsheets 158
11.1.1 Part 1. Penstock losses, turbine jet size and speed
calculations 158
11.1.2 Part 2. Power calculations 161
11.1.3 Part 3. Penstock thickness calculations 161
12. Appendix: 0-ring seals 163

12.1 Sealing arrangements 163
12.2 0-ring section and groove details 163
12.3 0-ring diameter 165
12.4 Material 165
12.5 Installation 165
13. Appendix: Keys and Keyways 166
14. Appendix: Limits and Fits 168

14.1 Selected fits 168
15. Appendix: Specific Speeds 172

15.1 Definition of specific speed 172
15.2 Choosing a turbine 172
16. References 174

17. Glossary 176
18. Index 177
viii
PREFACE
The aim of this book is to give readers with a gen- Despite the emphasis being on smaller turbines,
eral workshop or engineering background, but with large parts of the book are relevant to any size of
no experience of water turbines, sufficient informa- Pelton turbine. The basic theory is independent of
tion to allow them to build a small Pelton turbine. the size, and many of the design features can be
It is the book I needed when I started working in used for larger turbines. The only major omission
micro-hydro some years ago, but which I could not for larger schemes is that the book assumes that the
find. flow is adjusted manually, and does not cover the
Information on Pelton turbines is somewhat design of spear valves or deflectors for use with a
scarce. Pelton technology is well-developed, but governor. Some practices that are only used in
the knowledge is mostly within large commercial large hydro-schemes are mentioned for interest,
companies, who like to keep it in-house. The infor- and also because they show the way micro-hydro
mation that is published seems to fall into three can be developed if the technology is available.
categories: academic articles, descriptions of indi- I have tried to make this book as comprehensive
vidual installations, and textbooks on hydropower. as possible. While my primary aim has been to
Academic articles detail advances in theory, mater- cover the practical aspects of the selection, design
ials, and construction. This is interesting, but not and manufacture of Pelton turbines, I have also
much help if you have never built a turbine before. included a detailed discussion of their theory, plus a
Articles describing individual sites, be they do-it- good deal of relevant engineering reference infor-
yC'urself micro-hydro schemes, or a power-station mation. Since I personally find it frustrating to be
of many hundreds of megawatts, may be useful, but presented with formulae without knowing where
they are of limited help if your site is different. they come from, I have included the derivations of
Textbooks on hydropower do have sections on most of the equations used, but have relegated
Pelton turbines, but these books are rather too gen- mathematics of this sort to the appendices. The
eral. Many standard books are also old and out-of- main text does still have a good number of equa-
date. Old turbine designs will often have quite dif- tions in it, but in many ways this is unavoidable. All
ferent features to modern ones, and it pays, when engineering involves a certain amount of calcula-
you find an author making recommendations or tion. However, some sections are more important
saying such things as 'The optimum dimensions are than others. For example, though a procedure is
... ',to check the publication date. given for the calculation of pipework losses in Sec-
The term 'micro-hydro' is used in the title of this tion 10.7, it is not usually necessary to go through
manual because the book is primarily about small this fully for each installation. The idea of the sec-
turbines. Definitions vary, but 'micro-hydro' typ- tion is to illustrate the effect of various features, so
ically refers to plants with powers of up to lOOkW. that the reader can see why certain designs are bet-
Pelton turbines can be made very small, down to ter than others. In such cases, where it is not
outputs of lOOW or less. Some writers classify the necessary to do all the calculations listed, I have
smallest turbines as 'pico-hydro' or even 'nano- tried to make this clear in the introductory
hydro', but all such units are adequately covered by remarks.
the material here. While every effort has been made to ensure the
Micro-hydro often, though not always, implies a accuracy of this book, and most designs contained
degree of simplicity too. Large Pelton turbines within it have been tested in the field, the author
have to be fully engineered, but small units can and publishers cannot accept any liability for
work well even if they are quite basic. The em- damage, injury, breakdown or poor performance
phasis here is on simple technology, so that the arising from the application of designs or data con-
turbines can be made in small workshops, or in tained in it. The reader is responsible to check de-
countries where only basic engineering facilities are signs and conduct such tests as may be necessary to
available. It can easily be adapted for more ensure that any components suggested by this pub-
advanced manufacturing technology; if better lication are suitable for the use to which they are
methods are available, do use them. put.
ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has been written while I have been to reproduce extracts of published materials,
working at DCS, an appropriate technology photographs, or illustrations: BSI, ITDG, Kvaerner
development organization in Nepal that has had over Energy, Rupert Evans, D.M. Miller, Newmills Hydro,
20 years of experience in micro-hydro, and installed Ringspann, Nigel Smith, and Sulzer Hydro Ltd.
nearly 300 schemes. The plentiful water tumbling Nearly all the design features in this book have
down the hills gives Nepal great potential for been used in micro-hydro installations, and thanks
hydropower, but the lack of roads and infrastructure go to the staff of Nepal Hydro and Electric, Butwal,
make it a challenge to build hydropower plants there. for building most of these units. The Intermediate
My colleagues have worked for years in difficult, Technology Development Group, through its offices
remote locations, often spending months at a time in Nepal and UK, has worked with DCS in the
away from home, and working with very rudimentary development of micro-hydro, and this long term
equipment, to install mills and electrification schemes partnership has been very fruitful. I would like to
for villages in the hills. This book is dedicated to thank them for their assistance.
them, and for the willing help they have given in Two more personal thanks are due. Firstly to
installing, testing, and proving many of the ideas Tear Fund, the Christian relief and development
presented here. organization in the UK who supported our family
Special thanks go to Mark Waltham, who used to while we were in Nepal, and who continued that
work for ITDG both in Nepal and UK. He has had support in the UK so that I could finish this book.
many years of experience with micro-hydro Peltons. We have been glad to be part of Tear Fund, and are
The easy-to-manufacture Pelton bucket used in this grateful to the many staff, individuals and churches
book was originally designed by him (though his behind it who make its work possible. Finally, thanks
design is slightly modified here), and many of the go to my wife and children. Writing a book of this
detail design features derive from Mark's work. sort is a time-consuming business, and they have been
He has freely provided much of the information. a help through the whole process, from my frequent
Thanks also go to a number of people who have absences as I travelled to sites around Nepal, to long
supplied me with advice and relevant information: hours writing and drawing.
John Burton and Simon Lucas of Reading University
in England, who gave me a stack of information on DCS is an appropriate technology research
Pelton turbines, in sundry languages; Alex Arter of organization within Nepal. It develops small-scale
SKAT in Switzerland for academic articles; John technologies that are appropriate for the conditions
Williamson who hunted through libraries in UK for within Nepal and other developing countries, working
relevant information when I was in Nepal; Vijay with local communities to help them improve their
Shresta of Shresta Industries, Bairahawa, Nepal, for standard of living. It has a particular emphasis on
making many batches of Pelton bucket castings and micro-hydro, having installed hundreds of water-
going through the processes involved in detail; Svein powered mills and village-scale hydroelectric
Aspesletten, who has worked with large, commercial schemes throughout Nepal. DCS also works on rural
Pelton turbines for many years, for information electrification, building technologies and materials,
on the more high-technology way of doing things; agricultural and crop-processing machinery,
Glenn Creelman of DCS for digging out information mechanical tools, food-processing equipment and
I had left in Nepal; Nicholas Talbot of Terrill Bros. water systems, and is active in a wide range of local
Founders, Hayle, England for information on casting. training and consultancy.
Richard Goss produced a model of the bucket on
CAD. My father and sister helped in a variety of ways DCS, PO Box 126, Kathmandu, Nepal.
to print out the text of the book. Various individuals Fax: +977 71 4131
and organizations have kindly given permission Email: dcs@umn.org.np
X
INTRODUCTION
The origins of this book Some sites could still use crossflow turbines, but
often the steep. mountainous terrain of Nepal gave
This book arises out of the micro-hydro work of very high heads and small flows. This was ideal for
DCS, which is an appropriate technology develop- Pelton turbines. Over the last few years, DCS has
ment centre in Butwal, on the lowland plains of
been working to produce a Pelton turbine design
Nepal. DCS was established in 1972 by a Christian
that can be made using the basic engineering facil-
mission, the United Mission to Nepal. Micro-hydro
ities available in Nepal. Pelton turbines have been
work began in Butwal in 1975 when a simple pro-
installed in sizes ranging from lOOmm to 400mm
totype crossflow turbine was made and successfully
PCD (Pitch Circle Diameter - see Section 1.2).
tested. This turbine was installed in a crop-
with turbine outputs of 2kW to 200kW. At the time
processing mill. A type of vertical mill (called a
of writing, DCS has built near seventy micro-hydro
ghatta in Nepal), which uses wooden paddles to
electrification schemes, of which fifteen are for
drive a grindstone, was common within the coun-
electricity only.
try, so water-power technology was already famil-
iar. However, the modern turbines allowed a range
of other crop processing operations to be done , not
just the flour grinding of the traditional mills. The
new mills were simple, rugged, and easy to main-
tain. They were also relatively cheap, and close co-
operation between DCS and a government bank,
the Agricultural Development Bank of Nepal, gave
villagers throughout the country access to the fi-
nance needed to construct them. The programme
was very successful, and DCS built more than two
hundred crossflow mills in the succeeding years.
Other local workshops began to make and install
turbines, so that, to date, there are nearly a thou-
sand water-powered mills in Nepal.
In the 1980s it was realized that mill turbines
could be used in the evenings to drive generators,
and supply electricity to the surrounding villages.
DCS embarked on a programme of bazaar lighting.
Reliable and inexpensive electronic load con-
trollers, ELCs, were just becoming available, and
these were often used as governors for the systems.
DCS also developed a number of simple control
circuits for these stand-alone hydro-electic plants,
and a low-wattage cooker that could make use of
the electricity. As with the mills, the electrical tech-
nology had to be cheap, rugged and simple.
Large areas of Nepal are not served by the
national electricity grid, and even today, only about
10% of Nepal's population has electricity. It soon
became clear that there was a demand for micro- Fig. Q-1 : Cooking on electricity generated by a 50kW
hydro plants just for electricity, without the milling. micro-hydro power station (Ghandruk, Nepal)
XI

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http://www.developmentbookshelf.com/doi/pdf/10.3362/9781780445519.000 - Kanye G. Radabaugh <rivadeneirarafaelnazareno@gmail.com> - Wednesday, October 25, 2017 4:26:13 PM - IP Address:190.139.125.

Practical Action Publishing Ltd

First published 2000\Digitised 2013

ISBN 10: 1 85339 460 2

4.3.5 The effect of the nozzles or spear valves on the penstock 51

5.4 Manifolds 116

6. Installation, Commissioning and Testing 121

7. Maintenance and Problem Solving 123

9. Appendix: Standard Units, Formulae and Notation 130

10. Appendix: Derivation of Formulae 133

10.6.1 Static loads 149

11. Appendix: Full System Calculation Spreadsheet 158

12. Appendix: 0-ring seals 163

13. Appendix: Keys and Keyways 166

14. Appendix: Limits and Fits 168

15. Appendix: Specific Speeds 172

16. References 174

18. Index 177

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