Dipartimento Energia

APPLIED LECTURE 4 - Thermal and hydraulic machines

1) A Kaplan pump-turbine absorbs a power of 654 kW (o = 0.95) displacing a flow rate Q = 10.5
m3/s in the pump functioning. The hydraulic efficiency holds up to 0.90 and the overall losses
in the circuit sum up to 0.25 m. The impeller features De = 2.19 m and Di = 0.94 m and spins at
18.33 rad/s. The fluid velocity at the diffuser outlet is axial and equal to the stage inlet velocity.
Determine the internal power in the turbine operating mode provided that the machine operates
with the same flow rate and displays an hydraulic efficiency of 0.85. The blades are rotated so
as to keep the shaft rotating versus. Also determine the velocity triangles for the two operating
modes.
2) The Pelton turbine from the Salanfe-Miville plant displays the following design operating
features:
available head Hd = 1441 m;
volumetric flow rate Q = 2.79 m3/s;
shaft angular speed n = 500 rpm;
net power supplied Pu = 34250 kW;
mean blade diameter D = 2950 mm;
flow diameter d = 148 mm;
geometric angle of the bucket trailing edge = 9;
mechanical efficiency m = 0.97.
The overall losses in the penstock can be neglected. Determine the turbine hydraulic efficiency
as well as the velocity loss coefficients and .

3) The figure reports the characteristic

diagram of a Francis turbine. The
turbine admits a flow rate of
3800 l/s under a head Hu = 240 m.
Determine the mean impeller
diameter as well as the rotational
speed required in order to achieve
the maximum efficiency (the
rotational speed should comply with
the need to couple the machine to a
alternator at 50 Hz). Also determine
the turbine net power and the run-
away speed.

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4) A Francis turbine displays a hydraulic efficiency y = 0.88 and supplies a net usable power of
18.5 MW at a volumetric flow rate of 20 m3/s. The machine displays the following operating
characteristics:
tangential velocity at the outer impeller diameter u1 = 30 m/s;
geometric angle of the fixed row trailing edge 1 = 30;
absolute velocity at the impeller outlet lined up along the axis;
fixed row loss coefficient = 0.95.
Assuming the losses throughout the penstock to be negligible, determine the pressure p1 at the
stator outlet provided that such cross-section is sited 100 m beneath the upstream reservoir.
Also determine the net turbine head Hu.

5) The Kaplan turbine from the Rupperswil plant features the following operating parameters:
volumetric flow rate Q = 202 m3/s;
net head Hu = 10.75 m;
shaft angular speed n = 100 rpm;
net power supplied Pu = 17750 kW;
mechanical efficiency m = 0.95;
outer impeller diameter De = 5300 mm;
inner impeller diameter Di = 2200 mm;
absolute velocity at the impeller outlet lined up along the axis;
volumetric efficiency v 1.
Determine the turbine hydraulic efficiency and the machine velocity triangles.
For a volumetric flow rate Q = 110 m3/s and at the given rotational speed, the distributor blades
are tilted so as to vary 1 by 38 with respect to the previous conditions. Determine the power
supplied by the machine provided that the impeller blades are in turn tilted in order to avoid
incidence losses at the leading edge.

Dipartimento Energia
Politecnico di Torino Corso Duca degli Abruzzi, 24 10129 Torino Italia
tel: +39 011.090.4400/7100 fax: +39 011.090.4499/7199
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