Performance Test of Francis Turbine
Performance Test of Francis Turbine
Abstract: The Francis turbine is a reaction turbine where water changes pressure as it moves through the turbine,
transferring its energy. A watertight casement is needed to contain the water flow. Generally, such turbines are
suitable for sites such as dams where they are located between the high pressure water source and the low pressure
water exit. The inlet of a Francis turbine is spiral shaped. Guide vanes direct the water tangentially to the turbine
runner. Francis turbines can be designed for a wide range of heads and flows and along with their high efficiency
makes them one of the most widely used turbines in the world. The objective of the experiment is to verify some
data that were gathered from previous groups in their experiment on the performance of a Francis Turbine. The
Francis Turbine set-up located in the USC-TC Mechanical Engineering Hydraulic Laboratory is used.
Author keywords: Verification, Hydraulic Turbine, Francis Turbine, Guide Vane Angle
Introduction
Apparatus
The parameters being gathered in the verification The flow of the water is calculated from the
experiment are the vane setting, speed, torque, and equation:
the rectangular weir and the triangular weir. These
parameters affect the performance of the turbine. The 5
8 θ
vane angle setting was adjusted to various setting
from 10 to 40. A weight of 1 kg was put on the plate
Q= C √ 2 g tan h 2
15 d 2 () (3)
P V2
HT= + +z
The shaft power produced by the turbine was γ 2g
determined using data obtained from the prony brake, (5)
and the speed reading in rpm from the tachometer Where: P - pressure head
gage in the Francis Turbine experimental set-up. The
shaft or output power was calculated using the V - velocity head
equation:
γ - specific weight
g - gravitational acceleration
Pbrake =2 πTN (2)
z - initial head.
The data below is taken from another group 40 5.5228 5.92 93.3
performing the experiment on the Francis Turbine.
This will serve as the reference of our verification.
The group will be that of Lasa, Ling and Ragaza. Figure 5 shows the graph for the hydraulic and
mechanical power at different vane setting.
2500 4
Output Shaft Power (W)
3 Mechanical
2000
2 power
1500 Trial 1 Hydraulic
1 0 power
1000 Trial 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
2
Vane Setting,
Trial
500 3
Figure 5 Vane Angle Setting VS Shaft Power
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
As seen in Figure 5, the mechanical power increases
Vane Angle as the vane angle setting also increases. Comparing
with the data obtained from Lasa’s group, a similar
trend can be observed in both of our data.
Figure 4 Vane Angle VS Shaft Power
(Courtesy of Lasa et al 2016)
The hydraulic power as resembles the same trend
with the mechanical power. The hydraulic power also
increases as the vane angle setting increases. From
table 1 under the efficiency column, it can be
observed that the efficiency increases as the vane
angle increases. Looking back to Figure 5, it can be
seen that the distance between the Mechanical and
Hydraulic power trend line decreases, the efficiency
increases. A close distance between the trend line of
the mechanical and hydraulic power would be
desirable.
60
40 Conclusion
20 From the performed experiment on performance test
0 of Francis Turbine using the Francis Turbine
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 experimental set-up in the mechanical engineering
Output power, (KW) hydraulics laboratory, the efficiency of the turbine at
different vane angle setting were obtained. The data
obtained from Lasa’s group were compared to that of
Figure 6 Efficiency VS Output Power this experiment. Both data shows similar trend line
on the efficiency of the turbine as the vane angle
setting is changed. From the experiment, the vane
angle setting at which the Francis turbine operates at
Figure 6 shows plots the output power against the the highest efficiency was at the 40 degrees.
efficiency. From the figure, it can be observed that as Adjusting the vane setting with a given head and flow
the output power increases, the efficiency also would help in optimizing the efficiency of the Francis
increases. However, this is not always the case. Turbine.
From the figure below it can be seen that the
efficiency does not always increase together with the
increase of output power. There comes a point where Notations:
the efficiency will decrease again. The highest point
where the highest efficiency is located is the Q T – Volume flow rate for the triangular weir
optimum output power of the turbine.
hT – Head reading for the triangular weir
Q R – Volume flow rate for the rectangular weir