Fish Finned Blade Analysis of a Francis Turbine
Kimberly T. Apa-ap*, Rogelio C. Golez Jr., Garyl Miko T. Rebojo, Neil Aldrienne U. Omandam
Abstract - Micro hydro power plant is a type of
hydroelectric power that typically produce power ranges
from 5 kW up to 100 kW. The micro hydro performs as
a run of river system that the water passes through the
turbine driving the generator to produce power will go
back directly to the stream with relatively have a little
impact on the surrounding ecology. In addition, micro
hydro is a small-scale harnessing of energy from falling
water. This production range is calculated in terms of its
head and flow. The higher each of these are, the more
power is available. The power from natural flow of
streams and small rivers can be harnessed to bring
clean, easy to maintain, affordable and reliable
electricity to remote communities to provide such needs.
The immediate objective for this research project is to
propose a newly designed turbine that could generate
enough or equal power required to supply the pump as
an alternative source of energy. A newly designed blade
for the turbine has been developed that could be used as
application in a laboratory. The instrumented turbine
has been developed which is composed of an eight blade
newly designed cross flow turbine to quantify the water
flow that will be enough to produce the required power
to drive a pump. As the elevation is being increased, a
higher value of volume flow rate will be acquire in the
experiment. Through this, we can make use of the ratio
and proportion method in order to scale the necessary
mechanics that can be applied in the actual scenario.
Also, the research study is being done through a
laboratory scale in Xavier University.
KEYWORDS: micro-hydro power plant, hydroelectric
power, turbine, generator, renewable energy
I. INTRODUCTION
Water is a necessity when it comes to living especially in
residential areas that are having troubles in supplying
water into their consequent homes. It is water that keeps
us hydrated as we go along our daily acts. We may find a
lot of resource anywhere since approximately 71% of
water can be found here on earth. However, distribution
along communities will be a problem due to some of
difficulties of assessing in some of areas like in remote
places.
To elaborate more about micro-hydro installation, Micro-
Hydro typically produces 5 kW to 100 kW of power
using natural flow of water. This may not be enough as
one cannot carry out the supply of power to the pump
Kimberly T. Apa-ap is currently a graduating student of
Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in Xavier
University, College of Engineering, Cagayan de Oro City,
Philippines.
email: kimmyapaap@gmail.com
required of the pump will be enough to create an
alternative source of electricity company. This serves as
an investment that provides lesser cost in the future and
more dependable source of power supply.
The researchers are focused of proposing a newly
designed Francis turbine that will be applied as the
medium in the micro hydro plant system in the
laboratory. This is also by means of transfer of renewable
energy. By completely relying to the natural flow of
water, the area installation will be investigated to gather
data regarding the flow of water that will depend on a
daily basis. Also, to consider a cheaper way of doing the
experiment, the study will be doing in Xavier University.
It will be fully laboratory-scaled by which data gathered
from the site be considered and will be parameters of the
experiment in the lab. In this we can easily determine and
control the flow of water to observe the process of
generating the power that will be required by the pump
work.
II. METHODOLOGY
A. Research Flow
The Francis turbine is also known as a reaction turbine
which is categorized in the working fluid that comes
under an immense pressure and then energy is produced
by the turbine blades from the running water. Running
water creates energy by hitting on to the blades of a
turbine runner, resulting to a force on the blades. The
force acts through a distance which result of a work done
since the runner is spinning. In this process, the energy is
transferred from the water flow to the turbine. Energy is
produced by the fluid that hits the blade with pressure that
causes its kinetic energy and by that it's known to be
expressed as a degree of reaction while the left over
energy is extracted by the designed casing of the turbine.
The water acts on the spinning cup-shaped designed
runner going at low velocity and low swirl with very
minimal kinetic or potential energy left. To help
decelerate the water flow from the turbine, a tube-like
exit design will help.
INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT
(KINETIC (MECHANICAL (ELECTRICAL
ENERGY) ENERGY) ENERGY)
 Velocity  Power
 Pressure
 Current
 Volume
Flow  Voltage
 Effiency
Rate
 RPM
B. Fabrication of Designed Turbine
The blade designed turbine is to be fabricated with the
same size and area. The dimensions are yet to be
specified but the blades will be made with steel plate. The
fins will be welded onto the blades itself. The shaft and
wires that is going to be used in the study are yet to be
specified for the design. The base and its support are also
fabricated to hold and support the fabricated turbine. The
researchers will fabricate different angled fins for this
project. The angles will be 30, 45, and 60 degrees and one
with no fins, so that we could compare the efficiency of
the blades. It is important that the blades ha
have the same
size in order to ensure that the data that will be gathered
is accurate. For that we hired a professional ma
machinist to
ensure that the designs will be accurate. In figures are the
actual dimensions of the blade runner.
Figure 2.1
Figure 2.2
As seen in figure 2.2 The Francis turbine's blade design
has a conical shape at the bottom so that the water will
not go back through the blade. Since the water will pass
through the blade, the fins will add more friction force
and velocity to the rotation of the blade. Hence this will
make the rotation of the turbine faster, thus the giving it
more kinetic energy which will be converted into
mechanical energy, then to electrical energy by the use of
an alternator.
As seen in figure 2.3 there will be thirteen blades on each
blade designs.
Figure 2.3
C. Assembly of the Designed Turbine
`The
The designed turbine is composed of a Francis turbine
with welded fins and water ways on it. There will only be
one shaft to be used in order to produce rotation in the
system and it is being supported by pillow blocks. A Base
plate and square tubes are to
o be fabricated to complete the
Turbine design.. There will be three set
sets of blades with
fish finswith one set of blades that does not have fish fin
welded unto it. Also, an alternator, with the help of a belt
and pulley system is to be connected to the shaft. All of
these will have a housing fabricated to support it.
Figure 2.4
In the figure above you can see the Francis turbine with
its housing. A V-Belt Belt will then be attached to the
alternator and the pulley system will thenth be attached on
the turbine's top part. This pulley will deliver the kinetic
and potential energy to the alternator which will then be
converted into electrical energy. This housing was
designed so that there will be less vibration to the turbine
itself, and that the alternator will be safe from getting wet.
D. Materials and Parts Selection
It was proposed that we will use an aluminium sheet with
a certain thickness due to the material’s availability in the
market and its market cost.. This was the material that was
proposed to us so that it can withstand the pressure of the
water. Since we will be using a high-pressured
high water, the
pressure of the water if we use a thinner sheet can
potentially cause damage to the turbine. For the housing
of the turbine, we will be using angle bars and a metal
plane sheet and coat it with paint to slow the corrosion
process of the metal being used. The researchers chose
thicker bars and sheets so that the fabricated frame can
properly support the turbine and the pressure being
passed through it. For the casing of the turbine, it will be
utilizing a spiral casing made out of carbon steel to
handle the pressure to be subjected to the Turbine. The
researchers will not be using stainless steel as their
material for the study since aluminium can be a
substituted with a cheaper material cost hence lowering
the material expense. For the bearing the researchers will
use an ball bearing since it was recommended to us.
III. EXPERIMENTAL
After the fabrication of the turbine, the experimental
phase shall begin by measuring the pressure and the
volume flow rate of the water to be used. The researchers
will be using a fire hydrant which is located at the XU
field. This would be essential for the calculations later on.
The researchers will be using a data logger which will
help them in gathering the necessary data needed for the
study. The researchers will have ten trials for each blade
orientation. With four dependent variables: rpm and
voltage, which will then be tabulated for further
calculations. The researchers will conduct forty trials for
this experiment. The data will then be calculated and
compared with the other blade designs.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The main objective of the study is to compare and
analyze the blade designs to which the researchers will
decide on which designed orientation of the fish fins
welded is better. This experiment will prove if fish fins
will have a significant impact to the efficiency of the
90
80
70 Power
60
50
40 RPM
30
20
10 Efficiency
0 /https://link.springer.com/chapter/10077/987-
No Fin 30 45 60
turbine. In the data gathered, 60 degrees angled blade has
the fastest rpm and it produced the highest power with
4.5W and the highest turbine efficiency at 29%. As the
angle of the fish-fins change, the higher the efficiency of
the turbine. As seen in the table, the rpm is directly
proportional to its power. When the rpm increases, the
power produced by the turbine also increases. The
researchers chose these blade angles since in theory,
when the angle becomes closer to 90 degrees, the power
produced becomes higher. With the power rising, the
theory is then proven to be correct, and if we add another
angle, to which it is higher than 60 degrees it would
produce a higher result.
V. CONCLUSION
The study is about examining on the performance of the
innovated blade design where the researchers focus in the
analysis on which design has the higher power and can
work more efficient than the other. Thus, the researchers
landed in a conclusion that there is more power produced
to a fish finned blade design compare to the blade design
that has no fish fins welded on it. Furthermore, it is not
only that the power will increase but also the trend of the
data which varies from the angle of the fins installed in
the blades. If the angle of the fin is higher, then higher
revolutions per minute (RPM) and power is produced that
leads to higher efficiency as well. The results agrees to
the hypothesis of the study. This blade design needed a
highly pressurized water so that it will rotate and produce
power, since the materials used is heavy. With this as we
can conclude that the fins has some factors in the turbine
efficiency since the blades with fins has a higher
efficiency than the one without it. If the researchers added
more blade design, the result will still be the same since
the trend of the graph is getting higher. Since the
fabricated turbine is designed to be a lab scale type, it is
presumed that the turbine can only produce low power.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to express their sincere
gratitude to their parents for funding this research
work and development project.
The authors also wish to express their gratitude to
the faculty and lab technicians for guiding and
advising them in the research and helping them in
designing the whole project.
REFERENCE
[1.] Thierry Jacob, J,-E. P. (1996, January 1).
Francis Turbine Surge: Discussion and Data
Base. Retrieved from
94-010-9385-9_87.
[2.] BovetThéodore. (1961). Contribution to the
study of Francis-Turbine Runner Design.
New York: The American Soc. Of Mechanical
Engineers.
[3.] Kumar, A. (2018, October 26). Francis
turbine-Parts Diagram, Working, Efficiency,
Advantages, PDF. Retrieved from
https://engramritkumar.com/francis-turbine/.
[4.] Efficiency Analyses for Small Hydro Power
Plant with Francis Turbine. (2017).
International Journal of Modern Trends in
Engineering & Research, 4(10),155-164. doi:
10.21884/ijmter.2017,4322.arbmd
AUTHORS PROFILE

Kimberly T. Apa-ap is currently a graduating student of

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering in Xavier
University, College of Engineering, Cagayan de Oro City,
Philippines

Rogelio C. Golez, Jr.,is currently working as a professor in

Mechanical Engineering Department, Xavier University,
Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines. He earned his degree in
Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics in University of Science
and Technology of South Philippines(2015) and a
graduate in Master of Science in Applied Mathematics in
Mindanao University of Science and Technology(2000).

Garyl Miko T. Rebojo is a graduating studentof Bachelor

of Science in Mechanical Engineering in Xavier University,
College of Engineering, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines

Neil Aldrienne U. Omandam is currently a graduating

student of Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering
in Xavier University, College of Engineering, Cagayan de
Oro City, Philippines