PERFORMANCE TEST OF FRANCIS TURBINE

Michael Adrian Vallecera Ygnacio1

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

Humans have used the power of flowing water for

thousands of years. Early civilizations used wooden
paddle wheels to grind corn and wheat to flour. The
word Hydro comes from the Greek word for water.
Hydropower traditionally represents the energy
generated by damming a river and using turbine
systems to generate electrical power. However, there
are several other ways we can generate energy using
the power of water. Ocean waves, tidal currents and
ocean water temperature differences can all be
harnessed to generate energy. (Gatte & Kadhim Figure 1 The amount of hydro electric energy of
2012) different countries (Courtesy of Gatte & Kadhim)

More than 70 percent of the earth is covered by

water. The United States is one of the worlds top
producers of hydropower (see chart). As much as 12
percent of the electrical energy generated in the U.S.
is currently derived from hydropower systems. Parts
of the Pacific Northwest generate as much as 70
percent of their electricity using hydroelectric
sources. More than half the renewable energy
generated in the United States comes from
hydroelectric dams. Hydroelectric power is currently
the least expensive source of electrical power and is
much cleaner than power generated using fossil fuels.
(Gatte & Kadhim 2012)
Student, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of San
Carlos, Cebu City 6000, Philippines,
E-mail: michaeladrianygnacio@gmail.com
Generating energy from the power of water
represents large amounts of clean, renewable energy.
71 percent of the earth’s surface is covered by water.
The world’s hydro power potential amounts to 20
billion Mega Watt hours per year and only 30 percent
of this has been developed so far.
The Main requirement for hydro-electric power plant
is the availability of water in huge quantity at
sufficient head and this requirement can be met by
constructing a dam across a river. A storage reservoir
is formed by constructing a dam across Krishna
River. Near the bottom of the dam, there is a water
intake. Trash Racks of meters long are provided at
the water intake to prevent the ingress of floating and
other materials to the turbine. (B.Sandhya Rani &
Ramesh, Dr.A., 2015).
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that
was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, MA. It
 is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines
radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are
the most common water turbine in use today. They
operate in a head range of ten meters to several
hundred meters and are primarily used for electrical
power production. The Francis turbine is a reaction
turbine, which means that the working fluid changes
pressure as it moves through the turbine, giving up its
energy. A casement is needed to contain the water
flow. The turbine is located between the high-
pressure water source and the low-pressure water
exit, usually at the base of a dam.
Experimental Methods
Apparatus
The experiment set-up is located in the Mechanical
Engineering Hydraulics Laboratory of USC-TC. In
figure 2 below, the equipment, valves and pipe
connections can be clearly seen and followed. The
experimental set-up consists of an axial pump,
centrifugal pump, bypass, Francis turbine, and the
Prony brake.
Figure 2 Experimental Set-up of the Francis Turbine
(Courtesy of Boschi and Park)
Priming Operation of the Centrifugal Pump
Cavitation is the formation of water vapour and air
bubbles on the water surface due to the reduction of
pressure. Cavitation is defined as the process of
formation of the vapor phase of a liquid when it is
subjected to reduced pressures at constant ambient
temperature. (Eisenberg 1968). These cavitations
may occur in the blades of the centrifugal pump.
With cavitation present, this might cause damage to
the pump. Priming operation of the centrifugal pump
is thus needed and necessary before starting the
actual experiment. The axial pump is used to serve as
an auxiliary equipment, and this was used to prime
the centrifugal pump. The priming cap was opened to
release the air trapped inside the impeller blade
housing. When there is formation of bubbles in the
priming cup meaning there is still air inside the
housing. After there are no longer bubbles coming
from the housing, priming is done and the priming
cup is closed. The centrifugal pump is then started.
Figure 3 Priming Cup
(Courtesy of Masbad et al. 2015)
Starting the Centrifugal Pump
In starting the centrifugal pump, the gate valve is
opened as fast as possible by the time the switch of
the centrifugal pump is pressed to the on position. If
the centrifugal pump is not properly primed, the
centrifugal pump would not be able to pump water
(Vlachopoulos 2016).
Starting the Francis Turbine
After turning on the centrifugal pump, water will now
flow through the piping system towards the Francis
turbine as shown in Fig. 2. A valve on the turbine set-
up is opened to allow running water to enter the
turbine. This valve provides and regulates the flow of
cooling water for the brake shoe of the prony brake.
This will prevent the brake from heating up.
Experimental Data Gathering

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)

on the lever arm of the prony brake. This serves as

the initial load applied to the turbine. From vane
setting at 10, the speed of the turbine, the weir from Where: Q – flow rate
the pelton turbine set-up, weir for the Francis and
Cd - coefficient of discharge = 0.5779048
Kaplan set-up, inlet and outlet pressure of the Francis
turbine were obtained. The weir of the Pelton Turbine g - gravity
set-up is included because this was operated
θ - angle of the weir
simultaneously with the experiment. The operation of
the Pelton Turbine in the laboratory affects the flow H - height of the water level on the weir.
of water to the Francis Turbine.

The velocity is then determined from the equation:

Calculations of Parameters
Q
V= (4)
A
The torque applied on the prony brake is calculated Where: V – velocity of water
from the equation:
Q – flow rate
T =Fr (1)
A – area of the exit pipe
Where: T – Torque applied
F – Weights applied on the prony brake
From the Bernoulli’s Equation, the total head can be
r – Length of the lever arm computed.

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.

Where: Pbrake – Shaft power produced by the turbine

The water power or the input power was determined
T – Torque applied on the proy brake
using the equation:
N – Speed of the turbine
Pwater =( γ )(Q¿¿ Total)(H Total )(6)¿
Where: Pwater - water power
γ - specific weight of water
Q Total - total volume flow rate of the water
H Total - the total head of the water.
The efficiency of the Francis turbine is obtained after
having the Water Power or the Hydraulic Power and
the Brake power or the Mechanical Power. The
efficiency is obtained from the equation:
Pm
¿ 10 to 40 degrees at 10-degree interval.
Pw (7)
Where: = turbine efficiency
The graph on the vane angle against the shaft power
courtesy of Lasa’s group shows the trend of the shaft
power as the vane angle changes. The trend is the
same for the three trials. As the vane angle setting
increases, the shaft power also increases.
The table below shows the computed values from the
gathered data. These values are the mechanical
power, hydraulic power and the efficiency of the
Francis turbine at different vane setting starting from
Table.1

Pm −brake∨mechanical power Vane Setting, Mechanical Hydraulic

Efficiency, (%)
(degrees) Power, (KW) power, (KW)
Pw – water or hydraulic power
10 0.8917 3.36 26.54

20 2.9196 4.12 70.86

Results and Discussions 30 4.0288 5.22 77.18

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.

VANE ANGLE vs SHAFT POWER 7

6
5
Power (Kw)

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.

The efficiency of the Francis turbine is defined by

how much of the energy available from the water
input to the turbine, can be converted into shaft
power.
Figure 7 Efficiency VS Output Power
(Courtesy of Faria, et al. 2010)
100
80
Efficiency, %

60
40
20
0 of Francis Turbine using the Francis Turbine
0 1 2 3 4 5
Output power, (KW)
Figure 6 Efficiency VS Output Power
Figure 6 shows plots the output power against the
efficiency. From the figure, it can be observed that as
the output power increases, the efficiency also
increases. However, this is not always the case.
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
the efficiency will decrease again. The highest point
where the highest efficiency is located is the
optimum output power of the turbine.
Conclusion
From the performed experiment on performance test
6 experimental set-up in the mechanical engineering
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
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
the highest efficiency was at the 40 degrees.
Adjusting the vane setting with a given head and flow
would help in optimizing the efficiency of the Francis
Turbine.
Notations:
Q T – Volume flow rate for the triangular weir
hT – Head reading for the triangular weir
Q R – Volume flow rate for the rectangular weir

h R – Head reading for the rectangular weir

L – Length of the rectangular weir

Q Total – Total volume flow rate of the fluid

v – Flow velocity of the fluid

A – Cross – sectional area of the pipe system Vlachopoulos, J., (2016). “Pumps and Turbines.
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics”, 19/5.
Pbrake – Brake power or Output power of the shaft

T – Torque applied to the shaft

N – Speed of the shaft in rpm
F L – Load force from the weight of the plates

d – Length of the lever arm

Pwater – Water power or Input power of the fluid

γ – Specific weight of the flowing fluid (water)

H Total – Total head experienced by the fluid
P – Pressure of the fluid
g – Acceleration due to gravity
z – Elevation of the fluid with respect to a datum
Efficiency – Efficiency of the Francis Turbine
References
B.Sandhya Rani & Ramesh, Dr.A. (2015).
Performance of Francis Turbine and Hydro
Electric Governing. Journal of Advancement in
Engineering and Technology.

Eisenberg, Philip. (1968). “Cavitation”. Hydronautics

Incorporated.

Faria, M. C., Paulino, O. G., Oliveira, F. H., Barbosa,

B. H., and Martinez, C. B. (2010) “Influence of
mechanical draft tube fish barrier on the
hydraulic thrust of small francis turbines”,
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 136(11). p. 2

Gatte, M.T., Kadhim, R.A., Rasheed, F.L. (2010).

“Using Water Energy for Electrical Energy
Conservation by Building of Microhydroelectric
Generators on the Water Pipelines that Depend
on the Difference in Elevation.” Iraq J. Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, Vol. 7, 185-186

Gatte, M.T., Kadhim, R.A., (2012). “Hydro Power.”

Ministry of Science and Techonology, Babylon
Department, Hilla, Iraq, 1-3

Potter, M., Wiggert, D., Ramadan, B., (2012).

“Mechanics of Fluids”, 4th Edition, Cengage
Learning, Stamford, USA, 602 – 605.