HYDRAULIC MACHINERY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF THE GLOBAL

ENVIROMENTAL SYSTEM

HERMOD BREKKE

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Waterpower laboratory,

A.Getz veg 4, N7034, TRONDHEIM, NORWAY, Telephone:+47 73 59 38 56,
Fax:+47 73 59 38 54, Email:Hermod.Brekke@tev.ntnu.no

ABSTRACT
The paper gives a brief description on the influence from the environmental
requirements on the design and research work in the field of waterpower machinery.
It seems to be a normal practice that small hydro projects will be accepted in the
majority of cases even in developed countries while large projects are accepted only
in developing countries.
As a result of this the market on small hydro is growing rapidly in the western
countries and the marked for large turbines is concentrated on Asia, Africa and South
America where the need for increased electricity supply without air pollution often is
overruling the negative environmental impact on the rivers.
The paper gives a discussion on the design of small hydro machinery and the
problems linked to turbines built by small manufacturers with little experience in
turbine design.
The paper also describes the latest advanced development in the design of large
hydraulic machinery used for power production in combination with flood control with
large variation in head and flow.

Keywords: Hydropower, Hydraulic machinery, Water turbines, Small Hydro, Micro

turbines, Environment, Francis turbines, Pelton turbines, Kaplan turbines.

INTRODUCTION
The global technical feasible hydropower production is approximately 14000
TWh/year and 9000 TWh/year is economical feasible of which 2600 TWh/year has
been developed in 1998. (1)
If the remaining economic feasible hydropower had been utilised the present global
electricity production of 13300 TWh/year (2) could be increased by 48 % with a
negligible contribution to the green house effect compared with 3-6 Billion
tonnes/year CO2 from thermal electricity production based on gas, oil or coal.
A simplified description of the development of hydraulic machinery for power
production and the environmental policy world-wide may briefly be described as
follows:

¤ Big manufacturers produce big turbines and small manufacturers produce

small turbines.
¤ The best know how for production of high efficiency reliable turbines is found
in the offices of the big manufacturers who spend Millions of Dollars each year
in research and development of high efficiency turbines for large projects. In
addition research work is going on in a few universities focused on hydraulic
machinery and systems.
¤ The environmental policy may briefly be divided in two main categories:
 In developed countries big hydropower projects is regarded to have only
negative sides and the contribution from hydropower to fulfil the Kyoto
agreement is not mentioned.
In developing countries the need for electric energy and flood control creates
often a positive national opinion for both small and large hydropower projects
because the alternative will be air polluting thermal electricity production often
based on imported fuel.
¤ Financing of large hydropower projects is also difficult because of the long-
term return of investment.
¤¤ The future development of hydropower machinery should concentrate on three
main activities:

1 Developing small hydro and run of the river projects with reliable high efficiency
turbines and simple reliable control systems for both developed- and developing
countries.
2 Developing large turbines and runners with high efficiency for turbines specially
developed for operation with large variation in head and flow
3 Developing improved control systems for optimal production with improved
flexibility and governing stability.

Fig1 : Possibilities for increased hydropower production with minor influence on the
environmental system in developed countries.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MACHINERY FOR SMALL HYDRO

Small hydro projects are recognised by a capacity less than 10 MW and a maximum
runner diameter of 2 m for low head units, and mini power projects may be defined to
be between 200 kW and 1000 kW. However, in many countries micro turbines are
dominating the market with unit output of maximum 200 kW. On this market we find
all types of the traditional turbines such as Pelton-, Francis-, Kaplan- and Propeller
turbines. In addition comes Cross-Flow turbines and Turgo turbines which both are
impulse turbines.
Because of price and simplicity cross flow turbines cover a relatively large market.
However, a theoretical study indicates that the efficiency should be low mainly
because of water splashing and loss of head from runner to tail race water level
which is not the case for reaction turbines that utilise the total head.
For large units the choice of turbine type and design is normally made based on
obtaining highest possible speed in order to get the cheapest generator. Also
efficiency and reliability are evaluated.
However, for small units and micro turbines with flow down to 20 (l/s) the choice is
different. This is because the choice is often in favour of the cheapest manufacturer
instead of the technical economic best choice.
In general Pelton turbines should be used down to 50 m head or even lower for the
smallest micro units. An efficiency of 85 % - 90 % could be obtained without too strict
accuracy of the geometry.
For micro Francis turbines and Propeller turbines the design and production of
runners may be based on very old drawings or on licence from experienced
manufacturers. This is because the design of these turbine types is regarded to be
more difficult to handle than the design of Pelton turbines.
For mini turbines and small hydro the choice of turbines should allow for Francis
turbines up to 250m and for Pelton turbines up to 500m. Below 10m often propeller
types should be used if the flow is large. For output over 1 MW and head below 15 m
double regulated Kaplan Bulb turbines may be used.
Standard pumps running in reverse as turbines could also be an interesting choice
for micro turbines. The price of a standard pump for 50m head will be approximately
US$ 10 000,- for 70 kW. However, such units cannot meet requirements for
regulating output or flow. In order to minimise spilling of water 3 non-regulated units
could be installed as indicated in fig. 2.

Fig.2 : Principle of on /off flow control of three pumps of different size.

The requirement for operation of control systems can be divided in two parts.
¤ Frequency control on isolated load
¤ Load control on the main grid included water level control for run of the river
plants

For small hydropower projects the turbine governing system will represent a major
part of the total turbine contract if governor is included. Because of this on off power
production of units connected to the existing main grid should be used for micro
turbines in developed countries.
In developing countries simplified mechanical speed governors for operation on
isolated grid should be used. This is because maintenance work can then be made
by local workshops. Then also a learning process of control system theory may be
started. A guidance book with simplified formulas for small hydro projects will help
avoiding some of the problems of pressure transients and control problems including
pressure rise caused by runaway speed of low specific speed Francis turbines and
pumps in reversed operation for micro turbine operation.

As an example a simplified formula for the pressure rise after a linear closing of a
gate yields:

co = max . flow velocity (m / s ) 

∆H = L co / (g Tcl )(m )  L = pipe length (m ), T = cloing time (s )
 CL 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LARGE HIGH EFFICIENCY TURBINES

The procedure for the design will be concentrating on Francis turbine runners only in
this paper due to limited space. The design my be divided in three steps as follows:

1. Lay out of the geometry of crown, band and blades controlled by classical
analytical equations based on the energy equations, the equation of continuity
and the Euler turbine equation.
2. Fine-tuning of the blade geometry by CFD analysis combined with knowledge
about the influence on the flow regime from the different geometric parameters.
3. Model testing with final tuning of geometry of the blade outlets and inlets.

The input data is governed by the flow (Q, m3/s) and head (H, m). Then the speed (n,
rpm) must be chosen depending on the available net positive suction head (NPSHa)
that is calculated from the given suction head (hs), the barometric pressure (ha) and
the vapour pressure (hva) i.e. the water temperature at the site. (Ref. IEC/TC4 Norm
41)

NPSH a = − hs + ha − hva (1)

During the preliminary design of a runner the basic design parameters must be
chosen to meet the available value of NPSHa at the site.

An example of a formula for a preliminary calculation of a necessary setting

expressed by the Thoma cavitation ratio for a certain family of runners yields:

( )
σ = NPSH / H = u2 a tan 2 (π − β 2 ) + b / (2 gH ) (2)

Where 1.05 <a<1.15 and 0.05< b<0.1 and b= f(ns) and β 2 = blade outlet angle and
u2 = blade outlet speed at the band.

The pressure gradient from crown to band along orthogonal sections to the
streamlines is the most important parameter to create a pressure-balanced runner
blade and avoid cavitation. A simplified formula valid for an infinite number of blades
(i.e. potential flow) is very useful for the first step in the design of a new runner.
The governing equation for calculation of the pressure gradient by such prosedure is
based on Newton`s second law and yields:

dh  1 cos δ cos3 β  c m2 c m (∂c m / ∂z ) 

= 2 −  3 − + 2ω c m cos δ  tan θ (3)
dn   R r  sin β tan β 
 sin δ 1  sin δ  
+ 2 +  c m2 + 2ω  c m +ω 2 r sin δ 
 r tan β ρ  tan β
2
  

In equation 4 reduced values are used. I.e. c = c / 2 gH , ω = ω / 2 gH and h=h/H.

Besides eq.4 the equation of the relative stagnation energy (ROTHALPHY) and the
equation of continuity must be used to calculate the value of the meridian velocity
(cm) used in eq. 4. By means of the described analytical equations the pressure
gradient and the streamlines for a runner with infinite number of blades can be found.
The geometry and parameters used in eq.4 is shown in fig.3 which also illustrates the
shape of the blades.

Fig.3 : Illustration of blade geometry with parameters used in equation 4.

The final pressure distribution calculated by CFD analysis of a pressure balanced so

called X blade runner with twisted blades compared with a traditional runner after
fine-tuning of the geometry is shown in fig. 4.
Fig.4 : Comparison of the pressure distribution on suction side of the blades in a
traditional runner (left) compared with a X-blade runner with pressure distribution
suction side (middle) and flow regime on pressure side of blade (right)

CONCLUSION
Ignorance of theoretical analysis used in the production of micro turbines has led to a
low efficiency and many not reliable turbines that may destroy the market.
On the other hand big money is put in the design and research work for large
turbines by the big manufacturers. An example is shown of the newly designed X-
blade runner developed by KVAERNER in collaboration with the author. Other
examples of Kaplan-, Francis- and Pelton-turbines from other manufacturers might
also be used to show that know-how to build high efficiency reliable runners is
available.
If this know-how should be used for small hydro the big manufacturers must establish
production lines for small hydro includes micro turbines in a similar way as the
production lines for pumps.
Another possibility for micro turbines is to use standard pumps operation in reverse
as turbines or give education to small manufacturers in basic turbine theory in order
to avoid the worst cases of bad design.
The possibility to utilise the large global potential of small hydro should not be lost,
but then a collaboration between big manufacturers, research organisations and
universities should be established and supported by governments and owners of
small hydro-projects.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author thanks Dr: Jan Tore Billdal from KVAERNER for the collaboration in the
development of X blade runners with the CFD analysis of the runners.

REFERENCES
1. Hydropower & Dams, World Atlas 1997
2. Survey of Energy Resources, World Energy Council Report 1998