Energy 36 (2011) 141e147

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Study of silt erosion on performance of a Pelton turbine

M.K. Padhy a, *, R.P. Saini b
a
ITER, S ‘O’ A University, Bhubaneswar, India
b
Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The erosion of turbine components causes the decrease in turbine efficiency; increase in the maintenance
Received 15 May 2010 cost and down time for turbine repair. All these factors contribute to the plant cost and cause the revenue
Received in revised form losses. It is, therefore, essential to study the amount of efficiency loss owing to the erosion of turbine
28 October 2010
components due to the silt particles coming in water. The present study has been carried out to investigate
Accepted 30 October 2010
Available online 8 December 2010
the effect of silt erosion for different silt laden parameters and operating parameters such as silt concen-
tration, size of silt particles, jet velocity and operating hours of the turbine on efficiency loss in Pelton turbine
buckets.
Keywords:
Efficiency loss
It has been found that turbine efficiency loss depends strongly on silt and operating parameters. A
Pelton turbine correlation has also been developed as a function of silt parameters and operating condition for percentage
Silt concentration of efficiency loss. The developed correlation may be useful for turbine manufactures in order to predict the
Silt size efficiency loss of a Pelton turbine at the manufacturing stage of a turbine under a given silt content water for
Operating hour a particular site.
Jet velocity Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A number of hydro electric project sites in the Himalayan ranges
and in the northeastern region of India face severe silt erosion
problems in turbines, which over a period of time drastically reduce
the overall efficiency of power generation system. A study of
several existing hydro electric power stations located in these
regions has confirmed the severity of silt erosion on the critical
underwater parts of turbines and other components of the hydro-
power stations [1]. Himalayan rivers contain very high sediment
concentration during the monsoon season. Major components of
this sediment are hard abrasive sand and silt which severely
damage the turbine components [2e4].
For efficient operation of hydropower plants, in order to meet the
electricity demand, the hydro energy is stored either in reservoirs for
dam based schemes or settling basins for run-of-river schemes.
These reservoirs or settling basins are filled with sediments over
a period of time. This problem must be taken care of by sediment
settling systems in power plants. However, lot of unsettled sediment
pass through the turbines every year and turbine parts are exposed
to severe erosion. The erosion of hydro turbine components is
a major problem for the efficient operation of hydropower plants.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 9439500444.
E-mail address: mamatapadhy@rediffmail.com (M.K. Padhy).
These problems are more prominent in power stations which are of
run-of-river types. The problem is aggravated if the silt contains
higher percentage of quartz, which is extremely hard. Nepal is also
facing severe silting problem in hydropower plants with specific
sediment yield of about 4240 tonnes/km2/year [5].
Silt erosion is a result of mechanical wear of components due to
dynamic action of silt flowing along with water. However, the
mechanism of erosion is complex due to interaction of several
factors viz. particles size, shape, hardness, concentration, velocity,
impingement angle, properties of material and so on. The silt laden
water passing through the turbine is the root cause of silt erosion of
turbine components which consequently leads to a loss in effi-
ciency. This affects output, abetting of cavitation, pressure pulsa-
tions, vibrations, mechanical failures and frequent shut downs.
Since silt erosion damage is on account of dynamic action of silt
with the component, properties of silt, mechanical properties of the
component in contact with the flow and conditions of flow.
Therefore, these are jointly responsible for the intensity and
quantum of silt erosion. The erosion damages are to some extent
different for Pelton and Francis turbines. In case of Pelton turbines,
needle, seal rings in the nozzles and runner buckets, splitter are
most exposed to sand erosion. In case of Francis turbines runner
vane, guide vane cascade and the labyrinth rings are exposed to
wear. The hydraulic machines, working under medium and high
heads are normally exposed to erosion. High head Francis and
Pelton turbines are highly affected by sand erosion. Even low head

0360-5442/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.energy.2010.10.060
142 M.K. Padhy, R.P. Saini / Energy 36 (2011) 141e147

An extensive literature review on the erosion models, experi-

Nomenclature mental investigations on erosive wear and case studies of erosion of
hydro turbine components were carried out by Padhy and Saini [10].
C silt concentration, ppm Brekke [11] in a case study of Driva Power Plant observed that
H the head to the turbine, m erosive wear of facing plates on head cover and lower cover of
Po the electrical power output, kW a Francis turbine leads to an increased leakage between the guide
Q the discharge through the turbine, m3/s vane facing and covers and caused around 10% relative efficiency
S silt particle size, mm loss in Driva Power Plant. In case of Pelton turbine, Brekke [12]
V velocity of flow, m/s observed that the height of splitter gradually decreases due to
Cw fraction of solid by weight erosion which was proportional to the erosion depth in the bucket
g acceleration due to gravity, m/s2 and the highest loss in efficiency was at best efficiency point (BEP).
t operating hour, h Pradhan [13] predicted efficiency loss for suspended sediment
hg the efficiency of the generator (¼0.96 for the concentration in Jhimruk river during the peak monsoon, where its
considered generator) average values ranged from about 20,000 to as high as 60,000 ppm.
ho the efficiency of turbine, % Bajracharya et al. [14] predicted relation between the erosion
hm turbine peak efficiency with sediment laden flow rate of spear of Pelton turbine nozzle and the reduction of efficiency
hw turbine peak efficiency with clean water from the field data and the efficiency reduction was expressed in
g specific weight of water, kN/m3 the form of correlation.
It is revealed from literature survey that a number of researchers
have conducted experiments to study the effect of silt parameters
on erosive wear. Most of these experiments are on small size
samples in different types of test rigs to simulate the flow condi-
Kaplan turbine and propeller turbines are also found to be eroded tions in the turbine. However, actual flow conditions and the
in river water with high sediment contents. Bucket, nozzle and phenomenon of erosive wear are too complex to simulate. In order
needle in case of impulse turbines and guide vanes, faceplates, to take into account the factors (i) the actual flow conditions, (ii)
runner blades and seal rings in case of reaction turbines are most operating hours of the turbine, (iii) the curvature of the Pelton
affected parts. turbine bucket, (iv) the variation of the size and the concentration
Different investigators [6e8] developed correlations for erosion of the eroding particles and (v) jet velocity, the present investiga-
rate of turbine runners as a function of different parameters such as tion has been carried out for actual flow conditions over Pelton
silt concentration, quartz content, particle size, and flow velocity. buckets of a small scale Pelton turbine.
These correlations developed by different investigators, were based
on experiments conducted on different type of test rigs. 2. Experimental study
Takgi et al. [9] conducted the hydraulic performance tests on
a Francis turbine model with sediment laden flow. They observed An experimental setup is designed and fabricated to carry out
the turbine best efficiency decreased in direct proportion to the the proposed investigation. Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the test
increase in solids concentration. setup. The setup consists of; (i) Pelton turbine runner, (ii) Water

Fig. 1. Schematic of experimental setup [15]. Description: 1: Pelton turbine runner; 2: Water tank; 3: Stirrer; 4: Cooling jacket; 5: Service pump; 6: Penstock pipe; 7: Spear valve;
8: Control valve; 9: Channel with weir; 10: Generator set; 11: Pressure transducer; 12: Control panel with ballast load; 13: Driving motor; 14: Motor for driving stirrer.
 M.K. Padhy, R.P. Saini / Energy 36 (2011) 141e147 143

1050 y = 1034.6x -0.0492

R2 = 0.9562
1000

950

Power output,W
900

850

800

750

700
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Mass loss,g

Fig. 3. Effect of bucket mass loss on turbine power output.

Fig. 2. Photograph of Pelton turbine runner.
tank, (iii) Stirrer, (iv) Cooling jacket, (v) Service pump-motor set,
(vi) Penstock pipe, (vii) Spear valve and nozzle, (viii) Control valve,
(ix) Channel with weir, (x) Generator and a control panel with
resistive load and (xi) the instrumentation. Details of experimental
setup, instrumentation, methodology for experimentation and data
generated for silt erosion under different conditions are discussed
in relation to previous studies carried by the authors [15].
The most important part of the setup is the Pelton turbine
runner. Pelton turbine runner having pitch circle diameter of
245 mm, mounted with 16 numbers of buckets is used for the
experiments. The Pelton turbine buckets made up of brass are
chosen as specimen to get measurable amount of erosion in a short
time period. The weight of each specimen bucket is 205  1.5 g.
Shaft of the runner is directly coupled with the generator shaft. A
photograph of the runner used under the present study is shown in
Fig. 2. Based on the results obtained during experimentation, effect
of silt parameters and operating parameters on the efficiency of
Pelton turbine has been discussed in this paper.
generator was coupled with the runner shaft to generate the elec-
tricity as output. The output of the turbine was recorded by consid-
ering the efficiency of generator. A control panel was connected to
the generator to record the power generation of the generator. The
control panel consisted of a Voltmeter, a Wattmeter and electric
bulbs as ballast load. Power output from the generator was moni-
tored and recorded continuously with the help of Wattmeter having
a least count of 10 W.
Input to the turbine was maintained constant throughout the
experiment by keeping the head and flow as constant to the
turbine. Discharge from the turbine under different heads was
measured with the help of a rectangular notch. A free fall of water
from the weir to the tank was ensured. A pointer gauge was used to
measure the height of water over the notch. The discharge of the
pump corresponding to each head was recorded. Then the channel
was closed at the turbine outlet and discharge from the turbine was
allowed to enter into the tank. A control valve was set to maintain
the constant head and flow during a particular set of readings.
By considering discharge and head readings, turbine input was
computed. Input to the turbine was calculated from the head and
discharge from the turbine by using the following expression:
Pi ¼ g  H  Q (1)
The efficiency of turbine was calculated as follows:
Po
ho ¼  100 (2)
g  H  Q  hg
where H is the head to the turbine, m; Po is the electrical power
output, kW; Q is the discharge from the turbine, m3/s; ho is the
y = 0.6187x -0.0479
R2 = 0.9813
0.65

3. Method of efficiency measurement

0.6

In order to compute the efficiency of Pelton turbine the input

Efficiency, η o

0.55
to the turbine in terms of head and discharge was calculated. A

0.5
Table 1
Range of parameters. 0.45

Parameters Range
0.4
Concentration 5000e10,000 ppm
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Silt size Upto 355 mm
Jet velocity 26.62e29.75 m/s Mass loss, g
Operating time 8 h run for each set
Fig. 4. Effect of bucket mass loss on turbine efficiency.
144 M.K. Padhy, R.P. Saini / Energy 36 (2011) 141e147

V = 28.32 m/s C = 5000 ppm

t= 8h 0.4 S = 135 micron
2 302 micron t=8h
215 micron 0.35
Percentage efficiency loss,η

Percentage Efficiency loss,η

1.8
135 micron
0.3
1.6 45 micron
0.25
1.4
0.2
1.2
0.15
1
0.1
0.8
0.05
0.6
4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000 11000 0
26 26.5 27 27.5 28 28.5 29 29.5 30
Concentration,ppm
Jet velocity, m/s
Fig. 5. Percentage efficiency loss versus silt concentration.
Fig. 7. Percentage efficiency loss versus jet velocity.
efficiency of turbine, %; hg is the efficiency of the generator (¼0.96
of the bucket only was dipped in water and the volume of water
for the considered generator); g ¼ specific weight of water (kN/m3)
was recorded. Mass of the bucket without stem was calculated
It was observed from the experiments that the power output
using following relationship:
decreased with the bucket mass loss. Therefore an attempt was made
to establish a correlation for efficiency loss as a function of bucket Mass of bucket without stem
mass loss for different silt parameters and operating parameters.
Mass of bucket with stem
Pelton turbine runners are designed either for casting of the disc
Volume of bucket without stem
and buckets in one piece (i.e. monocast) or the disc and the buckets ¼ (3)
separately. Single cast of complete runner is the preferred and Volume of bucket with stem
commonly used method for the Pelton turbines in modern power Percentage mass loss was determined with respect to the total
plants where the turbine units are for high power generation and of mass of bucket without stem.
bigger sizes. However, in case of defect found in one bucket, the
whole runner has to be rejected. Moreover, for manufacturing of 4. Range of parameters
runners with disc and buckets separately is of advantageous as in
case of defect found in any bucket, the individual bucket is to be Under the present study, effects of three parameters such as; silt
discarded. Different methods are adopted for fixing the individual concentration, silt size and jet velocity on Pelton turbine efficiency
buckets to the disk. The stem of the bucket is supposed to be loss were investigated. Sample of sand was collected from river
designed and manufactured of different shapes. Bhagirathi (India) near the head works of Maneri Bhali Hydro
The stem of the bucket is relatively heavier in comparison to the Electric Project, Phase I, which is one of the most silt affected power
cup (bucket without stem). In order to discuss output and efficiency houses in India. The quartz content in the sand sample was more
loss of turbine with respect to percentage mass loss of bucket, mass than 90% [8]. Sand was dried in an oven for twenty four hours and
of cup was considered. Accordingly, the percentage mass loss of cup then sieved to different sizes before mixing with water. The range
was determined by considering the mass of cup alone. During of the parameters considered for the present investigation is given
experimentation, parameters related to input and output of the in Table 1. Error analysis carried out for the study was reported
turbine were measured. The values of these measured parameters earlier by authors [15].
were used to find out the efficiency of the turbine under different
conditions considered for this investigation. As discussed above,
5. Results and discussion
output and efficiency of the turbine were determined. The effect of
mass loss of buckets on the power output and efficiency of the
Effect of bucket mass loss on output and efficiency of turbine is
turbine is discussed.
shown in Figs. 3 and 4. Fig. 3 shows the power output versus bucket
Basic mass volume method was adopted to determine the mass
mass loss. It was found that power output of the turbine decreased
of the bucket without the stem. A measuring flask filled with water
with mass loss of the bucket. It was observed that the rate of power
was used for finding out the mass ratio. The bucket was dipped
loss initially found to be more. However rate of power loss in later
completely and the volume of water was recorded. Again the stem

12 y = 4.0108x 0.726
V = 28.23 m/s R2 = 0.9986
t = 8h
10
Percentage efficiency loss

2.1 10000 ppm

8
Percentage efficiency loss,η

1.9 7500 ppm

1.7 5000 ppm
6
1.5
1.3 4
1.1
0.9 2
0.7
0.5 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Size, micron Percentage mass loss

Fig. 6. Percentage efficiency loss versus silt size. Fig. 8. Effect of percentage mass loss on percentage efficiency loss of turbine.
 M.K. Padhy, R.P. Saini / Energy 36 (2011) 141e147 145

Log (t) Log (C)

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 3.7 3.8 3.9 4.0

-0.2 -0.9

-0.4 -1.0

-0.6 -1.1
η = At

))
0.75 0.045
-0.8 -1.2

S
Log (η%)

-1.0 -1.3

Log (η%/(t
-1.2 -1.4

-1.4 -1.5

-1.6
-1.6

-1.7
-1.8

Fig. 11. Plot of log(h%/t0.75S0.099) versus log(C).

Fig. 9. Plot of log(h%) versus log(t).

stage was found to be at lower rates and became asymptotic. Similar

trend was observed in case of turbine efficiency as shown in Fig. 4.
As discussed earlier, presentation of effect of silt parameters on
turbine output and efficiency would be more relevant if these were
discussed with percentage mass loss of bucket. Accordingly, the
effect of silt parameter on percentage efficiency loss has been dis-
cussed as follows.
Fig. 5 shows percentage efficiency loss of turbine with silt
concentration for different values of silt size and a fixed value of jet
velocity. For a given value of silt particle size, efficiency loss was found
to be about 2 percent with concentration value from 5000 ppm to
10,000 ppm. Rate of percentage efficiency loss was found to be
significant in this case. However, rate of percentage efficiency loss was
found to be nominal with silt size as shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 7 shows the percentage efficiency loss of turbine with jet
velocity for silt concentration 5000 ppm and for fixed value of
mean silt size of 135 mm. Rate of percentage efficiency loss was
found to be 0.25e0.40 with a jet velocity variation from 26 m/s to
30 m/s, which is to be considered significant.
Fig. 8 shows percentage efficiency loss with percentage mass
loss of the bucket. It was found that about 8% efficiency loss
occurred against a bucket mass loss of 3.5%. This shows that effi-
ciency of the turbine decreased significantly with bucket mass loss.
An attempt was made to develop a correlation for efficiency loss
of turbine as a function of silt size, silt concentration, jet velocity
and operating hours of the turbine.
6. Development of correlation
It was observed that bucket mass loss and alteration of bucket
shape played a critical role in the Pelton turbine efficiency loss. The
system designer may require the correlations for efficiency drop of
Pelton turbine under the actual conditions having silt laden water
flow. Under the present investigation correlation for efficiency loss
as a function of system and operating parameters was developed
from the experimental data. As discussed earlier, the efficiency loss
was strongly dependent on the silt parameters, silt size (S), silt
concentration (C), water jet velocity (V) and operating hours of the
turbine (t).
Saini and Saini [16] mentioned that it was feasible to adopt
a statistical approach for the development of correlations from
experimental data. The correlation for efficiency loss from the
experimental data was developed by following the procedure given
by Saini and Saini [16]. Sigma Plot (version 10.0) software was
employed for carrying out the regression analysis. Different plots
are shown on a linear scale, however in order to have the best curve
fitting, data on log scales were employed while carrying out the
regression analysis. It was found that the regression of data deals
with first order polynomials.
Following this approach, the present correlation is developed.
The percentage efficiency loss is presented as a function of
system and operating parameters and can be written as:

Log (S) Log (V)

1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48
-1.0 -4.60

η -4.65
=AS
-1.2 t
-4.70

-4.75
-1.4
) /t

-4.80

-1.6
-4.85

-4.90
-1.8
-4.95

-2.0 -5.00

Fig. 10. Plot of log(h%/t 0.75

) versus log(S). Fig. 12. Plot of log(h%/t0.75S0.099C0.93) versus log(V).
146 M.K. Padhy, R.P. Saini / Energy 36 (2011) 141e147

first order regression of the data on log scales. Values of ‘C4’ and ‘m’
h% ¼ f ðS; C; V; tÞ (4) were found to be as 9.6146 and 3.40 respectively. These values are
Fig. 9 shows the first order regression of the log scale data of plotted against the value of jet velocity as shown in Fig. 12. Finally
operating time versus efficiency loss, which shows the average the correlation obtained is in following form:
value of ‘m’ (average slope of lines) equal to 0.75. Therefore effi- h%
ciency of the turbine can be represented as: ¼ Anti log C4 V 3:40 (13)
t 0:75 S0:099 C 0:93
h% ¼ anti log C1 t 0:75 (5) h%
¼ A4 V 3:40 (14)
or t 0:75 S0:099 C 0:93
The final form of the correlation for percentage efficiency loss of
h% ¼ A1 t 0:75 (6) rated efficiency was obtained as follows:
In order to induce the effect of silt size parameter, the values of
h% =t 0:99 were calculated from the data of normalized erosive wear h% ¼ 2:43  1010 ðtÞ0:75 ðSÞ0:099 ðCÞ0:93 ðVÞ3:40 (15)
obtained experimentally and plotted against log value of particle Fig. 13 shows the comparison between observed value and
size considered for the experimentation as shown in Fig. 10. The predicted value of efficiency loss with respect to the mass loss of
correlation obtained is presented in the following: bucket. A good agreement was observed and an average absolute
percentage deviation between the experimental and calculated
A1 ¼ Anti log C2 S0:099 (7) data for efficiency loss was found within 10%.
or,

h% 7. Conclusion
¼ Anti log C2 S0:099 (8)
t 0:75
Based on the experimental investigation it was found that the
or, silt concentration, silt size, jet velocity and the operating hours of
the turbine were strong parameters for efficiency loss in Pelton
h%
¼ A2 S0:099 (9) buckets. It was concluded that the percentage efficiency loss of
t 0:75
a Pelton turbine increased with an increase in the silt concen-
Similarly, the effect of silt concentration parameter is induced in tration, silt size and jet velocity. It was observed that the turbine
the Eq. (17) by representing coefficient A2 as a function of silt power output was decreasing with the mass loss of Pelton
concentration. These values were plotted against respective silt buckets. The rate of power loss was initially found at a higher rate;
concentration values as shown in Fig. 11. The correlation obtained is however the rate of power loss was found to be at lower rates and
presented as follows: became asymptotic after operating the turbine over a long period
of time.
A2 ¼ Anti log C3 C 0:93 (10) Based on experimental data obtained, a correlation was devel-
oped for percentage efficiency loss as a function of silt concentra-
or,
tion, silt particle size, jet velocity and operating hours of the
h%
¼ Anti log C3 C 0:93 (11) turbine. The developed correlation might be useful for turbine
t 0:75 S0:099 manufacturing industries in order to predict the efficiency loss of
or, a Pelton turbine at the manufacturing stage of a turbine under
h% a given silt content water at a particular site.
¼ A3 C 0:93 (12)
t 0:75 S0:099
In order to induce the effect of velocity parameter in the above References
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