5.

Essential Components of Hydropower Schemes

❑ Introduction
❖ To generate electric power from water, three basic elements are necessary:
1. A means of creating head: Dams/reservoirs, Weirs, barrages, etc.
2. A means for conveying water from dam to turbine
✓ Intake: directs water from reservoir to penstock/power conduit

✓ Power canal,

✓ Forebay,

✓ Penstock: pressurized conduit conveying water to turbines

✓ Draft tube:

✓ Tail race:

3. A power plant: power house to generate electric power

✓ Turbines: converts potential and kinetic energy of the water to
mechanical energy
✓ Generators: converts mechanical energy to electrical energy
 Storage type Hydroelectric Power Plant

2
Draft Tube
Diversion type Hydroelectric Power Plant

`
❑ Dams, Barrages and Reservoirs
❖ Water control structures: dams, barrages, and weirs play two major
functions. They;
✓ Create the head necessary to move the turbine, and
✓ Store water used to maintain the daily or seasonal flow release pattern.
➢ The height of the dam or diversion weir establishes the head and the
store the amount of available water for power generation.
➢ Storage capacity is the volume of a reservoir available to store water.
✓ This storage is divided into active and inactive storage.
o Active storage: that portion of the storage capacity in which water
will normally be stored or withdrawn for beneficial uses (see Figure
below).
o Inactive storage: that portion of the storage capacity from which
water is not normally withdrawn, in accordance with operating
agreements or restrictions.
 1. Active storage

2. Inactive storage

3 Live storage

4 Dead storage

5 Flood storage

6.Reservoir capacity; gross capacity of reservoir; gross storage; storage capacity

7.Retention water level; top water level; full supply level; normal water level
8.Flood surcharge; surcharge
9.Maximum water level; top of joint use (joint use means that part of the reservoir
capacity including both surcharge & empty part of the active storage, assigned to
flood control or conservation depending on the time of the year)
10.Minimum operating level; top of inactive storage
11.Freeboard
❑ Intakes
✓ The intake is a structure constructed at the entrance of a power canal or tunnel
or pipe through which the flow is diverted from the source such as a river or
reservoir.

✓ It is an essential component of hydropower schemes and provided as

o an integral part or

o in isolation from the diversion, weir or dam.

✓ A water intake must be able to divert the required amount of water into the
power canal or into the penstock without producing a negative impact on the
local environment and with the minimum possible head loss.
 Intake as integral part of the Dam

Gate

Bellmouth
Trashrack

Draft Tube
Intake as a separate structure
✓ The intake serves as a transition between a stream that can vary from a trickle

to a raging torrent, and a controlled flow of water both in quality and quantity.

✓ Its design, based on geological, hydraulic, structural and economic

considerations, requires special care to avoid unnecessary maintenance and

operational problems that cannot be easily remedied and would have to be

tolerated for the life of the project

Withdrawal (intake) structure of power plant with (1) intake
trashrack, (2) intake transition, (3) trashrack cleaner. (4) penstock,
(5) slide gate, (6) wheel gate, (7) penstock to power plant, (8) gate
shaft
❖ Design Requirements of an Intake
✓ The common design requirements for all intake structures are:

o insignificant or small setup of vortices for relatively small head on the inlet,

o no separation of flow at the inlet structure, and

o emergency closure

✓ Intakes are somewhat contrary to outlets, as regards the hydraulic features.

o Whereas the latter issue a concentrated jet into the atmosphere or into a

tailwater, and energy dissipation is a main concern,

o intakes behave nearly as a potential flow with the characteristic decrease of

pressure due to velocity increase.

o Depending on whether the head on the intake structure is low or high,

significantly different flows are generated, and the associated hydraulic

problems are correspondingly different.
✓ For high velocity intakes, pressure may locally become so low as to fall below
the vapour pressure.

✓ Accordingly, the geometry of the intake must be chosen such that pressure is
always above the vapour pressure, and cavitation damage is no concern.

✓ Based on the trajectory of an orifice jet, the boundary geometry may be defined
to inhibit such damages.

✓ Figure below shows a typical intake structure.

o The inlet geometry is bellmouth-shaped and is connected with a circular-

shaped penstock

o The tunnel is lined with reinforced concrete.

o Downstream from the intake is the gate shaft, with a slide and a roll gate;
o Both gates are operated from the top of the gate shaft.

o The transition from the circular penstock to the rectangular gate location is

steel-lined.

o The trash rack is connected with the cleaning machine that can be operated

also from the gate shaft.

o Note that also the complicated transition geometry of the intake.

Withdrawal (intake) structure of power plant with (1) intake
trashrack, (2) intake transition, (3) trashrack cleaner. (4) penstock, (5)
slide gate, (6) wheel gate, (7) penstock to power plant, (8) gate shaft
✓ Inlet structures for bottom outlets have to be safe under all hydraulic
conditions.
✓ These include:

(1) cavitation,
(2) vibration and
(3) Flow stability.
✓ In addition, the design of inlet structures should be simple and economic,
and the capacity should be large.
✓ Because the head on an inlet structure at the bottom of a dam may be well in
excess of 100 m, the resulting velocities can be up to 50 m/s or even more.
✓ These may give rise to low boundary pressure and are a potential danger of
cavitation damage.
❑ Inlet of an Intake Structure
✓ The inlet portion of an intake structure has to satisfy various conditions,
such as:

o positive boundary pressures;

o absence of cavitation zones;

o continuous decrease of pressure line;

o minor head losses, and thus a good hydraulic performance;

o control of vibration; and

o economic design.
❑Gate slots
✓ The performance of slide and wheel gates depends highly on the gate
slots in which they are supported.

✓ Among various slot geometries, the configuration with abrupt

upstream and downstream corners was retained provided the
downstream corner was recessed to obtain a gradual convergence
towards the tailwater wall .

✓ A final design was presented by the United States, Army Corps of

Engineers .
✓ Attention is paid to the transition curve from the upstream dam face to the
intake penstock.

✓ The height of the intake is a, and b is the width.

✓ According to USCE, ellipses or compound ellipses may be used to

approximate the inlet geometry.

✓ Figure below shows a definition plot and defines the origin of the
coordinate system (x;y).

✓ According to USCE, the boundary pressure along the transition may be

negative if a single elliptical curve is adopted.

✓ Recent experiments substantiated this finding and currently, the compound
elliptical transition curve is recommended.

✓ With the dimensionless coordinates X = x/a, or X = x/b depending on

whether the vertical or horizontal transition curve is considered, and Y =Y
/ a or Y =y/b, respectively, the transition geometry can be defined for a
four sided intake configuration as
Intake geometry of a high head intake: (a) Longitudinal Section, (b) Cross
Section, with (1) upstream pier face, (2) trash rack, (3) transition curve, (4)
gate with gate slot, (5) penstock.
Sluice entrance curves
❑ Functions of Intakes
✓ The main functions of intakes are:
i) To control flow of water into the conveyance system. The control is achieved
by a gate or a valve.
ii) To provide smooth, easy and vortex or turbulence free entry of water in the
conveyance system to minimize head loss. This can be achieved through
providing bell-mouth shaped entrance.
iii) To prevent entry of coarse river born trash matter such as boulders, logs,
tree branches etc. Provisions of trash racks at the entrance achieve this
function.
iv) To exclude heavy sediment load of the river from interring the conveyance
system. Special devices such as silt traps and silt excluders are used to
control & trap the silt.
✓ In high-head structures the intake can be, either ;

o an integral part of a dam or

o separate; for example, in the form of a tower with entry

ports at various levels which may aid flow regulation when

there is a wide range of fluctuations of reservoir water
level. Such a provision of multilevel entry also permits the
withdrawal of water of a desired quality.
❑ Classification of Intakes
✓ Intakes are conveniently classified in to the following types depending
on the power plant type and its layout.

i) Run - of - river intakes

ii) Canal intakes

iii) Dam intakes

iv) Tower intakes

v) Shaft intakes

vi) Intakes of special type

❖ Run - of - river intakes

✓ The component parts are:

o Bell mouth entrance guarded by R.C or steel grid forming the

trash rack structure;

o Control gate situated immediately downstream of the bell mouth

entry;

o Upstream of the gate may be provided with stop-log groves for

provision of access for the gate for repair.

o Special de-silting arrangement may be provided in rivers with

high silt loads.

❑ Canal Intakes
✓ Like run-of-river intakes, these are also low head intakes. In this case,
however, instead of leading water directly to the turbines, the intake admits
water into the diversion canals.

✓ The following are its major appurtenances:

o The inlet invert level of the intake is raised to form a sill so as to prevent

entry of rolling bed load into the canal;

o A skimmer wall (a diaphragm which extends below the water surface)

abstracts the floating material from interring into the canal;

o The coarse rack (trash rack) to trap trash, equipped with either manual or

automatic power-driven rack cleaning devices;

o The settling basin (sand trap) followed by a secondary sill (entrance

sill) diverting the bottom (sediment-laden) layers towards the de-silting

canal;

o The flushing (de-silting) sluice to flush the deposited silt;

o The scouring (tunnel) sluices in the diversion weir to flush the bed load

upstream of the inlet sill;

o Vertical lift gate with motorized operation to control the flow into the

canal.
❑The following are its major
appurtenances:
▪ Inlet Sill;
▪ Trash rack and skimmer wall;
▪ Sand trap / settling basin;
▪ Flushing (de-silting) sluice;
▪ Scouring (tunnel) sluices;
▪ Vertical lift gate.
❖ Location and alignment of an intake
✓ The river reach upstream of the intake should be well established with

stable banks.

✓ As the bottom layers of the flow around a bend are swept towards its inside

(convex) bank, it is obvious that the best location for an intake (to avoid bed

load entry) is the outer (concave) bank, with the intake located towards the

downstream end of the bend.

Flow around bend
✓Analyzed based on free vortex flow
✓Water flows faster in the inner bend than the outer bend
✓Pressure increases from the inner bend towards outer bend
✓Secondary currents develop:
✓Secondary currents move from inner to outer bend at the surface
✓Secondary currents move from the outer bend to inner bend at the bottom
✓Erosion at the outer bend and deposition in the inner bend
✓ The secondary current near the bed, transports sediment away from the region and draws in
water from the top layers where the sediment concentration is relatively low. Since the
sediment concentration is highest at the bed the water diversion structure should be located
where the flow near the bed is away from the intake.
✓ Such conditions occur at river bends where the spiral (helicoidal) current carries sediment
towards the inner bank away from the outer bank.
✓ A natural scour hole forms at the outer bank with its deepest point approximately twice the
river width downstream of the intersection of the upstream axis with the bank,
✓ An off-take at 90° to the main flow is the least desirable one.

✓ The structure should be aligned to produce a suitable curvature of flow into

the intake, and a diversion angle of around 30°– 45° is usually

recommended to produce this effect;

✓ in addition, an artificial bend, a groyne island or guide vanes may be

designed to cause the required curvature of flow

Intake layouts with induced curvature to flow (an artificial bend)
Use of artificial groyne (e.g. island) to induce desired curvature to flow at intakes
Guide vanes layouts upstream of intake for sediment exclusion
❑ Dam intakes
✓ For valley dam plants, the intake structure is provided usually in the body of
the dam;

✓ The penstocks are embodied in the dam;

✓ The main features of such an intake are:

o a trash rack structure in front of the dam,

o a bell mouth inlet horizontal or inclined alignment,

o a control gate installed either at or after the bell mouth,

✓ Cage-shaped intakes resting against the face of the dam and supported on
slab cantilevered from the dam provide larger area of entry than the
penstock intake area, thus reducing entrance losses.
❑Tower Intakes
✓ The tower intakes are normally on hillsides, not far off from the dam,
when it is not convenient to provide the simple intake directly on the
upstream face of the dam.
✓ In multipurpose reservoirs built for irrigation, drinking water abstraction,
flood regulation, etc, the water can be withdrawn through towers with
multiple level ports, permitting selective withdrawal from the reservoirs
vertical strata.
✓ They are also used when there are large discharges or when there is a
wide fluctuation in water level.
✓ Tower may be connected with main dam through a bridge when the tower
is near the dam.
✓ Flow into the pressure conduit is controlled by vertical lift gates.
✓ The structure should be strong enough to withstand hydrodynamic
pressure, earthquake, wind forces, etc.
❑ Shaft intakes

✓ This is a vertical or a near-vertical shaft, driven at the reservoir site that

carries water to the penstock tunnel feeding the power house.

✓ It consists of the following parts:

✓ The entrance structure with trash rack and rounded inlet or mouth,

✓ The vertical shaft followed by an elbow and transition connecting the

shaft with the tunnel;

✓ The intake gate and sometimes a stop-log closure.

❑ Trash racks and Skimmers
✓ Debris carried in the incoming water can have adverse impacts on a hydropower
scheme in that:
o It can obstruct flow along the conveyance structures, interrupting power generation

or causing the water to overflow and possibly undermine the structures;

o It can cause rapid deterioration of the penstock or turbine or cause a catastrophic

failure, such as rupture of the penstock through a sudden blockage of flow through
the nozzle (in the case of impulse turbines) or fracture of the runner blades (in the
case of reaction turbines).

✓ It is therefore essential that the quantity of debris which enters the conveyance
system of a hydropower scheme be minimized.

✓ This can be achieved with the help of trash racks and skimmers.
❑ Trash Racks
✓ A trash rack intercepts the entire flow and removes any large debris, whether it is
floating, suspended, or swept along the bottom.

✓ Frequently, it is located in the intake structure to prevent debris from entering the water
conveyance system.

✓ It can also be placed just before the inlet to the penstock to remove smaller debris as well
as other trashes which may have entered the water conveyance system downstream of the
intake.

✓ A trash rack is made up of one or more panels, each generally fabricated of a series of
evenly spaced parallel metal bars.

✓ The bars are parallel and evenly spaced because a rake is commonly used to clear the
debris off the rack.

✓ In this case, it is essential that the teeth of the rake mesh into the parallel bars without
binding so that the rake can be pulled along the bars easily to scrape off accumulated
debris
✓ Bars on a trash rack before the inlet to the penstock should be spaced no
closer than is necessary to remove debris which might be detrimental to the
turbine’s operation.

✓ Otherwise, head losses may be high and the rack may fill up quickly with
debris.

o With a Pelton turbine, the space between bars usually is not more than

half the nozzle diameter (or a quarter, if spear valve is used) to prevent
the nozzle from choking.

o For Francis turbines, the space between bars should not exceed the

distance between the runner vanes.

✓ The approach velocity of flow should be kept within such limits that

it will not cause damage to the rack structure.

✓ A design approach velocity of 0.5 m/s is usually used.

✓ If a trash rack is located immediately in front of the inlet to a

penstock and the penstock velocities are significantly higher than 0.5

m/s, the trash rack can be built in a circular area to increase the area

of the trash rack and correspondingly decrease velocity through it.

✓ Cleaning of the trash racks can be performed either manually (for small
schemes) using manual rake or mechanically (for large schemes) using
automatic cleaning machines.
✓ The trash rack is usually placed vertical or near vertical (< 25o from the
vertical).
✓ Placing the trash racks in an inclined position makes the cleaning easy apart
from giving less resistance to flow.
✓ Clogging of racks is objectionable on account of the operational trouble and loss
of energy production involved, and of the unbalanced load created on the rack
causing partial or total damage thereof.
✓ Allowing for partial clogging, racks are generally designed to withstand a head
ranging from 1 to 2 m under normal conditions and from 4 to 5 m under
exceptional circumstances.
❑ Skimmer walls
✓ A skimmer wall is an obstruction placed at the water surface, usually at an angle to
the stream flow which skims floating debris from the passing water.

✓ If the water level changes markedly as, for example, at the intake of stream, the
skimmer can be a floating piece of timber secured at both ends.

✓ If changes in water level are small, a fixed skimmer can be used.

✓ Because some debris usually pass under the skimmer, a trash rack is still necessary.

✓ However, a skimmer reduces the frequency with which the trash rack has to be
cleaned.

✓ Skimmer walls are made, for the most part, of reinforced concrete with a service
bridge on top.

✓ They are designed usually for a horizontal pressure of 1000 kg/m2 acting on the
submerged surface.
❑ Losses in Intakes
✓ The intake losses include
o entrance loss,

o trash rack loss, and

o head gate loss.

a)Entrance Losses

✓ The entrance losses at an intake depend upon:

o the change in direction of the flow (entering the intake),

o the extent of contraction, and

o the type of trash rack provided at the inlet.

✓ They are expressed in terms of the velocity head as KV2/2g.

✓ Loss due to change in direction: The entrance loss due to a change in

direction of flow (intake at an angle α with the main stream) is given by;

Where

o V is velocity in the diversion canal

o Vf is velocity of flow in the main river

o C is a constant which depends on the off-take angle of the diversion

canal.
✓ According to Mosonyi, C is equal to 0.8 for 300 off-take angles and 0.4 for
900 off-take angles.

Losses due to change of flow direction

✓ The losses due to sudden contraction of the area at the inlet section:
✓ It is given by;

Where K is a constant, which depends on the shape of the entry;

K = 0.03 for bell-mouthed entry;
K = 1.3 for sharp cornered entry
❑ Rack Losses
✓ There are numerous expressions available for predicting head loss
across trash racks.
✓ One such expression ( Kirschmer’s formula) (with flow parallel to rack
bars), is:

Where,
Kt is trash rack loss coefficient (a function of bar shape),
t is bar thickness,
b is spacing between bars,
Va is approach velocity, and
Ф is angle of inclination of bars with the horizontal.
✓ If the grill is not perpendicular but makes an angle β with the water flow
(β will have a maximum value of 90º for a grill located in the sidewall of a
canal), there will be an extra head loss, given by the equation.
❑ Gate Losses
✓ Head loss due to gates (at part gate opening) is given by:

Where,
Q is flow in the canal or conduit,
A is area of gate opening, and
Cd is discharge coefficient which varies between 0.62 and 0.83.

❖ Velocity Through Trash Racks

✓ Velocity should be sufficiently low to avoid high head loss and should be
sufficiently high to avoid large intake and trash rack cross section. The
following are suggested limiting entrance velocities:
 i. Justin and Creager formula

h =head from center line of gate to normal water surface

ii. Mosonyi’s formula: to eliminate eddies and vortices;

U.S.B.R's criterion: permissible velocity in the range of 0.6 to 1.5 m/s. The
trash rack is designed so that the approach velocity (Va) remains between 0.60
m/s and 1.50 m/s. The total surface of the screen will be given by the equation
❑ Air Entrainment and Vortex formation at Intakes

✓ Air entrainment at gate entrances is due to development of vortices and

also due to partial gate opening that facilitates hydraulic jump formation.

✓ Effects of air entrainment are:

o Additional head losses,

o reduction in discharge, and

o drop in efficiency of turbines.

✓ Minimizing vortex formation and avoiding hydraulic jump formation help

in preventing air entrainment.

✓ A vortex which forms at the inlet to power conduit occasionally can
cause troubles by itself.

o It can induce loss of turbine efficiency,

o possible cavitations,

o surging caused by the formation and dissipation of vortices, and

o flow reduction as air replaces part of the water through the inlet.

o It can also draw floating debris into the conduit.

✓ Thus, it is necessary to prevent formation of vortices at intakes and

air entrainment.
✓ Vortices are formed due to the following factors:

o Hydraulic jump formation;

o Velocities at intakes;

o Submergence at intakes.

o Geometry of approaching flow at intakes

✓ Designing for a low velocity into the conduit and increasing

submergence of the inlet can help prevent the formation of vortices.

✓ For low submergence, an intake structure can be prone to vortices.

✓ A vortex is a coherent structure of rotational flow. It is mainly caused by:

o the eccentricity of the approach flow to a hydraulic sink,

o asymmetric approach flow conditions and

o obstruction effects among other reasons

✓ can also set up vortices. Figure below shows major sources of vorticity.

Figure. Vorticity due to (a) offset, (b) velocity gradient, (c) obstruction
✓ Vortices have four main disadvantages in hydraulic designs:

o air entrainment, with effects on hydraulic machinery ,

o swirl entrainment, with increase of head loss and reduction of
efficiency in hydraulic machinery,
o enhancement of cavitation and vibration with a reduced longevity of
important mechanical parts, and
o entrainment of floating material such as wood or ice, and blockage of
screens, or damage of coatings,
✓ Ideally, the transition from free surface to pressurized flow should be
uniform, steady and of single phase,
✓ Air entrainment is the worst consequence of an intake structure, and an
acceptable hydraulic design has to avoid this condition in particular.
✓ Flow approaching the intake asymmetrically is more prone to vortex
formation than symmetrical flow.
✓ It is therefore important that flows upstream of the inlet area be as straight
and uniform as possible.
✓ For the condition of no vortices at intakes, the following empirical relations
may be used:

Where Ys is necessary submergence

depth,
V is velocity of flow into the conduit
D is diameter of the conduit
✓ Another remedy to vortex formation is provision of a floating raft or
baffle which disrupts the angular momentum of the water near the
surface.
❑ Inlet Aeration
✓ Intakes normally have a bulk head gate at the front and a control gate inside
on the downstream side.
✓ An air vent is always provided just downstream of a control gate.

✓ The functions are:

o Admission of air to nullify vacuum effect, which could be created when

the penstock is drained after control gate closure.
o Intake gates operate under conditions of balanced pressure on both sides
of the gate.
✓ Thus the conduit is required to be filled with water through a by-pass pipe.

✓ The entrapped air is therefore driven out through the air vent.
 Air Vent Arrangement
Size of the air vent: There are several recommendations:
1.

Where Qa = discharge of air in m3/s

a = area of vent pipe in m2
C = constant (normally with a value of 0.7)
P = pressure difference between the atmosphere and pressure in the
penstock in kg/cm2
✓ Fourth Congress on Large Dams Guideline (ICOLD)

Area of Air Vent = 10% control gate area

✓ USBR Design Guide

Capacity of Air Vent = 25% Conduit discharge