HOW DO WE GET ENERGY FROM WATER? Hydropower, or hydroelectric … Contact online >>
HOW DO WE GET ENERGY FROM WATER? Hydropower, or hydroelectric
The most common type of hydroelectric power plant is an impoundment facility.
Water turbines were developed in the 19th century and were widely used for industrial power prior to electrical grids. Now, they are mostly used for electric power generation.Water turbines are mostly found in dams to generate electric power from water potential energy.
Water wheels have been used for hundreds of years for industrial power. Their main shortcoming is size, which limits the flow rate and head that can be harnessed. The migration from water wheels to modern turbines took about one hundred years. Development occurred during the Industrial Revolution, using scientific principles and methods. They also made extensive use of new materials and manufacturing methods developed at the time.
The word turbine was introduced by the French engineer Claude Burdin in the early 19th century and is derived from the Greek word "τύρβη" for "whirling" or a "vortex". The main difference between early water turbines and water wheels is a swirl component of the water which passes energy to a spinning rotor. This additional component of motion allowed the turbine to be smaller than a water wheel of the same power. They could process more water by spinning faster and could harness much greater heads. (Later, impulse turbines were developed which didn''t use swirl.)
The earliest known water turbines date to the Roman Empire. Two helix-turbine mill sites of almost identical design were found at Chemtou and Testour, modern-day Tunisia, dating to the late 3rd or early 4th century AD. The horizontal water wheel with angled blades was installed at the bottom of a water-filled, circular shaft. The water from the mill race entered the pit tangentially, creating a swirling water column which made the fully submerged wheel act like a true turbine.[1]
Fausto Veranzio in his book Machinae Novae (1595) described a vertical axis mill with a rotor similar to that of a Francis turbine.[2]
Johann Segner developed a reactive water turbine (Segner wheel) in the mid-18th century in Kingdom of Hungary. It had a horizontal axis and was a precursor to modern water turbines. It is a very simple machine that is still produced today for use in small hydro sites. Segner worked with Euler on some of the early mathematical theories of turbine design. In the 18th century, a Dr. Robert Barker invented a similar reaction hydraulic turbine that became popular as a lecture-hall demonstration.[3] The only known surviving example of this type of engine used in power production, dating from 1851, is found at Hacienda Buena Vista in Ponce, Puerto Rico.[4]
In 1820, Jean-Victor Poncelet developed an inward-flow turbine.
In 1826, Benoît Fourneyron developed an outward-flow turbine. This was an efficient machine (~80%) that sent water through a runner with blades curved in one dimension. The stationary outlet also had curved guides.
In 1844, Uriah A. Boyden developed an outward flow turbine that improved on the performance of the Fourneyron turbine. Its runner shape was similar to that of a Francis turbine.
In 1849, James B. Francis improved the inward flow reaction turbine to over 90% efficiency. He also conducted sophisticated tests and developed engineering methods for water turbine design. The Francis turbine, named for him, is the first modern water turbine. It is still the most widely used water turbine in the world today. The Francis turbine is also called a radial flow turbine, since water flows from the outer circumference towards the centre of runner.
Inward flow water turbines have a better mechanical arrangement and all modern reaction water turbines are of this design. As the water swirls inward, it accelerates, and transfers energy to the runner. Water pressure decreases to atmospheric, or in some cases subatmospheric, as the water passes through the turbine blades and loses energy.
Around 1890, the modern fluid bearing was invented, now universally used to support heavy water turbine spindles. As of 2002, fluid bearings appear to have a mean time between failures of more than 1300 years.
Around 1913, Viktor Kaplan created the Kaplan turbine, a propeller-type machine. It was an evolution of the Francis turbine and revolutionized the ability to develop low-head hydro sites.
All common water machines until the late 19th century (including water wheels) were basically reaction machines; water pressure head acted on the machine and produced work. A reaction turbine needs to fully contain the water during energy transfer.
In 1866, California millwright Samuel Knight invented a machine that took the impulse system to a new level.[15][16] Inspired by the high pressure jet systems used in hydraulic mining in the gold fields, Knight developed a bucketed wheel which captured the energy of a free jet, which had converted a high head (hundreds of vertical feet in a pipe or penstock) of water to kinetic energy. This is called an impulse or tangential turbine. The water''s velocity, roughly twice the velocity of the bucket periphery, does a U-turn in the bucket and drops out of the runner at low velocity.
In 1879, Lester Pelton, experimenting with a Knight Wheel, developed a Pelton wheel (double bucket design), which exhausted the water to the side, eliminating some energy loss of the Knight wheel which exhausted some water back against the center of the wheel. In about 1895, William Doble improved on Pelton''s half-cylindrical bucket form with an elliptical bucket that included a cut in it to allow the jet a cleaner bucket entry. This is the modern form of the Pelton turbine which today achieves up to 92% efficiency. Pelton had been quite an effective promoter of his design and although Doble took over the Pelton company he did not change the name to Doble because it had brand name recognition.
Turgo and cross-flow turbines were later impulse designs.
Flowing water is directed on to the blades of a turbine runner, creating a force on the blades. Since the runner is spinning, the force acts through a distance (force acting through a distance is the definition of work). In this way, energy is transferred from the water flow to the turbine.
Water turbines are divided into two groups: reaction turbines and impulse turbines.
The precise shape of water turbine blades is a function of the supply pressure of water, and the type of impeller selected.
Reaction turbines are acted on by water, which changes pressure as it moves through the turbine and gives up its energy. They must be encased to contain the water pressure (or suction), or they must be fully submerged in the water flow.
Newton''s third law describes the transfer of energy for reaction turbines.
Most water turbines in use are reaction turbines and are used in low (<30 m or 100 ft) and medium (30–300 m or 100–1,000 ft) head applications. In reaction turbine, pressure drop occurs in both fixed and moving blades. It is largely used in dam and large power plants.
Prior to hitting the turbine blades, the water''s pressure (potential energy) is converted to kinetic energy by a nozzle and focused on the turbine. No pressure change occurs at the turbine blades, and the turbine doesn''t require a housing for operation.
Newton''s second law describes the transfer of energy for impulse turbines.
Impulse turbines are often used in very high (>300m/1000 ft) head applications.
Some water turbines are designed for pumped-storage hydroelectricity. They can reverse flow and operate as a pump[1] to fill a high reservoir during off-peak electrical hours, and then revert to a water turbine for power generation during peak electrical demand. This type of turbine is usually a Deriaz or Francis turbine in design.
This type of system is used in El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands: "When wind production exceeds demand, excess energy will pump water from a lower reservoir at the bottom of a volcanic cone to an upper reservoir at the top of the volcano 700 meters above sea level. The lower reservoir stores 150,000 cubic meters of water. The stored water acts as a battery. The maximum storage capacity is 270 MWh. When demand rises and there is not enough wind power, the water will be released to four hydroelectric turbines with a total capacity of 11 MW."[17][18]
Large modern water turbines operate at mechanical efficiencies greater than 90%.
Turbine selection is based on the available water head, and less so on the available flow rate. In general, impulse turbines are used for high head sites, and reaction turbines are used for low head sites. Kaplan turbines with adjustable blade pitch are well-adapted to wide ranges of flow or head conditions, since their peak efficiency can be achieved over a wide range of flows.
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