Lab 5: Pelton Turbine

ENGR 3471 – Fluid Mechanics Laboratory

Introduction
The Pelton wheel is an impulse-type water turbine that extracts energy from the impulse of moving water. Many
variations of impulse turbines existed prior to Pelton's design, but they were less efficient. Water leaving those
wheels typically still had high velocity carrying away much of the kinetic. Pelton's paddle geometry was designed
so that when the rim ran at half the speed of the water jet, the water left the wheel with very little speed; thus
extracted almost all of the water's impulse energy allowing for a very efficient turbine.

Objectives
Measure the conversion efficiency of a Pelton wheel turbine and compare measured data to theoretical values.

Experimental Setup

Figure 1: Pelton Turbine

Procedure
 Fill the hydraulic bench with water.
 Connect the outlet hose of the bench with the inlet pipe of the apparatus and secure with a hose clip.
 Place the apparatus on top of the hydraulic bench and align its outlet pipe with the top hole of the bench.
 Turn on the pump and adjust the water flow rate via the bench valve.
 Set the needle valve at the inlet of the turbine at 2.5 turns clockwise from the fully open position.
 Make sure the spring scales are at the zero position, thus not applying any tension to the turbine.
 Adjust the rotor speed using the bench valve as a controller and the laser tachometer as an indicator
so the turbine blades rotate at an approximately 1000 rpm with no load (runaway speed).
 SAFETY PRECAUTION: DO NOT STARE AT THE MEASURING BEAM OF THE LASER TACHOMETER!
 Depending on the type of hydraulic bench used, measure the flow rate by one of the following methods:
a. If the hydraulic bench has a mass hanger, put 3 kg on the 2 kg hanger to get the 5 kg total needed to
balance 15 L of water in a bucket located inside the hydraulic bench. Move the hanger all the way up
to empty the bucket. When released, the hanger should go all the way down indicating an empty
bucket. Measure the time it takes the hanger to go from that minimum position to the balanced
position. Divide 15 L of water volume in the bucket by the time it took to fill it to get the flowrate.
b. If the hydraulic bench has a level indicator, it would also have a top water basin. Make sure that the
water basin is empty by removing the plug from its drain. Plug the drain and measure the time it
takes to fill the basin with 15 L of water. Divide 15 L of water volume in the basin by the time it took
to fill it to get the flowrate.
 Load the turbine by applying tension to one or both of the spring scales to reduce its speed from 1000
to 50 rpm in 100 rpm increments recording the spring scale readings at each increment.
 Reduce the speed to zero by applying tension and record data when rpm = 0.

Calculation
 Enter the experimental data in the provided table.
 Plot turbine power (hp) versus rotating speed (rpm).
 Calculate the tangential wheel speed at maximum power.
 Calculate the ratio of wheel speed to jet velocity.
 Calculate the efficiency of the turbine at maximum power.
 Show a sample calculation for one data point.

Discussions
 Compare calculated wheel speed to jet velocity ratios to theoretical values at the maximum power.
 Discuss the reasons and implications of any possible discrepancies.
 List and discuss at least two factors that make turbine efficiency less than 100%.
 Briefly explain why actual Pelton turbine blades have less than 180°.

Experimental Records

Table 1. Volumetric Flow Rate

Run V (L) t (s) Q (m³/s) 𝑄̂ (m³/s)

1
2
3
I. Constants

DPony = 1.75”
θBlade = 170 °
AJet = 41.1 mm² @ 2.5 turns close

II. Inlet Power (single pass calculation: calculate at 1000 rpm)

𝑟𝑒𝑣 𝐷𝑃𝑜𝑛𝑦 2𝜋 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛 1𝑚 𝑚

Wheel Velocity: 𝑉𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑙 = 𝜔 (𝑚𝑖𝑛) ∙ (𝑖𝑛) ∙ ∙ ∙ 39.36996 𝑖𝑛 = 𝑠
2 𝑟𝑒𝑣 60 𝑠
𝑚3
𝑄( ) 106 𝑚𝑚2 𝑚
𝑠
Jet Velocity: 𝑉𝐽𝑒𝑡 = 𝐴 (𝑚𝑚2 )
∙ =
𝐽𝑒𝑡 1 𝑚2 𝑠
𝑃𝑖𝑛 𝑉𝑖𝑛 2 𝑃𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑉𝑜𝑢𝑡 2
Bernoulli Equation: + + 𝑔𝑧𝑖𝑛 = + + 𝑔𝑧𝑜𝑢𝑡 + 𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒
𝜌 2 𝜌 2
Given: Pin = Pout = 1 atm, zin = zout = 0, Vin = VJet, Vout ≈ 0
𝑉𝐽𝑒𝑡 2 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
Substituting: ℎ𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒 = =
2𝑔 𝜌𝑔𝑄
2
1 𝑘𝑔 𝑚3 𝑚2 𝑁∙𝑠2 𝐽 𝑊
Power: 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 2 𝜌 (𝑚3 ) 𝑄 ( ) 𝑉𝐽𝑒𝑡 ( 𝑠2 ) (𝑘𝑔∙𝑚) (𝑁∙𝑚) (𝐽⁄𝑠) = 𝑊
𝑠

III. Outlet Power (recurring calculation: calculate for each increment → Table 2)
𝐷𝑃𝑜𝑛𝑦 1𝑚 𝐽
Torque: 𝑇 = |𝐹1 − 𝐹2 |(𝑁) ∙ 2 (𝑖𝑛) ∙ 39.36996 𝑖𝑛 ∙ 𝑁∙𝑚 = 𝐽
𝑟𝑒𝑣 2𝜋 1 𝑚𝑖𝑛 𝑊
Power: 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 = 𝑇(𝐽) 𝜔 (𝑚𝑖𝑛) 𝑟𝑒𝑣 ∙ ∙ 𝐽⁄𝑠 = 𝑊
60 𝑠

IV. Turbine Efficiency (recurring calculation: calculate for each increment → Table 2)
𝑂𝑢𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
Efficiency: 𝜂𝑇𝑢𝑟𝑏𝑖𝑛𝑒 = = %
𝐼𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟

Table 2. Pelton Wheel Calculations

Run ω (rpm) F1 (N) F2 (N) T (J) Power (W) ηTurbine (%)

1 1000
2 900
3 800
4 700
5 600
6 500
7 400
8 300
9 200
10 100
11 50
12 0