PERFORMANCE TEST OF FRANCIS TURBINE

Michael Adrian Vallecera Ygnacio 1

Abstract: The Francis turbine is a reaction turbine where water changes pressure as it moves through the turbine,
transferring its energy. A watertight casement is needed to contain the water flow. Generally, such turbines are
suitable for sites such as dams where they are located between the high pressure water source and the low pressure
water exit. The inlet of a Francis turbine is spiral shaped. Guide vanes direct the water tangentially to the turbine
runner. Francis turbines can be designed for a wide range of heads and flows and along with their high efficiency
makes them one of the most widely used turbines in the world. The objective of the experiment is to verify some
data that were gathered from previous groups in their experiment on the performance of a Francis Turbine. The
Francis Turbine set-up located in the USC-TC Mechanical Engineering Hydraulic Laboratory is used.

Author keywords: Verification, Hydraulic Turbine, Francis Turbine, Guide Vane Angle

Introduction

Humans have used the power of flowing water for

thousands of years. Early civilizations used wooden
paddle wheels to grind corn and wheat to flour. The
word Hydro comes from the Greek word for water.
Hydropower traditionally represents the energy
generated by damming a river and using turbine
systems to generate electrical power. However, there
are several other ways we can generate energy using
the power of water. Ocean waves, tidal currents and Figure 1 The amount of hydro electric energy of
ocean water temperature differences can all be different countries (Courtesy of Gatte & Kadhim)
harnessed to generate energy. (Gatte & Kadhim 2012)

More than 70 percent of the earth is covered by

water. The United States is one of the worlds top Generating energy from the power of water
producers of hydropower (see chart). As much as 12 represents large amounts of clean, renewable energy.
percent of the electrical energy generated in the U.S. 71 percent of the earths surface is covered by water.
is currently derived from hydropower systems. Parts The worlds hydro power potential amounts to 20
of the Pacific Northwest generate as much as 70 billion Mega Watt hours per year and only 30 percent
percent of their electricity using hydroelectric of this has been developed so far.
sources. More than half the renewable energy
The Main requirement for hydro-electric power plant
generated in the United States comes from
is the availability of water in huge quantity at
hydroelectric dams. Hydroelectric power is currently
sufficient head and this requirement can be met by
the least expensive source of electrical power and is
constructing a dam across a river. A storage reservoir
much cleaner than power generated using fossil fuels.
is formed by constructing a dam across Krishna
(Gatte & Kadhim 2012)
River. Near the bottom of the dam, there is a water
intake. Trash Racks of meters long are provided at
the water intake to prevent the ingress of floating and
other materials to the turbine. (B.Sandhya Rani &
Ramesh, Dr.A., 2015).
Student, Dept. Mechanical Engineering, Univ. of San
Carlos, Cebu City 6000, Philippines, The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that
E-mail: michaeladrianygnacio@gmail.com was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, MA. It
is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines
 radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are pump. Priming operation of the centrifugal pump is
the most common water turbine in use today. They thus needed and necessary before starting the actual
operate in a head range of ten meters to several experiment. The axial pump is used to serve as an
hundred meters and are primarily used for electrical auxiliary equipment, and this was used to prime the
power production. The Francis turbine is a reaction centrifugal pump. The priming cap was opened to
turbine, which means that the working fluid changes release the air trapped inside the impeller blade
pressure as it moves through the turbine, giving up its housing. When there is formation of bubbles in the
energy. A casement is needed to contain the water priming cup meaning there is still air inside the
flow. The turbine is located between the high- housing. After there are no longer bubbles coming
pressure water source and the low-pressure water from the housing, priming is done and the priming
exit, usually at the base of a dam. cup is closed. The centrifugal pump is then started.

Experimental Methods
Apparatus

The experiment set-up is located in the Mechanical

Engineering Hydraulics Laboratory of USC-TC. In
figure 2 below, the equipment, valves and pipe
connections can be clearly seen and followed. The
experimental set-up consists of an axial pump,
centrifugal pump, bypass, Francis turbine, and the
Prony brake.
Figure 3 Priming Cup
(Courtesy of Masbad et al. 2015)

Starting the Centrifugal Pump

In starting the centrifugal pump, the gate valve is

opened as fast as possible by the time the switch of
the centrifugal pump is pressed to the on position. If
the centrifugal pump is not properly primed, the
centrifugal pump would not be able to pump water
(Vlachopoulos 2016).

Figure 2 Experimental Set-up of the Francis Turbine

(Courtesy of Boschi and Park) Starting the Francis Turbine

After turning on the centrifugal pump, water will now

Priming Operation of the Centrifugal Pump flow through the piping system towards the Francis
turbine as shown in Fig. 2. A valve on the turbine set-
Cavitation is the formation of water vapour and air up is opened to allow running water to enter the
bubbles on the water surface due to the reduction of turbine. This valve provides and regulates the flow of
pressure. Cavitation is defined as the process of cooling water for the brake shoe of the prony brake.
formation of the vapor phase of a liquid when it is This will prevent the brake from heating up.
subjected to reduced pressures at constant ambient
temperature. (Eisenberg 1968). These cavitations may
occur in the blades of the centrifugal pump. With Experimental Data Gathering
cavitation present, this might cause damage to the
The parameters being gathered in the verification
experiment are the vane setting, speed, torque, and
the rectangular weir and the triangular weir. These The flow of the water is calculated from the
parameters affect the performance of the turbine. The equation:
vane angle setting was adjusted to various setting 5
8 (3)
from 10 to 40. A weight of 1 kg was put on the plate
on the lever arm of the prony brake. This serves as
Q= C d 2 g tan h 2
15 2 ()
the initial load applied to the turbine. From vane
setting at 10, the speed of the turbine, the weir from
the pelton turbine set-up, weir for the Francis and
Where: Q flow rate
Kaplan set-up, inlet and outlet pressure of the Francis
turbine were obtained. The weir of the Pelton Turbine Cd - coefficient of discharge = 0.5779048
set-up is included because this was operated
simultaneously with the experiment. The operation of g - gravity
the Pelton Turbine in the laboratory affects the flow - angle of the weir
of water to the Francis Turbine.
H - height of the water level on the weir.

Calculations of Parameters
The velocity is then determined from the equation:

Q
The torque applied on the prony brake is calculated V=
A
from the equation:
(4)
T =Fr Where: V velocity of water
(1)
Q flow rate
Where: T Torque applied
A area of the exit pipe
F Weights applied on the prony brake
r Length of the lever arm
From the Bernoullis Equation, the total head can be
computed.
2
The shaft power produced by the turbine was P V
determined using data obtained from the prony brake, HT= + +z
2g
and the speed reading in rpm from the tachometer (5)
gage in the Francis Turbine experimental set-up. The
shaft or output power was calculated using the Where: P - pressure head
equation:
V - velocity head
- specific weight
Pbrake=2 TN
g - gravitational acceleration
(2)
z - initial head.
Where: Pbrake Shaft power produced by the turbine
T Torque applied on the proy brake The water power or the input power was determined
using the equation:
N Speed of the turbine
 Q
( Total)(H Total )(6) VANE ANGLE vs SHAFT POWER
Pwater =( ) 2500

Output Shaf Power (W)

Where: Pwater - water power 2000

- specific weight of water 1500 Tri a l

1
QTotal - total volume flow rate of the 1000 Tri a l
2
water
500 Tri a l
3
H Total - the total head of the water.
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
The efficiency of the Francis turbine is obtained after
having the Water Power or the Hydraulic Power and Vane Angle
the Brake power or the Mechanical Power. The
efficiency is obtained from the equation:
Figure 4 Vane Angle VS Shaft Power
Pm (Courtesy of Lasa et al 2016)

Pw (7)
The graph on the vane angle against the shaft power
Where: = turbine efficiency courtesy of Lasas group shows the trend of the shaft
power as the vane angle changes. The trend is the
Pmbrake mechanical power same for the three trials. As the vane angle setting
increases, the shaft power also increases.
Pw water or hydraulic power

Results and Discussions The table below shows the computed values from the
The data below is taken from another group gathered data. These values are the mechanical
performing the experiment on the Francis Turbine. power, hydraulic power and the efficiency of the
This will serve as the reference of our verification. Francis turbine at different vane setting starting from
The group will be that of Lasa, Ling and Ragaza. 10 to 40 degrees at 10-degree interval.

Table.1

Vane Setting, Mechanical Hydraulic

Efficiency, (%)
(degrees) Power, (KW) power, (KW)

10 0.8917 3.36 26.54

20 2.9196 4.12 70.86

30 4.0288 5.22 77.18

40 5.5228 5.92 93.3

Figure 5 shows the graph for the hydraulic and

mechanical power at different vane setting.
 7
6
5 Figure 6 shows plots the output power against the
efficiency. From the figure, it can be observed that as
Power (Kw)

4
3 the output power increases, the efficiency also
2 increases. However, this is not always the case.
Mechanical
1 power From the figure below it can be seen that the
0 efficiency does not always increase together with the
10 15 20 25 30 Hydraulic
35 40
power increase of output power. There comes a point where
Vane Setting, the efficiency will decrease again. The highest point
where the highest efficiency is located is the optimum
output power of the turbine.
Figure 5 Vane Angle Setting VS Shaft Power

As seen in Figure 5, the mechanical power increases

as the vane angle setting also increases. Comparing
with the data obtained from Lasas group, a similar
trend can be observed in both of our data.

The hydraulic power as resembles the same trend

with the mechanical power. The hydraulic power also
increases as the vane angle setting increases. From
table 1 under the efficiency column, it can be
observed that the efficiency increases as the vane
angle increases. Looking back to Figure 5, it can be
seen that the distance between the Mechanical and
Hydraulic power trend line decreases, the efficiency
increases. A close distance between the trend line of
the mechanical and hydraulic power would be
desirable. Figure 7 Efficiency VS Output Power
(Courtesy of Faria, et al. 2010)

The efficiency of the Francis turbine is defined by

how much of the energy available from the water
input to the turbine, can be converted into shaft Conclusion
power.
From the performed experiment on performance test
100 of Francis Turbine using the Francis Turbine
experimental set-up in the mechanical engineering
80
hydraulics laboratory, the efficiency of the turbine at
Efficiency, %

60 different vane angle setting were obtained. The data

obtained from Lasas group were compared to that of
40 this experiment. Both data shows similar trend line
on the efficiency of the turbine as the vane angle
20
setting is changed. From the experiment, the vane
0 angle setting at which the Francis turbine operates at
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 the highest efficiency was at the 40 degrees.
Output power, (KW) Adjusting the vane setting with a given head and flow
would help in optimizing the efficiency of the Francis
Turbine.
Figure 6 Efficiency VS Output Power
Notations: hydraulic thrust of small francis turbines,
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 136(11). p. 2
QT Volume flow rate for the triangular weir
Gatte, M.T., Kadhim, R.A., Rasheed, F.L. (2010).
hT Head reading for the triangular weir Using Water Energy for Electrical Energy
Conservation by Building of Microhydroelectric
QR Volume flow rate for the rectangular weir Generators on the Water Pipelines that Depend
on the Difference in Elevation. Iraq J. Electrical
h R Head reading for the rectangular weir and Electronic Engineering, Vol. 7, 185-186

L Length of the rectangular weir Gatte, M.T., Kadhim, R.A., (2012). Hydro Power.
Ministry of Science and Techonology, Babylon
QTotal Total volume flow rate of the fluid Department, Hilla, Iraq, 1-3

v Flow velocity of the fluid Potter, M., Wiggert, D., Ramadan, B., (2012).
Mechanics of Fluids, 4th Edition, Cengage
A Cross sectional area of the pipe system Learning, Stamford, USA, 602 605.

Pbrake Vlachopoulos, J., (2016). Pumps and Turbines.

Brake power or Output power of the
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics, 19/5.
shaft

T Torque applied to the shaft

N Speed of the shaft in rpm

F L Load force from the weight of the plates

d Length of the lever arm

Pwater Water power or Input power of the fluid

Specific weight of the flowing fluid (water)

H Total Total head experienced by the fluid

P Pressure of the fluid

g Acceleration due to gravity
z Elevation of the fluid with respect to a datum
Efficiency Efficiency of the Francis Turbine
References
B.Sandhya Rani & Ramesh, Dr.A. (2015).
Performance of Francis Turbine and Hydro
Electric Governing. Journal of Advancement in
Engineering and Technology.

Eisenberg, Philip. (1968). Cavitation. Hydronautics

Incorporated.

Faria, M. C., Paulino, O. G., Oliveira, F. H., Barbosa,

B. H., and Martinez, C. B. (2010) Influence of
mechanical draft tube fish barrier on the