International Journal of Science, Engineering and TechnologyAuthors: Vimal K. Patel, Hemal N. Lakdawala, Sureel Dohare, Gaurang Chaudhary
Abstract: Hydro turbomachines are used since long as a water wheel, even be- fore knowledge of fluid mechanics. A newly developed concept at runner i.e. hooped is considered here for investigation purpose. This paper mainly focuses on the performance comparison between traditional and hooped type Pelton wheel turbine runner. The performance characteristic of any hydraulic machines describes the behavior of the machine under operating conditions. The down comer jet impingement to the rotor buckets provides more velocity and thereby impulse to a runner. Efficient performance behavior of any turbo machine under consideration can be easily estimated from performance curves for that machine under specified conditions. In case of impulse type machines, it relies on the quality of jet and other aspects of jet-vane interaction too. In the present inves- tigation, the performance of two types of runner has experimented on the same setup and flow conditions. The main objective of this paper is to compare the performance of a regular runner with a novel hooped runner. It has been found that hooped runner exhibits same characteristics with some loss of efficiency due to overweight and loss of energy at buckets due to restricted passage creat- ed by a hoop (flanges) but on contrary, the reliability and safety of buckets can be ensured. In additions, less deflection of the bucket can also be ensured under heavy jet force.
