Design Analysis of Parts of Francis

Turbine

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

Provision of Features to Blend some Reaction

into Impulse…
 Spiral Casing

• Spiral Casing : The fluid enters from the penstock to a spiral

casing which completely surrounds the runner.
• This casing is known as scroll casing or volute.
• The cross-sectional area of this casing decreases uniformly along
the circumference to keep the fluid velocity constant in
magnitude along its path towards the stay vane/guide vane.
 Design of Spiral Casing

dpenstock
Rcasing
Q

Risv How to select Q ?

Spiral Casing for 35 MW Vertical Francis Turbine
 Design of Spiral Casing

dpenstock
Rcasing
Q Select a suitable value of
discharge per unit: Q


Q  V penstock d 2
penstock
Risv 4

But maximum allowable value is 10 m/s

Maximum allowable head loss in Penstock =2 to 4% of
available head
 At any angle q, the radius of casing is:

q q
Rcasing  Risv  d penstock Qq  Q
2 2
A full spiral is generally recommended for high head 300m, semi-spiral
is recommended for low head < 50m.

In general  =1.0,
however corrected
using CFD.
Flow Distribution Analysis of Casing

Stay vanes or Guide vanes

Static Pressure Distribution in Casing.
Mega Civil Works for Mechanical Power Generation
Parts of A Francis Turbine
Geometrical Description of A Francis Turbine Parts
 Stay Vanes & Guide Vanes
• The basic Purpose of the stay vanes & guide vanes is to convert
a part of pressure energy of the fluid at its entrance to the kinetic
energy and then to direct the fluid on to the runner blades at the
angle appropriate to the design.
• Moreover, the guide vanes are pivoted and can be turned by a
suitable governing mechanism to regulate the flow while the
load changes.
• The guide vanes are also known as wicket gates.
• The guide vanes impart a tangential velocity and hence an
angular momentum to the water before its entry to the runner.
• The guide vanes are constructed using an optimal aerofoil shape,
in order to optimize off-design performance.
Design of Guide Wheel (Stator): Low Specific Speed
Design of Guide Wheel (Stator): High Specific Speed

   Q
 



  / 2 gH
Q  Q / 2 gH

 Design of the Guide Vanes
Diameter of guide vane shaft
1,7

D1
1,6
D0
 0.29    1,07
D1
Diameter Ratio D0/D1

1,5

1,4

D2
1,3

1,2

1,1

1,0
0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6

Speed number


  / 2 gH
 Design of the Details of Stay & Guide Vane Wheels
Theory of Relatively free Whirling flow:
Vw inlet GuideVane  rinlet GuideVane  Vw inlet StayVane  rinlet StayVane

Vw exit guideVane  k wgo 2 gH

k wgo  0.7 to 1.34

Bgi Bsi
• The inlet angle can be calculated by
assuming a free vortex from the
flow coming from the spiral casing

Q
V f inlet GuideVane  rinlet Guide Vane
  Dinlet GuideVane  Bgi rinlet Stay Vane
Pressure drop versus Flow Rate
Pressure drop versus discharge
Global Symmetric Flow Domain through Statinary
Vanes
Operational Configurations of Guide Vanes
 The correlation between the turbine
discharge and the guide vane opening angle.
Pressure drop versus guide vane angle
 Design of the Guide Vanes

How to choose the guide vane maximum angle 0 at full

load ?

 go  4   4  2  13    1
o
   Q
 



  / 2 gH

Q  Q / 2 gH

 Design of the Guide Vanes
Level of Overlapping of the guide vanes
 Design of Guide Vanes

.
Guide vane at Design Guide vane at closed position
Position = 12.21°

Guide vane at Max. open

Position = 18°
 Runner inlet
(Φ 0.870m)

Guide vane outlet for designα)

(Φ 0.913m)

Closed
Max. Opening
Position

Guide vanes
 Design of the Guide Vane Outlet Angle
• The outlet angle can be calculated by assuming a free vortex from
the flow in the gap between the runner and the guide vanes

Vwgo  r  Vwgi  r
n
go
n
ri

Q
V fo 
  Dg 0  Bg 0
Bg0

V fo  k fo 2 gH

k fo  0.3 to 0.6
rri
Dg0
 Design of the Guide Vanes
How to choose the number of vanes

• The number of guide vanes has to be different

from the number of runner vanes.

zGuideVanes
 Integer
z RunnerVanes
 Water
particle

Water from
spiral casing

R a d i a l v i e w
R guide
runner a d ivanes
a l v i stay
and e wvanes
runner guide vanes and stay vanes
 Number of guide vanes
30

28
Number of Guide Vanes

26

24

22

20

18

16
0,0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6

Speed Number 

  / 2 gH
 Number of Guide Vanes

Ns Z=8 10 12 14 16 18 20 24

Dge,mm

<200 <250 250 - 400 - 600 - 800 - 1000 1250 >1700

400 600 800 1000 1250 1700

>200 <300 300 - 450 - 750 - 1050 1350 1700 >2100

450 750 1050 1350 1700 2100

N Pin hp
Ns  5/ 4
H in m
The Runner
Mean Velocity triangles Across Runner

U re  U ri
U r  r
 Velocity triangles
rri
Uri
Vwi
bi
i Vfi
Vri
Vai

rre
U re  U ri
Ure
Vwe U r  r
e be
Vfe
Vae Vre
The transposition of the profiles for all the 11 streamlines
Ub Vwi

Vri Vfi
Vai

Vwi
Ub
Vri
Vai
Vfi

Ub
Vwi
Vfi
Vai Vri