Horus Energy Company offers hydro turbine and auxiliary equipment modernization services. An individual approach to each project ensures reliable operation of the equipment, a service life of at least 40 years, expanding the range of work in terms of power, environmental safety and reducing operating costs.
What is a hydroturbine?
A hydraulic turbine is a rotary machine in which the kinetic energy and potential energy of water is converted into mechanical work on the shaft. A jet of water acts on the blades, fixed around the circumference of the rotor, and sets them in motion. It is used as an electric generator drive in hydroelectric power plants.
The main types of hydroturbines offered.
Francis turbine.
The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine that was developed by James B. Francis in Lowell, Massachusetts.[1] It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts.
Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today. They operate in a water head from 40 to 600 m (130 to 2,000 ft) and are used primarily for electrical power production. The electric generators that most often use this type of turbine have a power output that generally ranges from just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW, though mini-hydro installations may be lower. Penstock (input pipes) diameters are between 3 and 33 ft (0.91 and 10 m). The speed range of the turbine is from 75 to 1000 rpm. A wicket gate around the outside of the turbine's rotating runner controls the rate of water flow through the turbine for different power production rates. Francis turbines are almost always mounted with the shaft vertical so as to isolate water from the generator. This also facilitates installation and maintenance.
Kaplan turbine.
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, who combined automatically adjusted propeller blades with automatically adjusted wicket gates to achieve efficiency over a wide range of flow and water level.
The Kaplan turbine was an evolution of the Francis turbine. Its invention allowed efficient power production in low-head applications which was not possible with Francis turbines. The head ranges from 10–70 metres and the output ranges from 5 to 200 MW. Runner diameters are between 2 and 11 metres. Turbines rotate at a constant rate, which varies from facility to facility. That rate ranges from as low as 54.5 rpm (Albeni Falls Dam) to 450 rpm.
Kaplan turbines are now widely used throughout the world in high-flow, low-head power production.
Pelton wheel.
A Pelton wheel is an impulse-type water turbine invented by Lester Allan Pelton in the 1870s. The Pelton wheel extracts energy from the impulse of moving water, as opposed to water's dead weight like the traditional overshot water wheel. Many earlier variations of impulse turbines existed, but they were less efficient than Pelton's design. Water leaving those wheels typically still had high speed, carrying away much of the dynamic energy brought to the wheels. 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 his design extracted almost all of the water's impulse energy—which allowed for a very efficient turbine.