MechStuff

Sounds cool, eh? Yeah, well, they are cool! So in this detailed post we are going to see what is turbine, what are the types of turbines, their working & applications in various powerplants.

What is turbine ?

A turbine is a rotating part which converts the kinetic energy of a working fluid into useful mechanical energy and/or electrical energy. Simple, right? Well, nothing is simple when you go deeper.
There are set of blades mounted on a rotor which helps in extracting energy from the moving fluid. The efficiency of turbines depends on the design of the blades.
Different applications need different designs & designing them isn’t a layman’s job.

The 4 types of turbines are-

1. Water turbines
2. Steam turbines
3. Gas turbines &
4. Wind turbines

Turbines used in hydro powerplants :-

The turbines used in hydroelectric powerplants are water turbines that have water as their working fluid.
First of all, millions of litres of water is collected in the dam. More the height of the dam, the more pressure. The highly pressurized water is then made to flow via a large pipe called a penstock.
The turbine is located at the end of the penstock from where the pressurized water strikes the blades of the turbine at high velocity making it rotate. This turbine is connected to a generator which generates electricity.
The shape of the turbine blades depend upon the pressure & velocity of the water. Water turbines are classified into 2 types-

1. Impulse type
2. Reaction type

Impulse type turbines-

Impulse turbines basically work on Newton’s 2nd law.
In impulse turbines, the number of elliptical half-sized buckets are fitted instead of blades on the rotor hub. When water strikes the buckets at high speed, the rotor starts rotating. In short, the kinetic energy of water gets converted into rotational mechanical energy!
Thus electricity is generated when one end of the turbine shaft is connected to the generator !
Example – Pelton turbine

Reaction turbines-

The turbine blades or the impeller blades are designed in such a way that a force is generated on one side when water flows through it just like an airfoil. The force produced by an airfoil is responsible for the lift of an airplane. Similarly here, that force makes the blades rotate.
Example – Kaplan turbine

Different types of turbines have their own ideal operating conditions. For eg.

→ Pelton turbines are preferred where a low discharge rate can be obtained & high head(80-1600m) is available.
→ Kaplan turbines require a high discharge rate along with low or medium head(2-70m).
→ Francis turbine work on medium flow rate & medium head. Francis turbine is a combination of impulse & reaction turbines. Francis turbines are the most widely used turbines because they offer the highest efficiency & could also work in a wide range of operating conditions.

 1m head of water = 9810 Pa (100m of head is almost 7 times of atmospheric pressure)

Turbines used in thermal powerplants :-

Also called as steam turbines, they are used in nuclear & thermal powerplants where water is heated to form steam & then flowed through turbines to produce electricity. Alike water turbines, steam turbines are also classified into impulse & reaction types but the arrangement & design is different. All the modern steam turbines are a combination of impulse & reaction type.

Steam turbines consist not only rotating blades called as rotor but also static blades called as the stator. Rotors & stators are placed alternately in order to extract most energy out of it. This method is called compounding.

Also, if you observe, the moving buckets in impulse turbine are designed to get pushed by the steam. While the rotor blades in reaction turbines are aerofoiled shape, which lets itself generate reaction & also let steam maintain its velocity!

In the image: The steam first flows through high pressure(H.P) turbine followed by intermediate pressure(I.P) turbine. Then again after reheating the steam, it is made to flow through low pressure(L.P) turbines(huge set of blades).
The reason behind the increase in blade sizes from the inner side to the outer side is because steam expands while losing its pressure & kinetic energy & giving it to turbines.

Gas turbines :-

Gas turbines in other words are internal combustion engines, which are not only used in powerplants for generating electricity but also for propelling airplanes & helicopters. Gas turbines as a whole system has an axial compressor at the inlet. These are sets of rotating blades which suck a huge amount of air & compress it which also increases the temperature. This air is then supplied to the combustion chamber. Fuel is added into the combustion chamber & ignitor ignites the fuel. Thus a large amount of exhaust gases are produced which are made to flow through turbines.
The different types of gas turbines/jet engines are –

1. Turbojet
2. Turbofan
3. Turbojet
4. Turboshaft
5. Ramjet

The above mentioned are open cycle gas turbines where the exhaust gases are let directly into the atmosphere. The other type i.e closed cycle gas turbines where the exhaust gases are reused again for reheating are used in powerplants.
Here is a more detailed working of gas turbines & different types of gas turbines in detail.

Wind turbines :-

Wind turbines are a boon to mankind- affordable, clean & sustainable! Some wind farms are so big that they could produce 50MW of power.
Well, coming to the working of wind turbines, the story remains the same as other turbines. The rotor has 3 blades & are designed in such a way that when wind flows straight through them, they start rotating. The only problem here is wind turbines rotate at a very low RPM. The low RPM doesn’t produce electricity of required frequency & that is why we require a gearbox which increases the speed of the shaft. The output shaft is then connected to the generator.
The 3 primary types of wind turbines are –

1. Horizontal-axis wind turbines (HAWT)
2. Savonius vertical-axis wind turbine (Savonius VAWT)
3. Darrieus vertical-axis wind turbine (Darrieus VAWT)

HAWTs are much older & common while VAWTs produce less power, are less efficient & hence are not used commonly.

Well, what’s interesting is why do wind turbines have 3 blades ?

Adding more blades increases torque which is not the need here. An increase in torque decreases the RPM which is undesirable. Also, the cost increases significantly.
Also lowering the number of blades to 2 leads to gyroscopic instability & periodic stresses which makes it unsafe.
Hence, 3 blades make wind turbines the most efficient in all terms 🙂

Share your thoughts in the comment section below. I’ll be glad if I could solve any of your slightest doubts.