Pelton Turbine and its working

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Pelton Turbine 

Pelton turbine or Pelton wheel turbine is an impulse type of water turbine. Pelton wheel extracts the energy from the impulse of moving water or stream and converted it into mechanical energy and further it converted into electric energy.
Or in other words- Pelton turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of stored water into mechanical energy in the form of circular rotation and this energy is further converted into electrical energy by the help of a generator which is coupled with the shaft of the turbine.

Applications :

 Pelton wheel is the preferred turbine for hydro power, when the available water sources has a relatively high hydraulic head at low flow rate.
In a hydroelectric power plant it is used to drive the generator of the turbine and the generator generates the mechanical energy of turbine into electrical energy.

Hydroelectric power plant contributes about 16% of the total electricity in the world in 2012.
Hydroelectricity is the most widely used from the renewable energy. It is a flexible source of electricity and also the cost of electricity generation is relatively is low.

History 

Pelton Turbine is invented by Lester Allan Pelton in 1870. In 1850, Pelton travelled overland to take part in the California Gold Rush. pelton worked by selling fish he caught in the Sacramento river. In 1860 , he moved to Captonville , a center of placer mining activity. At this time many mining operations were powered by stream engine which consume vast amounts of wood as the fuel. Some water wheels were used in the larger rivers but they were effective in the smaller stream that were founded near the mines.

Pelton works on a design for water wheel that would work with the relatively small flow found in these streams. By the mid of 1870 Pelton had developed had a wooden prototype of his new wheel. In 1876 approaches the minors foundry in Nevada city, California to build the first commercial model in iron. The first pelton wheel was installed at the mayflower mine in Nevada city in 1878.


Parts of a Pelton Turbine

A pelton wheel turbine consists of four major parts as as follows-

Nozzle : The amount of water striking the buckets of the runner is controlled by the nozzle.

Runner and Buckets: The runner or blades consists of a circular disc on the periphery of which several buckets evenly spaced are fixed. the shape of the buckets is a double hemispherical cup or bowl type. Each buckets id divided into two symmetrical part by a dividing wall, it is known as a splitter. The jet of water strikes on the splitter.

Casing : The function of the casing is to prevent the splashing of the water and to discharge water to the tailrace. it also acts as a safe ground against accidents. 

Breaking jet: when the nozzle is completely closed by moving the spear in the forward direction, the amount of water striking the runner reduces to zero.

Working of Pelton Turbine


First of all water is transferred from the high head source through a conduit called Penstock .Nozzle are attached at the end of the penstock for accelerate and it flows out a high speed jet with high velocity and discharge at atmospheric pressure. And the jet hit the splitter of the buckets which distributes  the jet into two halves of buckets and the wheel starts revolving. now the runner rotates and the runner are connected with the gear box with the help of connecting shafts. So here the kinetic energy of fluid is converted in to mechanical energy. And gear box is connected with a generator with another shaft. The generator is converted the mechanical energy in to electricity.


Advantages and Dis-advantages of Pelton wheel turbine

Advantages :
  • It operates on the high head and low discharge.
  • The pelton turbine is the most efficient of hydro turbine and it operates with a very flat efficiency curve..
  • Pelton wheel turbine is very easy to assemble.
  • There is no cavitation because the water jet strikes only a specific portion of the runner.
  • The over all efficiency of pelton turbine is high.
  • Pelton wheel turbines ,  both first and second law of motion applied.
  • It is a flexible source of electricity and also the cost of electricity generation is relatively is low.
Disadvantages:
  • The efficiency decrease very quickly with time.
  • The turbine runner size, generator and power house required is large space. 
  • The variation in the operating head is difficult to control because of high head.

















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