The Fluid Mechanics & Hydraulic Machines laboratory is equipped with a number of equipment and experimental setups to study the fundamentals and applied aspects of fluid mechanics and hydraulic machines. The setups are used for calibration of flow measuring devices such as venturi meter, orifice meter, notches, water meter, rotameter etc used in channels and pipes and Losses in pipes by major and minor loss apparatus. Measurements of critical Performance parameters like efficiency, flow rate etc of various hydraulic machines such as turbines, pumps are also measured in this lab.
Students can perform tests and find the flow rate of equipment like venturimeter, orifice meter, and notches and can calibrate them. Darcy’s as well as Chezy’s coefficient of friction for different pipes can be found out in pipe friction apparatus. The lab is equipped with centrifugal pump and reciprocating pump in which students can find out the performance test and efficiency at different operating conditions.
- Venturi Meter
- Orifice meter
- Triangular Notch
- Reciprocating Pump Test Rig
- Centrifugal Pump Test Rig
We have a metacentric height setup To determine the metacentric height of a flat bottomed vessel in two parts:
PART (1) : For unloaded and for loaded pontoon.
PART (2) : When changing the center of gravity of the pontoon.
- METACENTRIC HEIGHT APPARATUS
The lab contains a Pelton wheel turbine test rig To study the variance of the power output and overall efficiency against discharge with the head retained as a constant at normal speed.
Francis Turbine, named after James Bichens Francis, is a reaction type of turbine for medium high to medium low heads and medium small to medium large quantities of water. Performance test and best guide vane angle test can be carried out in Francis turbine.
Kaplan turbine is an axial flow reaction turbine. The reaction turbine operates with its wheel submerged in water. A performance test is carried out in Kaplan turbine.
2.KAPLAN TURBINE
The Kaplan turbine is a propeller-type water turbine which has adjustable blades. It was developed in 1913 by the 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 that was not possible with Francis turbines. The head ranges from 10–70 meters and the output from 5 to 200 MW. Runner diameters are between 2 and 11 meters. The range of the turbine rotation is from 79 to 429 rpm.
3. PELTON WHEEL
The Pelton wheel is an impulse type water turbine. It was 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 variations of impulse turbines existed prior to Pelton’s design, 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.
4. FRANCIS TURBINE
The Francis turbine 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 primarily used for electrical power production. The generators which most often use this type of turbine, have a power output which generally ranges just a few kilowatts up to 800 MW, though mini-hydro installations may be lower. Penstock (input pipes) diameters are between 3 and 33 feet (0.91 and 10.06 metres). The speed range of the turbine is from 83 to 1000 rpm. Wicket gates around the outside of the turbine’s rotating runner control the rate of water flow through the turbine for different power production rates. Francis turbines are almost always mounted with the shaft vertical to keep water away from the attached generator and to facilitate installation and maintenance access to it and the turbine.
