Experimental Investigation on Effect of Hoop Thickness on Performance of Hooped Pelton Wheel

Abstract

Abstract A recent improvement in Pelton runner design, the hooped runner, is based on a redistribution of behaviour among the buckets and hoops and which allows stresses to be minimized and efficiency is nearly equivalent to conventional Pelton Runner apart from low nozzle opening of 40% and 60%. This advanced design having a couple of superiority from the mechanical orientation as well as from the assembly point of view without any different difficulty from the hydraulic orientation that establishes the significance of this unique concept. In the present work, an actual laboratory-scale hooped Pelton runner is developed. The thickness of its hoop is varied as 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm and to prove the competence of this advanced design and the influence of hoop thickness on the hydraulic performance of the Pelton wheel, detailed experimental studies have been performed. From the results it has been concluded that the power output and efficiency of hooped Pelton runner are nearly the same as the conventional Pelton runner at all nozzle opening.