Recently, Forster successfully helped South African customers upgrade the installed power of his 100kW hydropower station to 200kW. The upgrade scheme is as follows
200KW kaplan turbine generator
Rated head 8.15 m
Design flow 3.6m3/s
Maximum flow 8.0m3/s
Minimum flow 3.0m3/s
Rated installed capacity 200kW
The customer began to upgrade the hydropower station in December last year. Forster replaced the turbine and generator for the customer and upgraded the control system. After increasing the water head by 1m, the installed power was upgraded from 100kW to 200kW, and the grid connection system was added. At present, it has been successfully connected to the grid for power generation, and the customers are very happy
Advantages of Forster axial turbine
1. High specific speed and good energy characteristics. Therefore, its unit speed and unit flow are higher than that of Francis turbine. Under the same head and output conditions, it can greatly reduce the size of hydraulic turbine generator unit, reduce the weight of unit and save material consumption, so it has high economic benefits.
2. The surface shape and surface roughness of runner blades of axial-flow turbine are easy to meet the requirements in manufacturing. Because the blades of axial flow propeller turbine can rotate, the average efficiency is higher than that of Francis turbine. When the load and head change, the efficiency changes little.
3. The runner blades of axial flow paddle turbine can be disassembled to facilitate manufacturing and transportation.
Therefore, the axial-flow turbine keeps stable in a large operation range, has less vibration, and has high efficiency and output. In the range of low water head, it almost replaces the Francis turbine. In recent decades, it has made great development and wide application in terms of single unit capacity and water head.
Disadvantages of Forster axial turbine
1. The number of blades is small and cantilever, so the strength is poor and can not be applied to medium and high head hydropower stations.
2. Due to the large unit flow and high unit speed, it has a smaller suction height than Francis turbine under the same water head, resulting in large excavation depth and relatively high investment of power station foundation.
According to the above shortcomings of axial-flow turbine, the application head of axial-flow turbine is continuously improved by adopting new materials with high strength and cavitation resistance in turbine manufacturing and improving the stress condition of blades in design. At present, the application head range of axial flow propeller turbine is 3-90 m, which has entered the area of Francis turbine.
Post time: Mar-11-2022
