What is A turbine and its types?

A turbine is a device that consumes the kinetic energy of a fluid such as water, steam, air, or combustion gases and converts it to the rotational speed of the device. These devices commonly use in power generation, engines, and propulsion systems and are classified as a type of engine. Engines classify only because they are technologies that take one input and produce one output. A simple turbine is made with a series of blades – one of the most common materials currently used in steel – and allows the blades to enter the turbine when pushed. These blades liquefy and expel fluid, which is less powerful than when it enters a turbine. The turbine captures and uses some power.

Turbines use in many different areas and each type of turbine has a slightly different structure to do its job properly. Turbines use for wind power, hydropower, heat engines, and propulsion. These are very important because almost all the electricity generated by them.

Turbines divide into four general types according to the fluids used: water, steam, gas, and wind turbines. Although the same principles apply to all turbines, their specific designs are subject to different descriptions.

1) Water Turbine

The water turbine uses potential energy as a result of the difference in height between the upstream water reservoir and the turbine-exhaust water level (tallgrass) to turn this head into work. Water turbines are the modern successor to the common waterwheel, dating back about 2,000 years. Today the primary use of water turbines is for power generation.

However, most electric power goes from steam turbines to power generators. Turbines are powered by steam generated, fossil fuels, or nuclear-powered generators. Energy from steam can be easily expressed in terms of change in the turbine.

2) Gas Turbines

For gas turbines, the energy extracted from the fluid can also be expressed in terms of turbulence, which is proportional to the turbine’s temperature drop for gas. In gas turbines, the working fluid mixes with the combustion gas products. Most gas-turbine engines have at least one compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine.

3) Wind Turbines

The energy available in the air can be collected by wind turbines to generate electrical energy or to supply water from wells. Wind turbines are the descendants of windmills, which were important sources of electricity from the late 19th century to the Middle Ages.

4) Impulse Turbine

The potential energy in an impulse turbine, or water head, first converts into kinetic energy by releasing water through a carefully shaped tip. The jet, which releases into the air, directs at curved buckets fixed at the edge of the runner to extract water energy and turn it into useful work.

Modern impulse turbines are based on a design in 1889 by the American engineer Lester Alan Pelton. The free water jet hit the turbine buckets. Each bucket‌ has a high center ridge so that the flow can divide into both sides of the runners. Pelton wheel turbines are suitable for high heads, usually with water flow rates less than 450 meters. The speed of the runner tip should be equal to half the speed of the hitting jet for maximum efficiency. At 60–80 percent of the total load, the efficiency (work produced by the turbine divided by the kinetic energy of the free jet) can exceed 91 percent.

6) Reaction Turbine

In a reaction turbine, the forces that drive the rotor are obtained by the rapid water flow response in the runner, while the pressure drops. The reaction principle can found in the rotary lawn sprinkler, where developing jets steer the rotor in the opposite direction. Due to the wide variety of runner designs, reaction turbines can use on larger heads and flow rates than induction turbines. Reaction turbines usually have a spiral inlet casing, which includes control gates to control water flow. As the flow velocity increases, a portion of the water-energy in the inlet can be converted into kinetic energy. The water-energy then draws into the rotor.

As described above, there are four main types of reaction turbines in widespread use: Kaplan, Francis, Daria’s, and propeller types. Fixed-blade propeller and adjustable-blade Kaplan turbine (named after Austrian inventor Victor Kaplan), essentially axial flow through the machine. Francis- and Daria’s-type turbines (later British-born American inventor James B. Francis and Swiss engineer Paul Daria’s) use “mixed flow”, where water enters radially and releases axially. Runner blades on Francis and propeller turbines have static blading, while blades on Kaplan and Daria’s turbines can rotate up to the main shaft at right angles about their axis.