Optimized Bucket Design and Modeling of 20 kW

Pelton Wheel Turbine

Kyaw Myo Win#1 ,Khin Khin Htay*2
#

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Defence Services Technological Academy, Myanmar.

1

t ar r t ea@gmai l . c om

Abstract --- Hydroelectricity is the sustainable and cheapest one

in cost per unit power of electricity to electrify the dark villages
in Myanmar. The micro hydro power plant is enough to provide
the required amount of electricity for a village. In this paper, the
design calculation and modeling for the main part of Pelton
Wheel turbine, blade or mostly called water bucket, is described.
This type of turbine is most suitable for hilly regions and
therefore a stream at a high region, Dat-Taw-Gyint water fall is
chosen for case study. In Bucket Design calculations, the design
results of turbine performance are shown in various curves for
various appliances of nozzle numbers and then they are
optimized for convenient in rural fabrication facilities and
connectivity with readily made generator. In bucket modeling,
bucket for 20 kW turbine is reversely modeled from Garman
crossectional patterns to three dimensional computer aided
design.

Keywords: Pelton Wheel turbine, Modeling, Design

Calculation, modeless methods, design parameters, microhydro power plant.
I.
INTRODUCTION
Myanmar is the home for more than 60 billions of
people and 70% of them live in rural areas. The missing
key for development of Myanmar is electricity. MOEP2
stated that out of 62,218 village, 2,765 villages will be
electrified by government and 14,195 villages need to be
done by self help basis as a short term answer. Among
them, about 12000 villages are located in hilly and
mountainous regions. Myanmar is one of the country who
is rich enough with river and creek for electrification by
means of hydropower plant. 20 kW amount of electric
energy is enough for a village with 50 houses. Choice of
turbine for hilly regions is fitted with best efficiency by
Pelton wheel turbine. For the components of this type of
turbine, bucket design is the vital one. In this paper, design
calculation and modeling for a bucket or blade of 20 kW
Pelton Wheel turbine is optimized by applying
experimental site with high hydraulic head, Dat-Taw-Gyint
Water fall. The bucket design for 20 kW Pelton Wheel is
presented by modeless method. The word modeless means
it doesnt need design parameters of a model turbine and
the similarity law for hydraulic turbine is not applied. The
modeless method in fact is free designing method but need
to optimize the conditional and theoretical limitations. In
modeling section, the German bucket design type is chosen
and 3D CAD design is presented.
II.

BACKGROUND

Pelton Wheel or Pelton turbine is a tangential flow impulse

turbine. This turbine is used for high heads and is named
after its American inventor Lester A. Pelton. This was
brought into use in the second half of the nineteenth
century. In this turbine, water strikes the bucket along the
tangent of the runner. The energy available at the inlet of

the turbine is only kinetic energy. The pressure at the inlet

and outlet is atmospheric pressure. The nozzle increases the
kinetic energy of the water flowing through the penstock.
At the outlet of the nozzle, the water comes out in the form
of a jet and strikes the buckets (vanes) of the runner. Pelton
Wheel turbine has a specific speeds less than 30(S.I) for
single jet and between 30 and 60 (S.I) for multi-jet.
[14]Components of Pelton Wheel Turbine consist of a
runner with buckets, nozzle, deflector or braking jet, and a
casing. Among them, the Runner consists of a circular disc
on the periphery of which a number of buckets evenly
spaced are fixed. The space of the buckets is of a double
hemispherical cup or bowl. Each bucket is divided into two
symmetrical parts by dividing wall which is known as
splitter. The Pelton runners may be designed either for
casting of the disc and buckets in one piece, i.e. monocast,
or the disc and each of the buckets are casted in separate
pieces. Monocast runners are mostly used in large hydro
turbine and separate buckets are mostly used in mini, micro
and pico level of hydropower generation. The shape of the
buckets is decisive for the efficiency of the turbines. The
surfaces, over which the water jet flows are milled, ground
and polished to the correct shape. The correctness is
checked with templates.
According to potential energy of water at a height, the
power of a hydro turbine can be estimated as follows:

=
Where:
P is the mechanical power produced at the shaft
(Watts),
is the hydraulic efficiency of the turbine,
is the density of water (1000 kg/m3),
g is the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s2),
Q is the volume flow rate passing through the turbine
(m3/s),
H is the hydraulic head of water across the turbine (m).
Shaft power is the power output at the shaft of Pelton
Wheel Turbine. According to the specifications of the
generator with 4 poles, 20 kW, the maximum number of
revolution needed is 1500 rev/min i.e. The turbine should
be provided and shaft power needed should be calculated
by the formula:
=2
Where:
P is the power produced at the turbine shaft (Watts),
is the speed of rotation (rev/min),
T is the torque (N.m)
There have many forces when a jet of water strikes a
bucket of Pelton wheel turbine. To obtain net force acting
on the bucket, the outlet and inlet velocity triangles are
needed to be examined.
Efficiencies of Pelton Wheel turbine can be
determined in three difference ways: these are
a) Hydraulic Efficiency,
b) Mechanical Efficiency,
c) Overall Efficiency,

And can be determined by following ways:

=
=
=

5) Pitch Circle diameter,PCD or D:(m)[2]

= 1.68

The maximum value of the tangential velocity U is

equal to the half of the value of jet velocity. But in actual
practice, maximum value of U is only about 0.46 [11].
III.
DESIGN OF THE PELTON WHEEL
In Pelton Wheel turbine designing, the experimental
data of the site, Dat-Taw-Gyint Water Fall are:
Hydraulic head of water = 31 m
Sustainable flow rate of water source =0.15 m3/s
Design power = 20kW
Generator =1, 4P,1500 rpm,50Hz
The theoretical power developed by Pelton wheel
turbine can be calculated by the formula,
1) Theoretical Power (Hydraulic Power): P(kW)
(
)=
(1.1)
Hydraulic head of water, H, (m)
Density of water, ,1000,(kg/m3)
Fluid flow rate, at source Q,(m3/s)
Efficiency of Turbine; = 80%
Design flow rate should be determined for the turbine
from available water flow of source and required power.
The available water flow rate should be obtained from
annual collected data of source or stream. To achieve the
hydro power throughout the year from the source of DatTaw-Gyint Water Fall, the minimum water available from
stream is taken as total available water supply in designing.
In this case, design flow rate means the required amount of
water for turbine, that is, already less than the minimum
availability of water.
2) Design Flow Rate Q: (
)
=
x 1000
(1.2)
Design Power; P=20 kW
Gravitational Constant: g (9.81
)
Hydraulic Head: H (m)
Density of Water; = 1000
Efficiency of Turbine; = 80%
Specific speed, Ns is the parameter which plays vital
role in fluid mechanics machines, including turbines. This
is the dimensionless parameter for a machine family or
group. It is mainly used for referencing and standardization
within same group of fluid machines. For Pelton wheel
turbine and for micro hydro level, its Ns value can be
determined by following empirical formula [2]&[13]:
3) Specific speed, Ns
= 85.49 .
4) Speed of turbine, Nt:(rpm) [13]

(1.4)
(1.5)

6) Absolute Velocity of the Water Jet, V: (

)
V=
2
(1.6)
Nozzle Coefficient; (0.96 to 0.98) assume 0.97
Diameter of the water jet used is an important factor
that will help to establish the physical shape of the Pelton
Wheel runners. To find the diameter of a jet, the
Bernoullis equation is applied. This equation is applied for
the flow of fluid in continuity and it is also called
continuity equation:
7) Diameter of jet: d0 (m)
= , where = d and therefore d0 is
d0 =

(1.7)

8) Breadth of bucket,B: (mm)[7]

B=1.68

(1.8)

It is a experimental formula by [7] and need to check

the value of result which is limited by value and it should
be greater than 2.7. And if it is not, number of jet should
be increased.
Calculation of the number of buckets should be
optimum amount that can receive maximum available
power and also should be avoided for slipping jet. Jet ratio,
denoted by m, can be determined by following formula:
9) Jet ratio,m
=
(1.9)
From this jet ratio, m, the value of z can be determine
by following formula.
10) Number of buckets: z
=
+ 15 = 0.5 + 15
(1.10)
The number of buckets is usually more than 15 and
this empirical formula is developed by Taygun and it is
now widely used in Pelton wheel turbine designing.
11) Dimensioning ranges of bucket :(mm)
B=2.8-4.0 times d0 ,L=2.28-3.3 times d0 ,A= 1.75-2.5
times d0 ,Depth of bucket, E= 0.8-1.2 times d0,
M=1.12-1.6 times d0 , J= 0.44-0.625 times d0 [6] (1.11)

(1.3)
Fig. 1 Dimensions of a bucket of Pelton Wheel turbine

IV.
BUCKET MODELING
The first important parameter in bucket modeling is
angle settings. The designer should assign the entrance and
exit angles before modeling. For understanding in
contacting with the injected water and bucket is mostly
defined by three successive buckets modeling.

Fig.2 Three successive bucket modeling for angles (redesign from [6])

For designing entrance angle, the recommended angle

for rotation, , is chosen. For micro hydro level of Pelton
wheel turbine, it is chosen to be 165.
Therefore, = 165, = 180 , = 15
In designing the bucket, it is also important to
determine the magnitude of the outlet blade angle 1 and it
is determined by following diagram.

a)
b)
c)
d)

Based upon the designed dimensions of bucket

Based upon the outlines frame (XY plane)
Based upon the crossections (YZ and XZ planes)
Based upon inlet and outlet angles.
All of the above four rules must be taken to model the
bucket.
And its empirical relations are also as follows:[10]
= 5 to 8 and is varied from section I to section V
I: 30 to 46 , II: 20 to 30
III: 10 to 20 , IV: 5 to 16 , V:
0 to 5

Fig.4 Outlet angle setting defined by region of a bucket[10]

The German design for Pelton Wheel turbine is the

most up-to-date one for monocast runner and it is also used
in separated bucket types. Its geometry is sectionalized and
published in crossections without dimension. Places of
each crossection are also not shown with respective
dimensions. In this research work, the author will choose
this pattern as reference by taking the ratio between each
dimension. The German design crossections [5] for bucket
is shown below:

Fig.3 Figure illustrating correlation of the angle of bucket[6]+[3]

= 15 =
According to this formula the correlation of the angle
for various bucket widths B can be determined [10].

If = 2.8 , = 5
If

= 3.5

, = 4

If = 4.0 , = 3
The geometry of Pelton Wheel bucket is very complex
in modeling point of view. Because the two halves of
bucket are in symmetry but there is no other symmetry axis
or axes in single half anymore. Besides, it is varying its
dimensions in all three axes, X, Y, Z. That is meant most of
the basic lines are in curves. Rules should be taken into
account in bucket modeling are as follows:

Fig.5 Crossections and geometry of bucket [5]

And procedures for modeling method are assigned as

follows:
a) 2D tracing in scalar graphic software
b) 2D tracing in vector graphic software (using
Autodesk Inventor TM)
c) Importing into AutoCAD software and 3D
redesigning

RESULTS OPTIMIZATION AND DISCUSSION

Turbine speed in rpm

V.

600
400
200
Nt

0
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Flow Rate (m3/sec)

Fig.6 2D tracing in Adobe Photoshop TM CS4.0 software

Fig.9 Speed of turbine Vs flow rates (single nozzle)
Turbin speed in rpm

Two dimensional tracing of curves is done very well in

Inventor TM software. Most CAD software can accept the
overlay image as background but many of them cannot
detect the shaded pixels. If they dont know or detect the
shaded pixels, the tracing method will be very difficult and
the result will be inaccurate.

800
600
400
200

Nt

0
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Flow Rate (m3/sec)

Turbine speed in rpm

Fig.10 Speed of turbine Vs Flow rates (two nozzles)

1000
800
600
400
200
0

Nt
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
Flow Rate (m3/sec)

Fig.7 Two dimensional tracing in CAD software

Turbine speed in rpm

Fig.11 Speed of turbine Vs flow rates (three nozzles)

2000
1500
1000
500

Nt

0
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75
Hydraulic Head, m

Fig.8 Three dimensional combined crossections in CAD software

Turbine speed in rpm

Fig.12 Speed of turbine Vs Head (Single Nozzle)

2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

Nt
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
Hydraulic Head, m

Fig.13 Speed of turbine Vs Head (two Nozzles)

Turbine speed in rpm

For modeling, the dimensions of bucket can be choose

from allowable ranges of each dimension parameter, B, L,
A, E, M, J in equation (1.11). Recommended design ratio
for each parameters are [1][10][13]; B
=3.4d0,
L=3.0d0, J = 2.0d0, M = 1.2d0, E= 1.2 d0, A= 0.5d0.

3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

Nt
30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70
Hydraulic Head, m

Fig.14 Speed of turbine Vs Head (three Nozzles)

In design calculation, the desired amount of power

required can be obtained theoretically by two conditions by
using Pelton Wheel turbine:
a) Hydraulic head is increased and flow is decreased
b) Flow is increased and hydraulic head is decreased
But according to the results shown in fig 9, increasing
the flow leads to decrease the rotation speed of turbine.
Which will permit to use the readily made generator with
1500 rpm and therefore this method is eliminated.
The maximum allowable value of jet ratio m is 12 for
micro hydro Pelton Wheel turbine[13]. And it is assumed to
be 10 for best efficiency[13] in this research.
Other desirable parameters for rural fabrication
facilities are hydraulic head of turbine, number of nozzles
and PCD (D) and smaller height, smaller number and size
are preferable. By analyzing fig 9 to 14, the turbine speeds
which can be directly coupled to generator are head value
75m in single nozzle (fig.10), head value 55m in double
nozzles (fig 13), head value 45m in three nozzles (fig.14).
And their respective PCD values (D) are 105mm, 94mm
and 89mm.
If the speed increaser is used by belt drive power
transmission system, the turbine speed 250rpm, 500rpm
and 750rpm can also be applied with the speed ratios: 1:4,
1:3 and 1:2 and their respective results of H and D are
shown in the table below:
Fig
Nt (rpm)
H (m)
D (mm)
nj

9
500
25.5
236.5
1

10
468.5
17
226.6
2

11
573.8
17
185
3

12
785
40
169
1

13
830
30
148
2

Table.1 Comparism of results for 1:2 transmission

Among them, the least amount of hydraulic head, 17 m
is chosen for the least cost of penstock and it is found that
the amount of water flow required is also recovered the
sites sustainable flow (least flow of a year) and design
results are H=16.99 m, P=20 kW, Q=0.15 m3/s, nj=2,
Ns=60.743, Nt=468.5 rpm, D=226.6 mm, V=17.53 m/s,
d0=22.6 mm, m=10, z=20, B=62 mm, B/D=3.655. For
dimensions of bucket, equation (1.11) can be used for each
dimension.
Pelton wheel turbine is very good in efficiency with
high hydraulic head greater than 50 m for mini and large
level hydropower generation and its is about 0.97%[7]. But
for micro and pico level of generation, it is about 80%[7].
Minimum hydraulic head is not assigned for micro hydro
but when it is less than 30 m, efficiency is reduced.

CONCLUSION
In Myanmar, the rural areas in hilly regions will be
fitted with Pelton wheel turbine for its high efficiency and
easier construction than any other types of turbines. This
turbine design calculation is done with experimental data of
Dat-Taw-Gyint water fall for intension to electrify a village
with 50 houses. Among various result data, convenient and
efficient condition is chosen for reverse modeling
procedures and 3D CAD design is obtained. For
manufacturing process, certain CADCAM system can be
used for 3 axis milling for one bucket production. But in
many buckets production, the precision casting methods are
preferable. The author believe this design and modeling
will be beneficial for electrification of mountainous rural
areas in Myanmar by micro hydro electric power plant.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Author want to express his gratitude to Dr. Khin
Khin Htay and Dr. Myint Myint Thwe for providing good
reference and guidance. And Dr. Myo Thein Kyaw, Rector
of D.S.T.A. for his instructions and supervision.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]
[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

Adam Harvey, M, 1993, Micro Hydro Design Manual: a guide to

small-scale water power scheme,IT publication,1993.
Bilal Abdullah Nasir, Design of High Efficiency Pelton Turbine for
Microhydro Power Plant, IJEETIAEME, Volume 4, Issue 1,
January- February (2013)
Bucket Water Wheels: theory, research and calculation (Russian
Language),SSTPM.
Ir. Harinaldi, M.Eng, Dr., Faculty of Engineering University of
Indonesia, e-lecture, Impulse turbines -Pelton wheels,
Markus Eisenring, GTVGATE, Micro Pelton Turbines, Humanity
development library 2.0, 1991.
Miroslav Nechleba, Dr Techn., M, 1957, Hydraulic Turbines, their
design and equipment.
Myint Win, Dr., Design and construction of water turbine for
micro-hydro power plant,Yangon Technological University,
December,2001.
Myint Myint Thwe,Dr, Design of Pelton Turbine for Hydropower
Plant (Bucket), Mandalay Technological University, November,
2007.
Naw Kay Thida Min, Dr, Design and construction of 3KW Pelton
Turbine for Hydropower plant, Yangon Technological University
December, 2005.
P M V Subbarao, Professor, IIT,Delhi,e-lecture, Design & Analysis
of Pelton Wheel Turbine.
Rama S. R. Gorla,CSU,Ohio, U.S.A & Aijaz A. Khan,
N.E.D.,U.E.T,Karachi, Pakistan, Turbomachinery Design and
Theory, Marcel Dekker Inc,2003.
S.L. Dixon, B.Eng., PH.D.,Senior Fellow at the University of
Liverpool,Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics of Turbomachinery, A division of Reed Educational and Professional
Publishing Ltd,1998.
Thake, J.: "The micro-hydro Pelton turbine manual, design,
manufacture and installation for small-scale hydro power", ITDG
Publishing, UK, 2000.
William Bolon,Vasu Sharma,Manjot Singh, Green Mechatronics
Project:Pelton Wheel Driven Micro-Hydro Plant (ELG
2331),University of Ottawa, March 16, 2010.