turbines

NAME

SUBJECT

TURBINES

Definition and historical background

Claude Burdin (1788-1873 ) was the very first person to use the word turbine . The word came from the Latin term turbo /turbines , which means a whirling ' or a vortex ' Burdin used the term to describe the subject matter of an engineering competition being held during that time for a water power source . It would be an oversimplification to describe turbine as a rotating machine that is used to derive power or electricity from the water a common water wheel may not immediately or

br necessarily be a turbine , but it definitely is a rotating machine . A more precise definition of a turbine is that it is a machine in which the water moves relatively to the surfaces of the machine , as distinguished from machines in which such motion is secondary , as with a cylinder and piston (Daugherty and Franzini 1965 , 213-214 . More broadly , to include other types of turbine , it is one of those devices or machines that is being used to channel or convert energy from a stream of fluid (liquid or gas ) into mechanical energy which would eventually be used to generate electrical energy , or to support or augment another utility /device . This is done as the stream passes through a system of fixed and moving fanlike blades which causes the latter to rotate . This device (turbine ) looks like a large (and sometimes small ) wheel with small radiating blades around its rim . The four general classes of turbines are water or hydraulic , wind , steam and gas turbines . Water or hydraulic , wind , and steam turbines are generally used for the generation of electricity while the remaining one , gas turbines , is mostly being used in aircrafts (Britannica Concise Encyclopedia 2006

The principal components of simple turbines are the rotor , which in most if not all cases has blades projecting radially from the center to its periphery the nozzles , where the working jet of fluid is directed and expanded and blades , where the conversion of kinetic to mechanical energy takes place

Theoretical and operating principles

Potential and kinetic energy both exist in a working fluid , which could be compressible or incompressible . Turbines collect this available energy by utilizing any or both of these physical principles : impulse turbines and reaction turbines

Impulse turbines change the direction of flow of a given high velocity fluid jet . The impulse , as a result of this , causes the turbine to spin or rotate , diminishing the kinetic energy of the fluid flow as this is absorbed by the device . In the case of flowing water , it comes available in purely mechanical form (water in nature is one of the most useful and efficient sources of kinetic energy . Scientific calculations show that 1 cubic meter of water can actually produce 9 .8 kilojoules of pure mechanical energy for every meter that the volume of water descends . In the same way , a flow of the same volume of water for every second in a fall of 1 meter can provide 9 .8 kilowatts...