hydraulic turbine

(mechanical engineering) A machine which converts the energy of an elevated water supply into mechanical energy of a rotating shaft.

A machine which converts the energy of an elevated water supply into mechanical energy of a rotating shaft. Most old-style waterwheels utilized the weight effect of the water directly, but all modern hydraulic turbines are a form of fluid dynamic machinery of the jet and vane type operating on the impulse or reaction principle and thus involving the conversion of pressure energy to kinetic energy. The shaft drives an electric generator, and speed must be of an acceptable synchronous value. See also Generator; Impulse turbine; Turbine.

Efficiency of hydraulic turbine installations is always high, more than 85% after all allowances for hydraulic, shock, bearing, friction, generator, and mechanical losses. Material selection is not only a problem of machine design and stress loading from running speeds and hydraulic surges, but is also a matter of fabrication, maintenance, and resistance to erosion, corrosion, and cavitation pitting.

Pumped-storage hydro plants have employed various types of equipment to pump water to an elevated storage reservoir during off-peak periods and to generate power during on-peak periods where the water flows from the elevated reservoir through hydraulic turbines.