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Gearbox for water turbine

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Feg

Mechanical
Oct 2, 2003
77
Hi Guys,

I have been given a project to look at, a gearbox and drive train for a water turbine. I am looking for any tips on what I should look out for. The purposed style is a 110Kw Generator being driven from a turbine shaft via a 2 to 1 speed increasing gearbox. I know this is not much to go on but this job is for a friend and it is in the early stages, just tring to cost it at the moment.

Thanks
 
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You may have better luck in one of the mechanical forums.
respectfully
 
Feg,
Forgive me if I am stating the obvious, but the first thing is to match your speed characteristics of the two machines. As far as I am aware there are two basic designs of water turbine, The pelton Wheel, which is disk with scoops at regular intervals around it's circumference. A jet of water is squirted at the scoops and the disk spins quite quickly. The axis of rotation is usually horizontal.
The other is the Francis reaction turbine which has vanes on it. Water is fed inwards from the circumference towards the center, and vented downwards at the center. These usually turn quite slowly and the axis of rotation is usually vertical.

THe aim is to select the gear ratio so that both machines, (genrator and turbine) operate at their individual nameplated speed.

Obviously the power rating of the gearbox should be at least 110Kw, however I would be designing this with a fair amount of margin because momentary short circuits on the generator load side (before they are cleared with the Circuit breaker) can place a lot of load torque on the Drive chain.

Apart from this you should make sure the generator is not exposed to water that is beyond the IP rating of the motor enclosure, (splashproof, Water proof, Open , etc)

Tom



 
Actually, short circuits on the generator load side unload the generator. Current goes way up, but the power factor and the power delivered go way down. The stress that will happen as a result is due to overspeed, not to an increase in torque/power load.
 
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