The Francis turbine apparatus (FR-005) is an additional unit which investigates the operation of a Francis turbine and study the effect of the distributor guide vanes angle. The apparatus consists of a miniature Francis turbine and a braking device.
- The educational unit is considered a model of a Francis turbine.
- The experimental unit consists of rotor, distributor with adjustable guide vanes, a brake mechanism for loading the turbine and a housing with a transparent front panel.
- The transparent cover enables the observation of the water flow, the rotor and the guide vanes during operation.
- The angle of attack and so the power of the rotor can be changed by adjusting the guide vanes.
- The educational unit is placed on the base unit for turbines and the two units together provide the basic experiments to determine the operating behavior and the most important characteristic variables of francis turbine.
- The water supply and the flow rate measurement are realized with the base unit for turbines.
- The water flows to the distributor through the spiral housing, the flowing water is accelerated in the distributor by the adjustable guide vanes and directed onto the blades.
- The redirection and further acceleration of the water in the rotor generates an impulse which is transmitted to the rotor.
- The eddy current brake generates a defined load. The eddy current brake is specially developed by Bedo. It is wearfree and can be finely adjusted.