1. The francis turbine Steam turbines Turbine types
The steam turbine on a page about engines? Maybe you wondered about it. It is hardly used in
means of transport, but the steam turbine has many things in common with the combustion
engine. The steam turbine changes chemically stored energy into mechanical energy, too. It's
called a heat-force engine. The steam turbine works similarly to the water turbine, which is
known probably by everyone. Not water, but steam is used as working medium.
Turbine types
When people began to use water power to win mechanical work, they looked first for the best
forms of impellers. Three types were established thereby and variations of them are used today
in various applications, among other in steam turbines in power stations, as marine propellers, as
compressors in gas turbines etc. These three types are introduced here:
The pelton turbine
The pelton turbine (also free-jet turbine) was invented 1880
by L.A. Pelton. It possesses spoon-shaped shovels, the jet
hits the impeller tangentially, gets divided by the two shovels
and transfers an impulse. The pelton turbine is used in
storage power stations with downward gradients up to 2000
meters and can contain up to 6 nozzles.
Grafic: Pelton turbine
enlarge (35 K, 770 * 905)
Grafic: Pelton turbine, source:
spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Spelton.htm
The francis turbine
he reaction turbine invented by J.B. Francis 1849 is hit by the
jet almost axially (toward the axle) and radially (away from the
center). The rotor blades can be adjusted, in order to ensure
an even run. It looks similar to the type shown below as
Steam turbine.
The Kaplan turbine
The Kaplan turbine, developed around
1915 by the Austrian V.Kaplan, looks
like a marine propeller. The jet is led
thereby axially on the freely adjustable
shovel pages.
Grafic: Kaplan turbine
enlarge (35 K, 282 * 292)
Besides the types described above, there are still other types of water turbines, e.g. the Bànki
turbine, which are not closer described here. 1

2. Coupling of several turbines
Grafic: Coupled steam turbine. source: Helmut Hütten, "Motoren", Motorbuchverlag Stuttgart, S.379
In power stations today, different types of turbines are used in a series, e.g. one high pressure -,
two medium- and four low pressure turbines. This coupling leads to an excellent efficiency (over
40%), which is even better than the efficiency of large diesel engines. This characteristic and the
relatively favorable production make the steam turbine competitionless in power stations.
Coupled with a generator and fired by an atomic reactor, they produce enormously much electric
current. The strongest steam turbines achieve today performances of more than 1000
megawatts. 3