11 jul 1855 año - 1855- Francis Turbine

Descripción:

James B Francis developed a turbine (with his tests beginning on the Fourneyron turbine), used for medium heads (45-400m), with flow rates ranging from 10-700m^3/s.
The fluid entering the turbine is under very high pressure and the blades extract the energy from this fluid. The exit tube is designed to slow down the water flow, which reduces the pressure again. The water flow is radial into the centre of the turbine.

At the present day, Francis turbines are used on some of the largest hydropower plants. The Grand Coolee in the USA uses 700 MW Francis turbines. There are plans for hydropower project in China, which will use 1000 MW turbines. They are very useful due to the range of heads that they can be used for, meaning they can be used for run-of the river projects or much larger scale ones.

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