Published Resources Details
Journal Article
- Title
- Governing of water turbines (and Discussion)
- In
- Electrical and Mechanical Engineering Transactions
- Imprint
- vol. EM1, Nov 1959, pp. 45-
- Description
[This paper was awarded the Mechanical Engineering Prize 1959]
- Abstract
Assessment of the governing ability of hydro-electric plant should be carried out as part of the normal design procedure. However, the problem is very complex and is not amenable to a direct mathematical solution. The paper develops a simple method of determining the performance of a hydro-electric plant, when subjected to any given loading conditions, based upon a combination of step-by-step arithmetic and a graphical determination of variations in water flow and pressure.
Charts are provided to enable the important governor settings of temporary speed droop and dashpot time, which determine stability, to be chosen with sufficient accuracy for most purposes. Other graphs enable suitable corrections to be determined to allow for the very important influence exerted by the system self-regulation effect. Typical values of self-regulation coefficient are quoted and methods of determining its value described, together with results obtained from experiments carried out on the Tasmanian system.
Finally, a method of system regulation is described based upon the contention that all machines should be allowed to govern, but that due attention should be given to the varying governing ability and storage and output capacity of the different installations. Stations may be broadly classified into two classes according to the part played into the system regulation. The assessment of which function a station should perform may be based upon an examination of computed governor performance curves.