Kaplan Turbine

The Francis turbine is well suited for dams with a high head of water. The Kaplan turbine is designed for a lower head of water but with a high flow rate. We saw some information about this type of turbine at the Kentucky Dam.

Digitally zoomed from the photo below.

The Lockport Powerhouse also has a used turbine on display. Unfortunately, it is displayed so far from the powerhouse that I do not have a good image of it. The photo on the right is at camera resolution extracted from the following photo. It is beyond the concrete walls that you can see.

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Satellite

At least with a 3D satellite image, you can see it has three blades.

On the bus ride back from the tour, I tried to grab a shot of it through a window as we drove by it without getting passenger's face in the image.

Screenshot

The motivation for this posting is a video that describes how this design works.

Judging from a cross-section of the waterway of the Keokuk Powerhouse, it also uses a Kaplan turbine.

Update:

I came across this posting, but the link is broke :-(

But I did find this video: (new window)


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