Kaplan turbine

Viktor Kaplan, living in Brno, Austria-Hungary (now in the Czech Republic), obtained his first patent for an adjustable blade propeller turbine in 1912.

Water is directed tangentially through the wicket gate and spirals on to a propeller shaped runner, causing it to spin.

The outlet is a specially shaped draft tube that helps decelerate the water and recover kinetic energy.

Variable geometry of the wicket gate and turbine blades allow efficient operation for a range of flow conditions.

[4] Current areas of research include computational fluid dynamics (CFD) driven efficiency improvements and new designs that raise survival rates of fish passing through.

Discharge of oil into rivers is not desirable because of the waste of resources and resulting ecological damage.

[5] Large Kaplan turbines are individually designed for each site to operate at the highest possible efficiency, typically over 90%.