Kaplan Turbines
With over 50 years in the industry, HTE Engineering and its partners have provided Kaplan turbines ranging in size from 200 kW to 400 MW.
The Kaplan Turbine (a type of reaction turbine) is a propeller turbine, and resembles a marine propeller with four to eight blades confined in a closed conduit. This turbine is named after Viktor Kaplan (1876 – 1934), an Austrian professor and engineer.
The Kaplan turbine, much like the Francis turbine, is designed so that water flows from the penstock into a spiral or semi-spiral scroll case, with wicket gates to guide flow to the turbine runner. Once passing the runner, the water is then discharged through a draft tube into the tailrace. The best overall turbine efficiencies are achieved by varying both the wicket gate setting and the turbine runner blade angle.
Kaplan turbines are very well suited for low-head (approximately 5 feet to 200 feet), high flow conditions. Depending on the application, Kaplan turbines may be mounted on either a vertical or a horizontal axis.
