Self-regulating water turbine runner, water turbine equipped with sub-runner located upstream of the main runner and water turbine comprising the same

Abstract

The present invention provides a turbine sub-runner that is positioned to be within the vortex zone of a turbine wicket gates (zone “S-R”, FIG. 1). The sub-runner includes at least two sub-runner blades, configured to monitor the relative flow of the vortex created by the wicket gates. A control mechanism is connected to the sub-runner shaft via gear and threaded interface, and is capable of transferring the relative (vs main-runner) rotational energy of the sub-runner into angular movement of the main runner blades. As the sub-runner interacts with the changing conditions of the main vortex within the zone “S-R”, it will act to automatically regulate, adjust, and control the angle of the main runner blades to optimize the performance of the turbine. The sub-runner uses the energy of the vortex existing in the zone “S-R” to perform the monitoring, regulation, adjustment and control of the main runner through regulating angular position of main runner blades.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.