Fatigue Analysis of Simple and Advanced Hoop Pelton Turbine Buckets

The Pelton impulse turbine, which is the most effective turbine that was invented by Lester Pelton, has good operation performance in high hydraulic head and low flow rates. The water from the jet strikes the bucket splitter ridge and induce the forces to propel the runner for producing mechanical energy from velocity head. This jet forces produce the main fatigue load that repeats the load cycles during the operation to occur the stresses on the bucket to become fatigue. This paper focus on the fatigue analysis of the Pelton turbine bucket by numerical approach that shows the results of life cycles, damage, Von Mises stress, and mean biaxiality ratio to estimate the better design and operating performance of the Pelton turbine bucket with minimum corrosion and failures. Solid Works 3D Cad software is used for modelling two different shapes of Pelton buckets that are simple, and advanced hoop buckets and ANSYS 16.2 nCode design life simulation software is used for analyzing fatigue with the finite element method. Stainless steel, aluminum alloy, and cast iron are considered for bucket materials to compare better results for turbine.