Lawaczeck turbine
The Lawaczeck turbine is a type of water turbine developed by the German engineer Franz Lawaczeck . It is a helical propeller turbine whose technical properties are between the Francis turbine and axial propeller turbines ( Kaplan turbines ). The shape was derived from pump impellers, ship propellers and screw turbines.
Mainly because of its poor partial load behavior, the turbine did not catch on, but was replaced by the technically superior Kaplan turbine soon after its invention.
history
Development and use
Lawaczeck developed the new turbine from a pump impeller that he himself called "Myria-Rad", which he had constructed as a senior engineer in the service of the Weise Söhne turbine and pump factory in Halle (Saale) . Building on this, he developed a similar turbine wheel in the early 1920s as a consultant and freelancer at the Neumeyer turbine factory in Munich.
Lawaczeck's “Myria turbine” had its first large-scale operation from 1926 in the Lilla Edet hydropower plant on the Göta älv river in Sweden. A Lawaczeck turbine for the base load was combined with a more controllable Kaplan bulb turbine for fluctuating water volumes. The turbine was built by Aktiebolaget Finshyttan from Finshyttan near Filipstad in Sweden. At the time, it was by far the largest turbine in the world, with an output of more than 10,000 hp and an impeller diameter of around 6 m. A second Lawaczeck turbine was later installed in the same power plant.
The next, much smaller Lawaczeck turbine (2000 hp, built by Neumeyer ) was used in the Viereth power station on the Main . A Lawaczeck turbine was also tested in the Mittenwald Isar power plant around 1930.
Among the licensees of Lawaczeck turbine other than those already mentioned above, manufacturers were Finshyttan and Neumeyer also Voith , the Ateliers de Charmilles in Geneva and the Schichau works in West Prussia.
Competition with the Kaplan turbine
The Lawaczeck turbine was in direct competition with the turbine developed and patented by inventor Viktor Kaplan , which was developed and patented almost at the same time, and which was suitable for very similar areas of application (hydropower plants with high water volumes and low head). The Lawaczeck turbine, however, showed a poorer degree of efficiency, especially with partial admission. Comparative tests in the Lilla Edet hydropower station clearly showed the disadvantages of the Lawaczeck turbine. Due to its technical and economic superiority, the Kaplan turbine quickly established itself on the market and replaced the Lawaczeck turbine.
In order to stop the triumphant advance of the Kaplan turbine, Lawaczeck tried repeatedly to take legal action against Kaplan and to contest his patent . The legal dispute dragged on for several years, in the end Lawaczeck was defeated in 1925 in a hearing before the Reichsgericht Leipzig.
Preserved copies
A large Lawaczeck turbine is still in operation at the Lilla Edet hydropower plant in Sweden. In the outside area of the power plant, a turbine runner, which was in use in the power plant for a long time, was erected as a technical monument.
Two smaller Lawaczeck turbines, built by Voith, are still in operation today in the historic hydropower plant in Harnrode in Hesse (P max approx. 250 kW). Another Lawaczeck turbine with a maximum output of 225 kW is being completely renovated in the Lengers plant on the Werra. The runner was replaced in 1996 by an identical (originally built in 1928) mono runner made of aluminum bronze. In the early years these rotors were built and operated with a hub and individual blades (in this case 5) which were "slipped" onto the hub. This procedure made the unit weights significantly lighter and easier to handle.
A Lawaczeck turbine runner is kept in the Science Museum in London.
literature
- Franz Lawaczeck: Turbines and Pumps: Theory and Practice . Julius Springer, 1932, ISBN 978-3-642-50492-1 .
- Franz Lawaczeck: Hydropower utilization and hydropower machines (= From nature and the spiritual world . Volume 732 ). Teubner, 1921.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Fritz Eberlein: Harnrode hydropower plant: New technology in an old guise . In: Hydropower & Energy . Volume 16, No. 3 , 2010, ISSN 0947-5036 , p. 18-23 .
- ↑ a b Martin Gschwandtner: Gold from the waters: Viktor Kaplan's path to the fastest water turbine . GRIN-Verlag , 2007, ISBN 3-638-71515-9 , p. 44 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b Images of the runner from the Science Museum z. B. in the Science & Socienty Picture Library or on Europeana
- ^ Albert Gieseler: Wise Sons. Company, person and subject registers for power and steam engines, accessed on December 12, 2013 .
- ↑ a b c Lawaczeck (1932), especially foreword; Reading sample (PDF)
- ↑ a b Aktiebolaget Finshyttan (ed.): Finshyttan Reaction & Impulse Turbines with Accessories . Self-published, Finshyttan, Filipstad, Sweden 1928 ( full text [PDF]).
- ^ Hans G. Hansson (Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad, Kristinehamn Works): Development of the Kaplan Turbine . In: Dædalus . 1977, ISSN 0070-2528 , pp. 11–35 ( full text [PDF]).
- ↑ a b c Vattenfall power plants: Lilla Edet. Vattenfall, accessed December 12, 2013 .
- ↑ see also the article on the Lilla Edet power plant in the Swedish-language Wikipedia
- ↑ Hydropower and Water Management . tape 26 . R. Oldenbourg, 1931.
- ↑ a b Martin Gschwandtner: The great inventor Viktor Kaplan died 75 years ago . GRIN-Verlag, 2009, ISBN 3-640-47831-2 , p. 10 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ a b Martin Gschwandtner: 100 years of the Kaplan turbine: 100 years ago, the great inventor applied for the first patent for a turbine with rotating blades . GRIN-Verlag , 2013, ISBN 3-656-36103-7 , p. 10 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
- ↑ Betongrationalism i Lilla Edet. Henrik von Klopp, December 20, 2009, accessed December 12, 2013 (Swedish).
- ↑ Chronicle of the Harnrode hydropower plant. Werra-Kalibergbau-Museum, Heringen (Werra), accessed on December 12, 2013 .