Model of a draft tube for reaction turbines
Two of the draft tubes are modeled using Momentum
balance. They are:
- Conical diffuser: It is the most well-know
draft tube which has efficiency of around 90% and mostly used for
low head reaction turbines.
- Moody spreading draft tubes: When conical
diffuser length exceeds beyond its stability for high head reaction
turbines, either a elbow type draft tube is used which has around
70% of efficiency. However, other choice is to use Moody spreading
draft tube that has efficiency of around 80%. The construction and
design of Moody spreading draft tube is daunting and time consuming
but it is mostly chosen for handling water whril at turbine's
outlet.
The conical diffuser and Moody spreading draft tubes are shown
below:


Generated at 2026-04-01T18:18:38Z by OpenModelicaOpenModelica 1.26.3 using
GenerateDoc.mos