Kaplan turbine

The Kaplan turbine, invented in 1913 by the Austrian professor Viktor Kaplan, is based on the principle of a ship's propeller. The Kaplan turbine is an axial type turbine in which the water flow causes the propeller blades to rotate in and out in an axial direction relative to the propeller's axis of rotation. The impeller blades in Kaplan turbines are always adjustable, while the distributor blades can be fixed or adjustable. If both are adjustable, the turbine is said to be a true Kaplan turbine; if only the impeller blades are adjustable, the turbine is said to be a semi-Kaplan turbine. Thanks to the possibility of adjusting the angle of incidence of the blades, it has the advantage of providing excellent performance with small jumps (5 to 80 metres), but also with large variations in flow (up to 300 cubic metres per second).