For a wooden bucket (fig. 180, A), take ab = distance between two buckets on periphery of wheel. Make ed = 1⁄2 eb and bc = 6⁄5 to 5⁄4 ab. Join cd. For an iron bucket (fig. 180, B), take ed = 1⁄3eb; bc = 6⁄5ab. Draw cO making an angle of 10° to 15° with the radius at c. On Oc take a centre giving a circular arc passing near d, and round the curve into the radial part of the bucket de.
There are two ways in which the power of a water wheel is given off to the machinery driven. In wooden wheels and wheels with rigid arms, a spur or bevil wheel keyed on the axle of the turbine will transmit the power to the shafting. It is obvious that the whole turning moment due to the weight of the water is then transmitted through the arms and axle of the water wheel. When the water wheel is an iron one, it usually has light iron suspension arms incapable of resisting the bending action due to the transmission of the turning effort to the axle. In that case spur segments are bolted to one of the shrouds, and the pinion to which the power is transmitted is placed so that the teeth in gear are, as nearly as may be, on the line of action of the resultant of the weight of the water in the loaded arc of the wheel.
The largest high breast wheels ever constructed were probably the four wheels, each 50 ft. in diameter, and of 125 h.p., erected by Sir W. Fairbairn in 1825 at Catrine in Ayrshire. These wheels are still working.
| Fig. 181. |
§ 181. Poncelet Water Wheel.—When the fall does not exceed 6 ft., the best water motor to adopt in many cases is the Poncelet undershot water wheel. In this the water acts very nearly in the same way as in a turbine, and the Poncelet wheel, although slightly less efficient than the best turbines, in normal conditions of working, is superior to most of them when working with a reduced supply of water. A general notion of the action of the water on a Poncelet wheel has already been given in § 159. Fig. 181 shows its construction. The water penned back between the side walls of the wheel pit is allowed to flow to the wheel under a movable sluice, at a velocity nearly equal to the velocity due to the whole fall. The water is guided down a slope of 1 in 10, or a curved race, and enters the wheel without shock. Gliding up the curved floats it comes to rest, falls back, and acquires at the point of discharge a backward velocity relative to the wheel nearly equal to the forward velocity of the wheel. Consequently it leaves the wheel deprived of nearly the whole of its original kinetic energy.
Taking the efficiency at 0.60, and putting H for the available fall, h.p. for the horse-power, and Q for the water supply per second,
h.p. = 0.068 QH.
The diameter D of the wheel may be taken arbitrarily. It should not be less than twice the fall and is more often four times the fall. For ordinary cases the smallest convenient diameter is 14 ft. with a straight, or 10 ft. with a curved, approach channel. The radial depth of bucket should be at least half the fall, and radius of curvature of buckets about half the radius of the wheel. The shrouds are usually of cast iron with flanges to receive the buckets. The buckets may be of iron 1⁄8 in. thick bolted to the flanges with 5⁄16 in. bolts.
Let H′ be the fall measured from the free surface of the head-water to the point F where the mean layer enters the wheel; then the velocity at which the water enters is v = √ (2gH′), and the best circumferential velocity of the wheel is V = 0.55f to 0.6v. The number of rotations of the wheel per second is N = V/πD. The thickness of the sheet of water entering the wheel is very important. The best thickness according to experiment is 8 to 10 in. The maximum thickness should not exceed 12 to 15 in., when there is a surplus water supply. Let e be the thickness of the sheet of water entering the wheel, and b its width; then
bev = Q; or b = Q/ev.