Addis Ababa University
Postgraduate program in Hydraulic/Hydropower Engineering
CENG6803: Basic Hydropower
Course Work I
- Submission Date: in 2 weeks after course completion
1. Through searching literature, web-site or consulting the various organizations describe the
characteristics features One of Ethiopian hydropower scheme.
2. Draw a hydrograph and flow duration curve of Blue Nile flow at Kessie. Find the smallest, small, and
mean flow levels
3. Plot the area duration and capacity curve of envisaged dam in the Blue Nile under the ENTRO
projects, specifically the Karadobi, Mendaya or Border dams
4. Design a settling basin for high-head power station using the simple settling theory. The basin should
serve to remove particles greater than 0.4mm diameter from the water in which the sediment is mainly
sand. Let the design discharge be 6m³/s and assume an initial value of 3.2m for the basin depth. Take
the water sediment mixture density to be =1.064
5. A power canal with a slope of 0.0001044 and R=1.76 m is unlined with coarse sand bed material.
Determine the safe velocity in the canal if the heaviest bed load in the original canal of the course is
G=0.34kg/m³. The water carries silt with an average diameter of 0.1 mm. Assume dm=2.00 mm as size
of bed material and h=2.5m.
6. Determine the seepage loss from a power canal constructed in a sandy soil of medium fineness by the
Davis and Wilson, Etchevery and Kostyakov methods discussed. The following data are given:
Trapezoidal canal: bottom width, b= 11.0 m
Water depth, D=2.5m
Side slope 2H: 1V
Mean velocity =0.5m/s
Effective size of soil particle, dm=0.1mm
Permeability coefficient, k=1x10-5 m/s
4. A tunnel with steel lining embodied in 40 cm concrete has an internal diameter of 300 cm. If E st = 2.1
x 106 kg/cm2, Ec = 2.1 x 105 kg/cm2, sta= 1200 kg/cm2. The rock is crystallized schist of mediocre
quality with Er = 60,000 kg/cm2 and 1 2 = 0.5 mm = 0.05cm and internal pressure is 25
kg/cm2. Determine the plate thickness of lining.
5. Check the lining of 12 mm thick steel plate backed by 40cm thick concrete layer in pressure tunnel of
400 cm internal diameter operating under a head of 200m. Est = 2.1 x 106 kg/cm2, Ec = 2.1 x 105
kg/cm2, sta = 1200 kg/cm2, m=6, rock is dolomite with Er = 100,000 kg /cm2, 1 2 = 1mm =
0.10cm.
6. A surge chamber 8m in diameter is situated at the downstream end of a low pressure tunnel 10km long
and 3m in diameter. At a steady discharge of 36 m3/s the flow of the turbines is suddenly stopped by
closure of the turbine inlet valves. Determine the maximum rise in level in the surge chamber and its
time of occurrence.
7. A surge chamber 100m² in area is situated at the end of a 10,000m long, 5m diameter tunnel; =0.01.
A steady state discharge of 60m³/s to the turbines is suddenly stopped by the turbine inlet valve.
Neglecting surge chamber losses, determine the maximum rise in level in the surge chamber and its
time of occurrence. Use dimensionless parameters method and finite difference methods.
8. A hydropower scheme has a surge tank at the end of a 2020m long tunnel, 4.22 m in dia. The surge
tank, rectangular in section, may be assumed of a circular x-section, 15.85m in dia. Penstock systems
can be represented by a single penstock, 380 m long and 3.41 m diameter, friction factor for tunnel and
penstock is 0.018 and 0.03 respect. And C in penstock is 1370 m/s. at steady state, the head reservoir
level is 457.0m with a discharge of 26.2 m3/s.
i) Compute the water hammer pressure, levels of maximum upsurge and down surge for sudden load
rejection using dimensionless parameters.
ii) Evaluate the natural frequency of oscillation using
a) Analytical solution
b) Numerical solution (including friction, neglect surge tank throttle loss). You may apply
one of the numerical techniques (Finite difference, direct or successive estimates or
Runge-Kutta method.) using fortran programming. Present the result graphically showing
time variation of oscillation for both a) and b).
9) In a pumped storage hydropower project, water is delivered from the upper impounding reservoir
through a low pressure tunnel and four high pressure penstocks to the four-pump turbine units.
The elevation of the impounding reservoir water level is 500m AOD, and the elevation of the d/s
reservoir WL is 200m AOD. The max. reservoir storage which can be utilized continuously for a
period of 48 hours is 15 *106 m3.
The low-pressure tunnel is constructed as follows:
Length = 4 km; diameter = 8m; friction factor = 0.025. The high pressure penstocks (4 nos.) are
constructed as follows: length of each penstock = 50 m; diameter = 2m, friction factor = 0.015,
turbine efficiency when generating = 90%; generator efficiency (16 poles, 50Hz) = 90% turbine
efficiency when pumping = 80% barometric pressure = 10.3 m of water; Thoma’s cavitations
coefficient =0.043 (N/100)2.
a) Determine the maximum power output from the installation.
b) Estimate the specific speed and specify the type of turbine.
c) Determine the safe turbine setting relative to the d/s reservoir water level.
d) If a simple surge chamber of 6 m in diameter is provided at the end of the low-pressure tunnel,
estimate:
i) The max. upsurge and down surge in the surge chamber for sudden load rejection of one
units and
ii) The maximum down surge for sudden demand of one unit.
10) The following data refer to a proposed hydroelectric power plant. Turbines: total power to be
produced = 30MW; normal operating speed = 150 rpm; net head available = 16m. Draft tube:
maximum kinetic energy at exit of draft tube = 1.5% of H; efficiency of draft tube = 85%; vapor
pressure ≤ 3 m of water; atmospheric pressure = 10.3 m of water.
i) What size, type, and number of units would you cleat for the proposed plant?
ii)Starting from the first principles, determine the turbine setting relative to the tail water level.
