Hydroelectric Turbines : same as wind turbines?

[Rob Hotchkiss]

Just a quick questino hopefully martin or somebody can answer. Are the turbines the same for both hydroeletric and wind? Basicly, would it be efficint to use a wind turbine in water, as im makin a small model for a client and can't seem to find any hydroelectric turbines to use.

Cheers

[Muddypause]

While Martin's away, I'll be 'somebody'.

I think the real answer to your question is 'no', because a water turbine is a different type of thing from what we call a wind turbine. Properly speaking, a turbine is something that creates a vortex in a chamber, to spin the rotor at high speed. We now mistakenly use it to also mean a propeller-like thing (though I think 'propeller' is probably equally as wrong). This means that a 'wind turbine' and a 'water turbine' don't really relate to each other at all.

But in terms of propeller-like things, the basic priciples are the same. There are clearly similarities between a wind propeller and a water propeller. But there are clearly differences, too.

The hydroelectric turbine that I have seen (domestic sized) looked more like a bigger version of a turbocharger that you would find on a car, and ran at very high rpm (in fact I've often wondered if half a turbocharger could be pressed into use as a water generator - probably not; very different conditions).

I think, historically, the water turbine developed from the water wheel, rather than the propeller. That's not to say that a propellery thing couldn't be made to do something underwater. In fact, for small scale stuff, I seem to recall that you could once get a kind of tow-along propeller generator for use in boats. Dunno if they're still made, though.