Characterization of Hydraulic Power in Free-Stream Installations

Figure 5

Pressure distribution within the arbitrary ideal machine described in Figure 4. The pressure of the inlet water is raised twice: first as its velocity is reduced from to and then as the altitude is varied by . Similarly, downstream of the actuator, the fluid pressure is raised twice so that flow conditions (2) at the outlet may be attained. The pressure drop across the actuator surface A, described in (14), corresponds to the lumped contributions of net water level altitude change , velocity change , and losses due to drag .