How the Turbines in the Kölnbrein Dam are 92% Efficient | Richard Hammond’s Big
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- čas přidán 5. 11. 2020
- Richard Hammond explains how the turbines in Austria's Kölnbrein Dam manage to be 92% efficient, supplying electricity to houses all over the country.
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I can’t believe they let him that close to the turbine output shaft lol
Woah
Me neither..
Was he sitting on top of the generator rubbing a bicycle dynamo on the axle?
@@Froggability No, he was sitting on top of the turbine below the generator.
I see no risk or problem with that so to me it''s not unbelievable at all.
That small dynamo left a very noticeable skid mark on the generator.
I noticed that, too!
That's a clear breach of safety protocols !
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 nothing is if you have enough money
@@mrjpz Except it's not a real breach of safety and as long as he doesn't buy the dam his money doesn't matter that much
signature of the great electricity thief.
I was in the generator room of the hoover dam once. Standing next to a 40 ton solid steel shaft rotating about as fast as this one. What i found amazing was that there was no vibration, no sound: nothing. I was awestruck.
Aye, true to caesar
O was in a nozable hydro plant recently snd the whole building was buzzing and humming
You don’t want vibrations haha. If you feel an augmenting vibration, better get out of there because it’s a matter of time before everything blows up.
@@robert.m6755 I know this. gee thanks.
Similar here (different dam, but same idea), and this is 100% true. It's genuinely awe-inspiring. Like larger than life engineering.
25 tonnes spinning at 500 rpm is a thrillingly terrifying amount of power
Look up the sayano shushenskaya accident, it truly is terrifying
Imagine what bearings they had to use, I bet they last for decades.
@@bahn5ee Pelton turbines neeed pretty frequent maintenance, if for erosion alone. The water coming down from those alpine reservoirs contains some grit. That cuts like a waterjet...
500 rpm is quite an odd number. Not sure why they run it at this (if they really does).
@@RubenKelevra In what way is it odd?
I’m sorry they’re WHAT
That is ridiculous levels of efficiency, this must be really well engineered and I have no idea why they let Hammond so close to it with a power tool
The turbine design has existed for a while, but yes it is an extremely efficient design.
But that is the efficiency of the water -> turbine transfer alone, the water travelling to the turbine and the generator generating electricity can’t be 100% efficient so overall the system isn’t 92% efficient, it’s still amazing tho how perfect the bucket design is
@@hazza2247 nor is the generator itself 100% efficient at converting rotary energy to electricity
@@xavierrodriguez2463 yeah lol I said that
@@xavierrodriguez2463 If you could produce a machine that's 100% efficient you'd be a trillionaire. Energy will always be lost as a result of heat and sound.
Discover Australia: *shows video of Austria*
most underrated comment
Yeah because sydney is a capital in the heart of Europe
Austria eh? Well then, Gooday mate! Let's put another shrimp on the barbie!
@Waxoff Waxon not to be that guy but border, not boarder
its like they are in on the joke XD
For those interested, this type of turbine is called a Pelton Wheel, and is an example of an impulse-type turbine.
Further, the scoop discussed also serves the purpose of reversing the direction of the water flow to increase the change in momentum on the water, and thus increase the momentum imparted into the turbine.
Nicely explained... the more technical aspect of the turbine...
Mechanical Engineer spotted... 💚 Learned it in hydraulic machines..
Your explanation makes so much more sense than his, thankyou
i was wondering the whole time why pelton was never mentioned. plenty of guys make generators from old washing machines and 3D printed pelton wheels and power their houses.
Additional fact, the water leaving the bucket is at 165° to the input jet, this is the perfect angle to extract as much energy from the water without it colliding with the next bucket.
"This massive battery holds back 200 million tons of water."
"DAM!"
HaHAhahaha
Deserved like
Dam dam
Big like!
I thought he said 200 tons of water
We now need ‘Jeremy Clarksons small’
Yes
And a “James Mays fast”
@@lnx7242 more like “James Mays Slow”
@@bradyhoumand1264 that's the joke he is slow its opposite of there stereotypes
Shaquile Oneil Small
"I'm stealing their power, hahahaha!"
That laugh is nostalgic
He isn't stealing anything, there was a guy with a stop watch nearby so they could send him an accurate bill later on
@@mortontony1 Biggest plot twist 😂😂
@@mortontony1 this made my day lol
Well be used 2 units
And fresh power
So 2x10 =20 + 1000
=28000 $
Hey don't even try to correct me
Iam bad in maths
Known as "Parasitic Load"
4:31 machinists shaking their heads watching him leave rubber residue on their perfect clean machine
I'm no machinist but I'm sure my machinery instructors from back in grad school would shudder seeing this guy's freely flowing sleeves so close to essentially a mothership of a lathe lol
@@RexGalilae I hadn’t even considered that
@@RexGalilae it’s not a lathe
@@RexGalilae I think it's so powerful it'd essentially rip the sleeve right off his shirt lol
@@jju7469 if he's lucky, yes
Not gonna lie, this content is absolutely best in class, taking notes
Nerd
@@tonyalston4838 im a nerd and proud of it
@@moikkis65 Fake.
@@ChargeNReact what is fake?
@@moikkis65 You're caught and coming up looking sad. Admit and we'll move on...
Somehow I can already hear Jezza screaming "Oi, who nicked my bike light? Haammoooonnndd!"
why would jezza own a bike light ? he hates those things.
May more likely
@@gavinkemp7920 he owns one actually
@@mangoshake to be honest i'd been surprised if he didn't. it was just for the joke.
When did Jeremy get a bicycle...? ;)
me with a triple monitor setup
dude in a dam with at least 10 monitors setup
Fax
You guys get monitors?
i counted at least 3 keyboards, looks like its just a perfect row of somewhere between triple and 5 (penta something) setups
with a 1028.5 MegaWatt power supply
I counted 12 monitors and 5 keyboards. I’m thinking 3 out of frame. That totals 3 monitors per machine by my count
Can we just appreciate for a minute, the astounding quality, perfect backing audio, and incredible narration? This show is amazing!
As for narration, i agree, the Hamster is always the Hamster... if you know what i mean...
I'm Austrian and went to a technical school.
We once went there and even walked through the dam itself! Pretty dam impressive.
HTL?
@@Gabriel-jg7er Ja, genau :)
Lastenstraße?
Ich besuche HTL Bulme in Graz, wir beschaeftigen uns mit Hydrodinamik. Ich hoffe eines Tages dieses Wasserkraftwerk zu besuchen
I see what you did there:)
I like this series with Al Pacino, they should release more eps.
Or Robert Downey jr
Benny Blanco from the Bronx
Discount British Al Pacino with a less cool voice
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Say hello to my little turbine friend.
These videos are very motivating and i suggest Discovery channel releases the full video rather than these excerpts.....just saying
If you have Amazon prime the full videos are on there
@@anthonykaeb3778 What is the name of the show on Amazon?
@@anthonykaeb3778 that's what I was think that it would be on a paid website
It's called advertising. Welcome to the modern world. I know, it's scary for cranky, lost, scared old men.
@@samuelmundula2216" Richard Hammond's BIG"
7:36 Did Anyone notice just how that hanging balcony is Perfectly shaped like the Pelton Wheel ( the turbine ) design , engineers having fun I suppose ;)
Didn't think of that
And he was not about getting on it
we call them skywalks here in austria and well, we austrians are somewhat obsessed with skywalks. Like Every single mountain has atleast one of them in some weird shape.
@@foxt9151 well, you have the mountains, might as well commit.
It's interesting to think that regardless of how small it was, he really was taking away from the overall power output by just placing that motor there.
Is it *really* interesting, though? Is ~0.000000000000000000000000000000000000001% reduction _actually_ even remotely interesting to you? It's probably even less than that (I just put a random amount of 0s btw, didn't bother calculating) seeing as LEDs are ridiculously efficient and if something as slow as a bicycle wheel powered by a human can power it, then it's a truly insignificant amount of power that he's using compared to what is being generated.
@@moogle68 You are off by so many orders of magnitude it's ridiculous.
Let's say that the LED is drawing half a watt (tested with a random white led, seems about right), and assuming 50% efficiency of that dynamo, that makes for 1 watt of power sapped from the shaft.
That there is a Pelton turbine. There are four Pelton turbines at the Kölnbrein dam, with a combined capacity of 730MW, that makes ~183MW per turbine. That led is draining about 0.00000055% of that turbine's power, so you were off by 32 orders of magnitude.
Austria has a 50Hz grid. Grid frequency is very tightly controlled, if there is 1 too many a cycle in a day, the next day that will be compensated. Long term, that frequency is kept _exact_ . Afaik that's because some clocks rely on that frequency for time keeping. There are 4 320 000 of those cycles in 24 hours, so subtract 0.00000055%, you get 431999.976 cycles. That's 1 missing cycle every ~42 days. (I'm assuming that frequency drop scales linearily with power draw here)
Now that is a tiny amount wayyyyy dwarfed by so many other things, but I bet if you built a research facility with a generator like that, with very tightly controlled input and output, you could measure that.
And then, to drive home just how far off you were with that ridiculous guess:
A hydrogen atom is 0.529*10^-10 meters across. Multiply that by 100000000000000000000000000000000 and you get 559 165 light years. The milky way is about 100 000 ly across.
Or, take the (size of the observable universe) / 10^32, you get about 10 micrometers. That's a tenth of a human hair.
See, that _was_ quite interesting!
Richard put a line on the shaft with the generator
It would last about zero seconds if you're lucky 🤣
@@TheAmazingAdventuresOfMiles what do you mean
@@BenJamin-wu8jv when he powers the light with the spinning shaft it leaves a mark on shaft
@@BenJamin-wu8jv ooops! I meant to post that in response to the person suggesting leaving a GoPro in the turbine chamber to film the water hitting the cups :)
Now it's 91% efficient
The “splitter” in the buckets isn’t to let the water escape, the shape of the buckets is designed to cause the water to reverse direction when it hits the bucket and hence extract more kinetic energy. You have to split the flow in two to even up the side load.
yes, that's what they said. but people still get confused. thanks for the info
@@TheNamesArif they (hammond) didnt said that, he explained: without the splitter water would come in and some of it splashes out and hit the back of the next bucket
I would agree to the explanation that they are formed so that they harvest the monentum of flow, with changing direction and that the splitter is for symetrical weight distrubution
as with many engineering decisions, its probably both reasons.
@@gilgameschgottvaterdergott2644 “every ping pong ball flying away is another droplet of water not pushing the turbine wheel”
Non-technical language, but the concept was communicated to a broader audience.
Would also help reduce the wear due to cavitation I would imagine.
Hamster doesn't get enough credit as being an excellent presenter and explainer.
4:35 He’s left a skid mark on their lovely turbine! Haha!
7:00 "As it moves and breaths" That dam better NOT be moving.
I would think they built the dam with specific tolerances to allow micro movements during temperature swings to prevent cracking the concrete
Yet it does... between empty and full the top of the dam moves about 12cm. Concrete and rock are flexible if the loads are big enough.
Also rebar is a major reinforcement which allows the concrete to make smaller cracks and still maintain tensile strength
Of course it does, like any other building.
2:10
guy:"pretey much evenly distirbution".
My eyes:"no"
Tonight on Bottom Gear:
Hammond steals electricity from the Kölnbrein Dam with a dynamo turbine.
This is where science and engineering get freakish. The amount of energy and the forces at work are simply mind-blowing.
3:36 anyone noticed the control rods moving?? That was cool
Didn't notice but thanks for the point out.
Tou can definitely hear the turbine change pitch.
Where on the screen do I look
@@amichiganboiwhosereallazy1544 bottom of the screen
I thought that was the camera moving slightly, but then I realised that the rest of the shot was completely stationary. Pretty interesting find. You have a keen eye.
@@amichiganboiwhosereallazy1544 It is particularly discernible when you look at the small rod in the bottom left of the screen. Its perspective makes it seem to move much faster and by a larger margin.
5:15 The ultimate gaming setup.
Came here for some engineering content - didn't pay attention to the content at all, just 8 minutes of wondering why the heck there is a video about hydropower in Austria in a Channel called 'Discovery Australia'.
Austrias post have a stamp saying "Missent to Austria" because so much mail ends up there, that should have gone to Australia.
Austria, Australia... same thing right?
@@redcoat4348 One's extended germany, the other's extended britain
With an English host hahaha
Discovering Australia - I knew there was something wrong, when I looked outside my window in Austria and discovered that there are no kangaroos....
It's worth also noting that the rotating mass of that shaft is an important part of the whole system too - its kinetic energy serves like a mechanical capacitor to buffer energy for sudden jumps in electrical load on the generator. If the system wasn't so heavy, it wouldn't be able to provide nearly as well to changing demand.
"its kinetic energy serves like a mechanical capacitor"
That's actually a pretty cool analogy for flywheels.
@@carneeki I have heard this analogy a couple of times now from youtube
@@carneeki * That's actually a flywheel ;)
@@DarkAttack14 yes. Thank you for repeating me.
Otherwise known as grid inertia
Should have put a GoPro in the turbine chamber so we can see the water and the turbine coming up to speed
All very well however once they are all closed up and put back into service they don’t come out again for atleast another 6 months. Normally more than 6 months before they open up the scroll case again. You’d be waiting for like a year or more to get your GoPro back again Ahaha. (I work in power stations in NZ)
@@Cailean750 will the said GoPro even survive inside that with all that water
@@movinperera Probably not however there could potentially be some areas of relitive shelter for it to have a fighting chance of surviving depending on the mounting system employed haha.
@@Cailean750 you reckon the case fills completely with water under operation? Bit like a jet in a hot tub
@@craiga6557 Well that Im a little unsure about, I would think it would just be the jet of water and have a rather empty scroll case but at the same time it would probably have a lot of water still splashing around inside there. Im unsure about these Pelton wheel turbines as I work on Francis and Boving turbines which have a full scroll case during operation.
oh my gosh. the stairway at the end is a pelton wheel bucket!
that is such a clever design. nice.
Nice catch!
Richard “Hamster” Hammond is one of the coolest dudes, I hope we see him doing more documentaries and anything else he enjoys.
5 mins in hes not even looking i would be scared of that thing
"I'm stealing their power hahaha!"
The T H I E F
Edit: I like how no one noticed my spelling error lol
He left a rubber mark on the shaft lol
Connects dynamo: 96% efficiency
@Waxoff Waxon lol
I still don’t notice
@@andrewdoesyt7787 cause I corrected it lol
3:50 How did he resist touching the shaft?
I work in small scale hydro in the U.S. Northeast. Our turbines could never hope to be nearly this efficient, mostly 1900s Francis turbines with modern sensors and controls.
Leffle ?
I take it upgrading to modern turbines would be far too expensive? Kind of a bummer.
@@eatshitlarrypage.3319 apparently so for the most wealthy nation in the world
"I'm stealing their power"
@Dalton Long It's only fair. Austria or as it was known during the Second World War "Germany" was very reliant on the British Lancaster Dambuster Squadron for cheap Demolition of Dams! These modern marvels of engineering could not be possible without the removal of old technology. Out with the old and in with the new!
One of these wheels is mounted as a monument in front of the engineering school at my university, its magnificent.
6:06 this shot was sick
Wow. Nice job Richard and team. I've always wanted to see this all working. The bike light dynamo was insane!!!!
Hammond: Puts bicycle dynamo on the shaft
Turbine: It's too hard, I'm gonna stop
Didn't expect to see Hammond here, nice surprise.
That’s William Dafoe.
Great vid, greetings from Austria!
I’m a simple man: I see Richard Hammond, I click.
Pretty cool video. I had already heard about this design for turbines, but I didn’t know that it was this efficient. Keep up the amazing content!
I like how the walkways on the platform jutting off from the dam, at the very end, are shaped like the buckets :)
i didnt connect the two. interesting observation. now im curiou to see if there is any truth to it.
I have never ever seen such a beneficial video on youtube ever. Thanks for proving us with valuable information.
Awesome stuff! Thanks for this 👍
Me: "I would be scared to be in that shaft room"
Hammond: *Holds his hand an inch away from the shaft*
Could have lost an arm or even died. That is one scary fly wheel.
No clickbait, straight to the point, quality content!
It's amazing actually being this close describing how it's work that's super cool
I like the fact that a channel named Discovery Australia shows a place in Austria.
the ping pong ball example was excellent
naaah it was a cheaters demo real water droplets much denser than ping pong plastics
Makes you wonder why the aeronautical engineers never thought of making aeroplane wings razor sharp! You would get 98% efficiency!
@@mgabrielle2343 I'm not sure it is that simple. They would obviously have done it if so.
That they let him so close to the moving shaft and even touch it was hilarious.
He is the Hamster, they thought he might generate more power.
Great idea to have him explain the inner workings of a generator in one of the loudest places they could find.
That shaft spinning was massive POWER
Beautiful Pelton water wheel. I get to operate a 63kw 1918 built unit in the summertime.
Richard is one of the best presentor for me on the planet.
Wonderful documentary ……thank you Richard👍🏻
I have enjoyed your voice talking from the dam. I had once been in a dam to a cleaning turbine, it was all some. We were able to go just about any where in side the dam. Very strange feeling! Thanks!
I noticed he didn't get on the clear bottom viewing platform, a bit scared?
He's only small
He did in the full documentary
The Stig would have done it.
After being winched up a dam in a rolling pile of British disappointment, I think he’s earned the right to avoid unnecessary heights.
@@richardschofield2201 dont worry, terminal velocity is determined by mass over an area.
Hamond would barely reach 1mph velocity, he will be fine.
“Pretty much evenly” take a look at that shot again
i mean, sure it didnt fill both halfs evenly but the main point was waste that never falls into the pouch-thingy itself
How massive it is!! i am studying mechanical engineering and watching such video really feels great. wish I could be part of such projects!
Two things, firstly he says, “ sharpening the splitter, I’ve never said that before!” Cracked me up. Then at the end, standing atop of the dam, there’s a viewing platform only for the brave! My sphincter closed up when I saw the drop, and I’m at home....not there!
I'd say that your closed sphincter is probably a greatly beneficial thing for those in close proximity to you.
Love how they've built the sort of "cantilever" walk way with the glass floor for people. Similar (roughly) to the one in the Grand Canyon.
Best explanation with site experience ❤️
Richard Hammond you are a great presenter .....skill level 100
That bridge /lookout at the end! I wonder if it ever gets used! Just canter leavened off like that makes me shudder!
yes it does. as far as i know you can on rare occasions even bungee jump from there... but otherwise it's a viewing platform for tourists.
@@ferdinandhohenzollner4409 i had the same thoughts! I would hope that not too many tourists use it at once but I imagine its built firmly into the Dam, still a terrifying visual though lol
@@ferdinandhohenzollner4409 Ok! Not for me thanks!
I remember it was crazy for me when it hit me, how eletric energy is produced with the same principle pretty much everywhere! Cars, motorcycles, generators, coal, dam, wind and nuclear energy.
Thank you sir for making such a nice information video its show the world behind the set and big brains
This is information that I'll probably never use but I enjoyed every minute of it.
I thought the stealing power bit was strange in an educational video but then I remembered that Australia was a penal colony. This is how they make the lesson relatable.
clarkson started a farm, may went to japan, and hammond finds big things.
Highly efficient indeed! Cool stuff!
Love these kind of shows
His laugh after “I’m stealing their power” 😂
7:08 I thought he will also review that beautiful 356
"This beautiful shape. People will just travel to look at it."
Yep fits well.
This is by far the most elegant turbine and dam that I have ever seen. I would love to visit.
An amazing well done video. Great narration.
I can't even imagine how they would machine a 25 tonne shaft like that.
very very big lathe
with your mom
Very carefully!
Allis Chalmers, in Milwaukee WI and 100' lathe and 100 ton capacity
If you wanna know look for videos of WFL Millturn CNC machines on CZcams. Certainly not the only machine capable of doing so but one of those is used where i work at Voith to make our biggest shafts.
I'm in awe of Richard Hammond. I didn't learn anything new in this video, I'm after all an engineer with a background in fluid dynamics and renewable energy systems. But the clearness and simplicity of his explanations are not matched by many.
I have worked at Verbund, the local energy company before. It was really nice to see you there!
...only a real Austrian knows the "Verbund" company.(War auch schon Mal dort, in Kaprun, sehr robuste Technik, Grüße aus NÖ)
This is incredible stuff, would LOVE to visit there
92% efficiency is amazing
Yeah while solar panels only got a 10% efficiency, its odly satisfying.
@@junatah5903 they definitely have to improve on that this century.
@@Jan_372 apparently there is a break through on what is causing such a low efficiency rating.
Solar panels might be viable by 2025.
@@junatah5903 that would be hella epic.
@@junatah5903 solar power is already viable in a lot of places it's cheaper power when you consider incentives and home value appreciation
Crazy to think that this is solar powered
As are fossil fuels, and wind and if you really stretch the definition of solar and ignore the moon so is tidal.
Yes ultimately it is, considering the evaporative part of the water cycle
not all of it, they use excess nuclear energy at night to pump fill the lakes
Even nuclear is solar power, but from a past sun.
@@andrebartels1690 not if they used Plutonium in the reactor!!!
I love the backing audio that starts at 5:04.
That little Dynamo marked up the shaft!
Before: 4:25
After: 4:41
Some intern’s going to be scrubbing for hours lol.
That is ridiculously efficient!
I got to actually look inside such a turbine at those blades, down under the generator. I could hear water dripping down, and they explained that they couldn't keep it completely from leaking. Then, they opened the gates to power up the turbine. It was very impressive.
It's hard to put into words how amazing it all is to see in person, isn't it?
How could you survive that?
@@Rubensgardens.Skogsmuseum i think they were let out before they turned on the generator
Simple yet brilliant.
Hamster being adorable without trying. 🤣👍🏻
You should do a video qhere its Richard Hammond operating a model train system while super hammerd
3:26 that’s probably the fastest I have ever seen 25 ton spinning!
It would be closer to 125 tons or more of rotating mass with the runner, shaft and generator. The power stations I work in weigh in at 214 tons.
Well, wait for 3:50 then, because they make it spin even faster. Few seconds before that you can see the rods moving, then the pitch changes and noise increases.
Your mom moves that quick when she drives past a Mcrib billboard
@@Puleczech AC generators tied to a grid don't really speed up unless a large amount of load suddenly is removed . The governor controlling the rotational speed of the gen will sense a slight speed error , rapidly bring the deflectors into the nozzle stream to take some water off the turbine and slow the rotating speed enough to correct the error .
That viewing area at the top was cool!☘️👍
Brave man Mr Hammond and nice doco.
Who's gonna clean that rubber stripe he put on the spinning load?