scholarly journals Modelling of the Francis turbine runner in power stations. Part I: flow simulation study

Author(s):  
R. A. Saeed ◽  
A. N. Galybin ◽  
V. Popov ◽  
N. O. Abdulrahim
Author(s):  
Shuhong Liu ◽  
Xiaojing Wu ◽  
Yulin Wu

Francis turbine is widely employed in large scale hydro-power stations in the world with main characteristics of efficiency, stability and cavitation. In practical establishment, each large power station must develop a new Francis turbine for its special natural condition and requirement, such as higher efficiency for utilization of natural resources. CFD has been developed greatly and helped a lot in hydraulic design stage of the turbine. In this paper, firstly, a new RNG k–ω turbulence model is proposed based on the RNG k–ε model, which brings the nonlinear term of the mean fluid flow transition to the ω equation in the original k–ω model. And, this RNG k–ω model has been used to predict the energy performances for Francis turbine. Then, the flow diagnosis method in the turbine runner based on vorticity parameters is presented, following the detailed flow behavior revealed. Finally, the simulation results for different model Francis turbines have been compared and analyzed for optimizing the energy performances of the turbine. The model test results indicate that the efficiency of hydraulic turbine has been improved from 93.6% to 94.5%.


Author(s):  
Xiaojing Wu ◽  
Yulin Wu ◽  
Shuhong Liu

Energy loss inside a Francis turbine runner is analyzed with dissipation function in this paper. The dissipation rate of a Newtonian flow with constant shear viscous has three constituents from dilation, vorticity, and surface strain, which is derived from kinetic energy equation presented in this paper. A commercial N-S equation solver has been employed for 3D turbulent flow simulation with a model Francis turbine, and three different operating conditions are chosen for comparison, which are part load, rated load, and excessive load. The results from simulation have been compared with model experiments to validate their preciseness and reliability. The distribution of dissipation constituents on runner blade surface have been extracted from the above simulation results. The distinction of these constituents can be used to identify flow structures inside runner. The flow energy loss is determined by dissipation function, thus it can affect the hydraulic efficiency of turbine runner. From the above results, it can be seen that what causes the energy loss, which is the dominant factor, and where it has the highest value. Thus this analysis based on dissipation function can be used for flow diagnosis inside the blade channel, and tell us which part of the blade should be improved to reduce the energy loss.


Author(s):  
Jose´ Manuel Franco-Nava ◽  
Erik Rosado-Tamariz ◽  
Jose´ Manuel Ferna´ndez-Da´vila ◽  
Reynaldo Rangel-Espinosa

The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) based energy improvement of the parametric blade model for a Francis turbine runner is presented. The evaluation of the energy improved uses the results of CFD based optimization of a hydraulic Francis turbine runner. The parametric runner model used by the CFD based optimization process was obtained by applying a parametric blade modeller for turbomachinery based on a geometric reference model. This parametric runner model and the optimization process were computed by using a three dimensional Navier-Stoke commercial turbomachinery oriented CFD code. The flow within hydraulic turbines has a thin boundary layer and noticeable pressure gradients. Hence, the CFD computations were carried out using the Sparlat-Allmaras turbulence model. The aim of the optimization process was improve the performance of the machine. This process was computed by a CFD code integrated environment which combines genetic algorithms and a trained artificial neural network. After optimization cycle convergence, an increment not only in efficiency but also in power was obtained. The energy that is transferred to the runner blade and transformed in torque and power was obtained by using CFD results. From pressure distribution along the normalized arc length of the runner blade for three operating conditions (100%, 85% and, 75% of load) the energy distribution was computed not only for the reference runner but also for the optimized parametric model of the turbine runner. Finally, the averaged energy saved for the same operating conditions was evaluated. Results have shown that application of CFD based optimization can modify and improve runners design so as to increase the efficiency and power of installed hydraulic power stations.


2011 ◽  
Vol 103 ◽  
pp. 262-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Hong Wang ◽  
Hong Wei Hu ◽  
Yi Min Shao ◽  
Jun Qing Fu

Initiation of blade cracks in Francis turbine runners endangers the safety operation of power stations, so it is crucial to detect the cracks before emergencies happen. This article is a preliminary study of applying acoustic emission (AE) technique to detecting the large-scale turbine runners. A series of experiments had been carried out on an HLA286a-LJ-800 Francis turbine runner. The attenuation characteristics due to propagation distance were studied. From the tests, it is concluded that AE signals are detectable after propagating at a distance of 6 m. The propagation distance is the major factor of attenuation. As a result, although attenuation is incurred, it is feasible to apply AE technique to monitoring crack signals in runners. However, it depends on the understanding of background noise and extraction of right signals.


2014 ◽  
Vol 709 ◽  
pp. 41-45
Author(s):  
Kan Kan ◽  
Yuan Zheng ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Bin Sun ◽  
Hui Wen Liu

This paper does unidirectional fluid-solid coupling calculation on the runner strength under three designed head loading conditions of a certain Francis turbine in the north-eastern China. The water pressure on the blade in the flow fields of different operating conditions is calculated by means of CFD software CFX. With the help of ansys workbench, the water pressure is loaded to the blade as structural load to conclude the static stress distribution and deformation of the runner under different operating conditions. The results show that the maximum static stress increases with the rise of the flow and appears near the influent side of the blade connected to the runner crown; the maximum deformation increases with the rise of the flow and appears on the band. The results provides effective basis for the structural design and safe operation of the Francis turbine.


Author(s):  
Monica Sanda Iliescu ◽  
Gabriel Dan Ciocan ◽  
Franc¸ois Avellan

Part load operation of hydro turbines with fixed pitch blades causes complex instable cavitation flow in the diffuser cone. Application of PIV systems provides the opportunity to investigate the flow velocity and turbulent fields in the case of development of cavitation vortex, the so-called turbine rope, at the outlet of a Francis turbine runner. The synchronization of the PIV flow survey with the rope precession allows to apply phase averaging techniques in order to extract both the periodic velocity components and the rope layout. The influence of the turbine setting level on the volume of the cavity rope and its center is investigated, providing a physical insight on the hydrodynamic complex phenomena involved in the development of the cavitation rope at Francis turbine operating regimes.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bingwei Song ◽  
Hironori Horiguchi ◽  
Yumeto Nishiyama ◽  
Shinichiro Hata ◽  
Zhenyue Ma ◽  
...  

The fundamental characteristics of rotordynamic fluid force moment on the backshroud of a Francis turbine runner in precession motion were studied using model tests and computations based on a bulk flow model. The runner is modeled by a disk positioned close to a casing with a small axial clearance. An inward leakage flow is produced by an external pump in the model test. The effects of the leakage flow rate, the preswirl velocity at the inlet of the clearance, and the axial clearance on the fluid force moment were examined. It was found that the fluid force moment encourages the precession motion at small forward precession angular velocity ratios and the region encouraging the precession motion is affected by the preswirl velocity. Through the comparisons of the fluid force moment with and without the rotation of the disk, it was found that the normal moment without the disk rotation did not have the effect to encourage the precession motion. Thus, the swirl flow due to disk rotation was found to be responsible for the encouragement of the precession motion.


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