• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.179-190
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• 2011

The swirling flow developing in Francis turbine draft tube under part load operation leads to pressure fluctuations usually in the range of 0.2 to 0.4 times the runner rotational frequency resulting from the so-called vortex breakdown. For low cavitation number, the flow features a cavitation vortex rope animated with precession motion. Under given conditions, these pressure fluctuations may lead to undesirable pressure fluctuations in the entire hydraulic system and also produce active power oscillations. For the upper part load range, between 0.7 and 0.85 times the best efficiency discharge, pressure fluctuations may appear in a higher frequency range of 2 to 4 times the runner rotational speed and feature modulations with vortex rope precession. It has been pointed out that for this particular operating point, the vortex rope features elliptical cross section and is animated of a self-rotation. This paper presents an experimental investigation focusing on this peculiar phenomenon, defined as the upper part load vortex rope. The experimental investigation is carried out on a high specific speed Francis turbine scale model installed on a test rig of the EPFL Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines. The selected operating point corresponds to a discharge of 0.83 times the best efficiency discharge. Observations of the cavitation vortex carried out with high speed camera have been recorded and synchronized with pressure fluctuations measurements at the draft tube cone. First, the vortex rope self rotation frequency is evidenced and the related frequency is deduced. Then, the influence of the sigma cavitation number on vortex rope shape and pressure fluctuations is presented. The waterfall diagram of the pressure fluctuations evidences resonance effects with the hydraulic circuit. The influence of outlet bubble cavitation and air injection is also investigated for low cavitation number. The time evolution of the vortex rope volume is compared with pressure fluctuations time evolution using image processing. Finally, the influence of the Froude number on the vortex rope shape and the associated pressure fluctuations is analyzed by varying the rotational speed.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.67-79
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• 2010

Severe flexural vibration of the rotor shaft of a Francis turbine runner was experienced in the past. It was shown that the vibration was caused by the fluid forces and moments on the backshroud of the runner associated with the leakage flow through the back chamber. The aim of the present paper is to study the self-excited rotor vibration caused by the fluid force moments on the backshroud of a Francis turbine runner. The rotor vibration includes two fundamental motions, one is a whirling motion which only has a linear displacement and the other is a precession motion which only has an angular displacement. Accordingly, two types of fluid force moment are exerted on the rotor, the moment due to whirl and the moment due to precession. The main focus of the present paper is to clarify the contribution of each moment to the self-excited vibration of an overhung rotor. The runner was modeled by a disk and the whirl and the precession moments on the backshroud of the runner caused by the leakage flow were evaluated from the results of model tests conducted before. A lumped parameter model of a cantilevered rotor was used for the vibration analysis. By examining the frequency, the damping rate, the amplitude ratio of lateral and angular displacements for the cases with longer and shorter overhung rotor, it was found that the precession moment is more important for smaller overhung rotors and the whirl moment is more important for larger overhung rotors, although both types of moment due to the leakage flow can cause self-excited vibration of an overhung rotor.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.375-382
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• 2009

Hydraulic instability associated with pressure fluctuations is a serious problem in hydraulic machinery. Pressure fluctuations are usually a result of a strong vortex created in the centre of a flow at the outlet of a runner. At every radial turbine and also at every single regulating axial turbine, the draft tube vortex appears at part-load operating regimes. The consequences of the vortex developed in the draft tube are very unpleasant pressure pulsation, axial and radial forces and torque fluctuation as well as turbine structure vibration. The consequences of the vortex are transferred upstream and downstream with amplitude and frequency modulation in respect of the turbine operating regime, cavitation conditions and air admitted content. Numerical prediction of the vortex appearance in the design stage is a very important task. The amplitude of the pressure pulsation is different for each operating regime therefore the main goal of this research was to numerically predict pressure pulsation amplitude versus different guide vane openings and to compare the results with experimental ones. For the numerical flow analysis of a complete Francis turbine (FT), the computer code ANSYS-CFX11 has been used.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 2015

The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a new type of casing for the inline Francis hydro turbine. Comparing with the traditional turbine with spiral casing, this turbine is unique for its flow passage shape at the first stage of flow to the turbine, very similar to a pipe, called inline casing. Before the commercialization of this new type of casing, a global investigation of the inline casing must be conducted. Preserving the structural characteristics of simple, compact-size and convenient for manufacture, different shapes of the belt passage, vertical corner and stay vanes are applied to investigate the influence of flow passage shape on the turbine performance. Stable and relatively high efficiency is achieved regardless of flow passage shape difference proving the feasibility of the inline casing used in a hydro turbine.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2015

For a prototype turbine operating under part load conditions, the turbine output is fluctuating strongly, leading to the power station incapable of connecting to the grid. The field test of the prototype turbine shows that the main reason is the resonance between the draft tube vortex frequency and the generator natural vibration frequency. In order to reduce the fluctuation of power output, different measures including the air admission, water admission and adding flow deflectors in the draft tube are put forward. CFD method is adopted to simulate the three-dimensional unsteady flow in the Francis turbine, to calculate pressure fluctuations in draft tube under three schemes and to compare with the field test result of the prototype turbine. Calculation results show that all the three measures can reduce the pressure pulsation amplitude in the draft tube. The method of water supply and adding flow deflector both can effectively change the frequency and avoid resonance, thus solving the output fluctuation problem. However, the method of air admission could not change the pressure fluctuation frequency.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.353-362
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• 2009

In the process of turbine modernizations, the investigation of the influences of water passage roughness on radial flow machine performance is crucial and validates the efficiency step up between reduced scale model and prototype. This study presents the specific losses per component of a Francis turbine, which are estimated by CFD simulation. Simulations are performed for different water passage surface roughness heights, which represents the equivalent sand grain roughness height. As a result, the boundary layer logarithmic velocity profile still exists for rough walls, but moves closer to the wall. Consequently, the wall friction depends not only on roughness height but also on its shape and distribution. The specific losses are determined by CFD numerical simulations for each component of the prototype, taking into account its own specific sand grain roughness height. The model efficiency step up between reduced scale model and prototype value is finally computed by the assessment of specific losses on prototype and by evaluating specific losses for a reduced scale model with smooth walls. Furthermore, surveys of rough walls of each component were performed during the geometry recovery on the prototype and comparisons are made with experimental data from the EPFL Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines reduced scale model measurements. This study underlines that if rough walls are considered, the CFD approach estimates well the local friction loss coefficient. It is clear that by considering sand grain roughness heights in CFD simulations, its forms a significant part of the global performance estimation. The availability of the efficiency field measurements provides an unique opportunity to assess the CFD method in view of a systematic approach for turbine modernization step up evaluation. Moreover, this paper states that CFD is a very promising tool for future evaluation of turbine performance transposition from the scale model to the prototype.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.303-314
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• 2009

The present paper shows the results of numerical and experimental modal analyses of Francis runners, which were executed in air and in still water. In its first part this paper is focused on the numerical prediction of the model parameters by means of FEM and the validation of the FEM method. Influences of different geometries on modal parameters and frequency reduction ratio (FRR), which is the ratio of the natural frequencies in water and the corresponding natural frequencies in air, are investigated for two different runners, one prototype and one model runner. The results of the analyses indicate very good agreement between experiment and simulation. Particularly the frequency reduction ratios derived from simulation are found to agree very well with the values derived from experiment. In order to identify sensitivity of the structural properties several parameters such as material properties, different model scale and different hub geometries are numerically investigated. In its second part, a harmonic response analysis is shown for a Francis runner by applying the time dependent pressure distribution resulting from an unsteady CFD simulation to the mechanical structure. Thus, the data gained by modern CFD simulation are being fully utilized for the structural design based on life time analysis. With this new approach a more precise prediction of turbine loading and its effect on turbine life cycle is possible allowing better turbine designs to be developed.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.230-239
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• 2015

The swirling flow in the draft tube of a Francis turbine can cause the flow instability and the cavitation surge and has a larger influence on hydraulic power operating system. In this paper, the cavitating flow with swirling flow in the diffuser was studied by the draft tube component experiment, the model Francis turbine experiment and the numerical simulation. In the component experiment, several types of fluctuations were observed, including the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour by the swirling flow. While the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour were suppressed by the aeration into the diffuser, the loss coefficient in the diffuser increased by the aeration. In the model turbine test the aeration decreased the efficiency of the model turbine by several percent. In the numerical simulation, the cavitating flow was studied using Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) with particular emphasis on understanding the unsteady characteristics of the vortex rope structure. The generation and evolution of the vortex rope structures have been investigated throughout the diffuser using the iso-surface of vapor volume fraction. The pressure fluctuation in the diffuser by numerical simulation confirmed the cavitation surge observed in the experiment. Finally, this pressure fluctuation of the cavitation surge was examined and interpreted by CFD.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.300-301
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• 2005

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.17-40
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• 2005