• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.182-193
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• 2016

Introduction of intermittent electricity production systems like wind and solar power to electricity market together with the deregulation of electricity markets resulted in numerous start/stops, load variations and off-design operation of water turbines. Hydraulic turbines suffer from the varying loads exerted on their stationary and rotating parts during load variations since they are not designed for such operating conditions. Investigations on part load operation of single regulated turbines, i.e., Francis and propeller, proved the formation of a rotating vortex rope (RVR) in the draft tube. The RVR induces pressure pulsations in the axial and rotating directions called plunging and rotating modes, respectively. This results in oscillating forces with two different frequencies on the runner blades, bearings and other rotating parts of the turbine. This study investigates the effect of transient operations on the pressure fluctuations exerted on the runner and mechanism of the RVR formation/mitigation. Draft tube and runner blades of the Porjus U9 model, a Kaplan turbine, were equipped with pressure sensors for this purpose. The model was run in off-cam mode during different load variations. The results showed that the transients between the best efficiency point and the high load occurs in a smooth way. However, during transitions to the part load a RVR forms in the draft tube which induces high level of fluctuations with two frequencies on the runner; plunging and rotating mode. Formation of the RVR during the load rejections coincides with sudden pressure change on the runner while its mitigation occurs in a smooth way.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.140-149
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• 2011

For a certain operating point of a horizontal shaft bulb turbine (i.e. volume flow, net head, blade angle, guide vane angle) the efficiency for different pressure levels (i.e. different Thoma-coefficient ${\sigma}$) is calculated using a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD-)-code including two-phase flow and a cavitation model. The results are compared with experimental results achieved at a closed loop test rig for model turbines. The comparison of the experimentally and numerically obtained efficiency and the visual impression of the cavitation show a good agreement. Especially the drop in efficiency is calculated with satisfying accuracy. This drop in efficiency in combination with the visual impression is of high practical importance since it contributes to determine the admissible cavitation in a bulb-turbine. It is seen that the incipient cavitation in Kaplan type turbines has no major importance in determing this admissible amount of cavitation.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.392-399
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• 2009

The paper concerns the description of the step by step development process of the new fixed blade runner called "Mixer" suitable for the uprating of the Francis turbines units installed at the older low head hydropower plants. In the paper the details of hydraulic and mechanical design are presented. Since the rotational speed of the new runner is significantly higher then the rotational speed of the original Francis one, the direct coupling of the turbine to the generator can be applied. The maximum efficiency at prescribed operational point was reached by the geometry optimization of two most important components. In the first step the optimization of the draft tube geometry was carried out. The condition for the draft tube geometry optimization was to design the new geometry of the draft tube within the original bad draft tube shape without any extensive civil works. The runner blade geometry optimization was carried out on the runner coupled with the draft tube domain. The blade geometry of the runner was optimized using automatic direct search optimization procedure. The method used for the objective function minimum search is a kind of the Nelder-Mead simplex method. The objective function concerns efficiency, required net head and cavitation features. After successful hydraulic design the modal and stress analysis was carried out on the prototype scale runner. The static pressure distribution from flow simulation was used as a load condition. The modal analysis in air and in water was carried out and the results were compared. The final runner was manufactured in model scale and it is going to be tested in hydraulic laboratory. Since the turbine with the fixed blade runner does not allow double regulation like in case of full Kaplan turbine, it can be profitably used mainly at power plants with smaller changes of operational conditions or in case with more units installed. The advantages are simple manufacturing, installation and therefore lower expenses and short delivery time for turbine uprating.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제64권5호
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• pp.689-693
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• 2015

Recently, many advanced countries are devoted to the development of eco-friendly new-renewable energy to prepare for the depletion of resources. Korea belongs to the absolute lack of energy to import from abroad 97% of energy use. So, development and supply of eco-friendly energy such as small hydro power has been required even more. Our country has a large number of small-sized reservoirs and dams. So, hydro generator has been installed at the small reservoirs and dams with the economy. Since the discharge flow of agricultural reservoir is not constant, the guide vane of wicket gate is used for adjusting the output of the generator.