• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2833-2838
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• 2007

Recently, small hydropower attracts attention because of its clean, renewable and abundant energy resources to develop. However, suitable turbine type is not determined yet in the range of small hydropower and it is necessary to study for the effective turbine type. Moreover, relatively high manufacturing cost by the complex structure of the turbine is the highest barrier for developing the small hydropower turbine. Therefore, a cross-flow turbine is adopted because of its simple structure and high possibility of applying to small hydropower. The purpose of this study is to examine the optimum configuration of nozzle shape to further optimize the cross-flow hydraulic turbine structure and to improve the performance. The results show that pressure on the runner blade in Stage 1 and velocity at nozzle outlet have close relation to the turbine performance.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.243-254
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• 2011

In the present paper, we focus on the flow computation of a low head Propeller turbine at a wide range of design and off-design operating conditions. First, we will present the results on the efficiency hill chart prediction of the Propeller turbine and discuss the consequences of using non-homologous blade geometries for the CFD simulation. The flow characteristics of the entire turbine will be also investigated and compared with experimental data at different measurement planes. Two operating conditions are selected, the first one at the best efficiency point and the second one at part load condition. At the same time, for the same selected operating points, the numerical results for the entire turbine simulation will be compared with flow simulation with our standard stage calculation approach which includes only guide vane, runner and draft tube geometries.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.151-159
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• 2014

Low head hydropower is one of realistic renewable energies. The Darrieus-type hydro turbine with an inlet nozzle is available for such low head conditions because of its simple structure with easy maintenance. Experimental and numerical studies are carried out in order to examine the effects of gap distances between the runner pitch circle and two edges of inlet nozzle on turbine performances. By selecting narrower gaps of left and right edges, the performance could be improved. From the results of two dimensional numerical simulations, the relation between the performance and flow behaviors around the Darrieus blade are discussed to obtain the guideline of appropriate inlet nozzle design.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.379-382
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• 2008

The propeller type hydro turbine model with vertical axis has been tested and analized. The blade angle of runner of turbine model were designed to be varied according to the condition of head and flowrate. When the changes in head and output were comparatively large, the efficiency drop were small, so the efficiency characteristics and stability of the entire operating condition were maintained in good condition. These results showed that the developed model in this study will be suitable for small hydro power stations with large changes in head and load such as sewage treatment plants and agricultural reservoirs.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.169-182
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• 2015

When simulating the dynamic behaviour of a hydro power plant, it is essential to have a good representation of the turbine behaviour. The pressure transients in the system occurs because the flow changes, which the turbine defines. The flow through the turbine is a function of the pressure, the speed of rotation and the wicket gate opening and is, most often described in a performance diagram or Hill diagram. In the Hill diagram, the efficiency is drawn like contour lines, hence the name. A turbines Hill diagram is obtained by performance tests on scaled model in a laboratory. However, system dynamic simulations have to be performed in the early stage of a project, before the turbine manufacturer has been chosen and the Hill diagram is known. Therefore one have to rely on diagrams for a turbine with similar speed number. The Hill diagram is drawn through measured points, so for using the diagram in a simulation program, one have to iterate in the diagram based on curve fitting of the measured points. This paper describes an alternative method. By means of the Euler turbine equation, it is possible to set up two differential equations which represents the turbine performance with good enough accuracy for the dynamic simulations. The only input is the turbine's main geometry, the runner blade in- and outlet angle and the guide vane angle at best efficiency point of operation (BEP). In the paper, simulated turbine characteristics for a high head Francis turbine, and for a reversible pump turbine are compared with laboratory measured characteristics.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.101-109
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• 2014

Sediment erosion is one of the key challenges in hydraulic turbines from a design and maintenance perspective in Himalayas. The present study focuses on choosing the best design in terms of blade angle distribution of a Francis turbine runner which has least erosion effect without influencing the efficiency and the structural integrity. A fully coupled Fluid-Structure-Interaction (FSI) analysis was performed through a multi-field solver, which showed that the maximum stress induced in the optimized design for better sediment handling, is less than that induced in the reference design. Some numerical validation techniques have been shown for both CFD and FSI analysis.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.19-25
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• 2015

As a core component of a hydropower station, hydro turbines play a vital role in the integration of a power station. Research on the technology of hydro turbine is continuously increasing with the development of water electricity. On the basis of one-dimensional loss analysis, for three-dimension design, there are a lot of dimension of the internal flow passage shapes that are determined by experience. Therefore, the effect of the internal flow passage shapes on the performance and internal flow characteristics of a Francis hydro turbine model is investigated in this study. In this study, the small curvature of runner blade trailing edge shape is good for improving the efficiency of Francis turbine. The straight stay vane leading edge is good for suppressing the secondary flow. Moreover, suitable tongue passage shape and stay vane number improve the performance of the turbine considerably.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.42-53
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• 2014

Phase resonance in Francis type hydraulic turbine is studied. The phase resonance is a phenomenon that the pressure fluctuation in the penstock of hydraulic turbine installation can become very large when the pressure waves from each guide vane caused by the interaction with the runner vane reach the penstock with the same phase. Experimental and numerical studies have been carried out using a centrifugal fan. In the present study, comparisons between the pump mode and the turbine mode operations are made. The experimental and numerical results show that the rotational direction of the rotor does not affect characteristics of the pressure fluctuation but the propagation direction of the rotorstator interaction mode plays an important role. Flow rate fluctuations through the stator are examined numerically. It has been found that the blade passing flow rate fluctuation component can be evaluated by the difference of the fluctuating pressure at the inlet and the outlet of the stator. The amplitude of the blade passage component of the pressure fluctuation is greater at the stator inlet than the one at the stator outlet. The rotor-stator interaction mode component is almost identical at the inlet and the outlet of the stator. It was demonstrated that the pressure fluctuation in the volute and connecting pipe normalized by the flow rate fluctuation becomes the same for pump and turbine mode operations, and depends on the rotational direction on the interaction mode.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.10-14
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• 2013

In this study, we have numerically investigated the hydraulic efficiency with various values of discharge angle($11^{\circ}$, $12^{\circ}$, $14^{\circ}$, $15^{\circ}$, $17^{\circ}$, $18^{\circ}$, $20^{\circ}$) in the Francis turbine of hydropower generation under 15MW with fixed values of head range of 151m and flow rate($10.97m^3/s$). We also conducted the numerical analysis with constant inlet angle in the Francis turbine using the commercial code, ANSYS CFX. Hydraulic characteristics for different values of the runner blade angle are investigated. The results showed that the change of discharge angles significantly influenced on the performance of the turbine hydraulic efficiency.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 1998.02a
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• pp.11-28
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• 1998

Crack initiation and propagation of blades is a serious matter in turbomachinery. Outages are common due to these problems that occur during the service of the machine resulting in a huge loss of revenue. Once in a while, the problems become serious and cause major shutdowns which can in some cases result in the loss of the whole machine in a catastrophic manner. In this presentation, we will discuss the crack initiation studies of a hydraulic machine runner blade by local stress strain approach and crack propagation at the root of a low pressure stage steam turbine blade by means of stress intensity factor approach. In both the cases, we will show how the present day technologies can predict actual field observations.