13th European Conference on Turbomachinery Fluid dynamics & Thermodynamics

Paper ID:

ETC2019-381

Main Topic:

Hydraulics Machine

https://doi.org/10.29008/ETC2019-381

Authors

Joao Gomes Perreira Junior - Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines, EPFL
Arthur Favrel - Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines, EPFL
Christophe Nicolet - Power Vision Engineering Sàrl
François Avellan - Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines, EPFL

Abstract

While operating at part load, Francis turbines feature a precessing cavitation vortex rope in its draft tube. The precession of this vortex in the elbow of the draft tube acts as a pres-sure pulsation source which frequency can match the first hydroacoustic eigenfrequency of the hydraulic system in some cases. Resonance phenomenon can be predicted by using reduced scale physical model tests and numerical simulations, but it remains challenging. This paper proposes a procedure to estimate the risk of part load resonance at the early stage of a hydropower project. The proposed procedure uses the hydroacoustic properties of a given reduced scale physical model and applies them to a large number of turbine de-signs and power plant configurations to assess the risk of resonance for each one of them. Results show that resonance are likely to occur in hydropower plants in a certain range of turbine rated head and rated discharge values. These results can then indicate if more detailed investigations in some specific hydropower projects are necessary.



ETC2019-381




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