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http://dx.doi.org/10.5293/IJFMS.2015.8.4.294

Selection of Optimal Number of Francis Runner Blades for a Sediment Laden Micro Hydropower Plant in Nepal  

Baidar, Binaya (Turbine Testing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University)
Chitrakar, Sailesh (Turbine Testing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University)
Koirala, Ravi (Turbine Testing Lab, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University)
Neopane, Hari Prasad (Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University)
Publication Information
International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems / v.8, no.4, 2015 , pp. 294-303 More about this Journal
Abstract
The present study is conducted to identify a better design and optimal number of Francis runner blades for sediment laden high head micro hydropower site, Tara Khola in the Baglung district of Nepal. The runner is designed with in-house code and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is performed to evaluate the performance with three configurations; 11, 13 and 17 numbers of runner blades. The three sets of runners were also investigated for the sediment erosion tendency. The runner with 13 blades shows better performance at design as well as in variable discharge conditions. 96.2% efficiency is obtained from the runner with 13 blades at the design point, and the runners with 17 and 11 blades have 88.25% and 76.63% efficiencies respectively. Further, the runner with 13 blades has better manufacturability than the runner with 17 blades as it has long and highly curved blade with small gaps between the blades, but it comes with 65% more erosion tendency than in the runner with 17 blades.
Keywords
CFD; Francis turbine; Sediment erosion; Efficiency; Performance; Optimum number of blades;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 3  (Citation Analysis)
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