• 한국유체기계학회 논문집
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• 제16권4호
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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.

• 한국유체기계학회 논문집
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• 제18권2호
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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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• 제2권4호
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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.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제38권10호
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• pp.1225-1231
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• 2014

This paper presents the performance characteristic of a Francis hydro turbine with an inline casing. This turbine is designed for city water supply system. Due to large changes in ground elevation with high points and low points, some systems may experience larger-than-normal required pressures in areas with low ground elevations. One way to dissipate these excess pressures is by the use of an inline-turbine instead of an inline-pressure reducing valve. For best applicability and minimal space consumption, the turbine is designed with an inline casing instead of the common spiral casing. As a characteristic of inline casing, the flow accesses to the runner in the radial direction, showing a low efficiency. The installation of vanes improves the internal flow and gives the positive encouragement to the output power. For the power transmission to the outside of the turbine casing from the runner axis, a belt passage is designed in the inline casing, as its influence, the region after the belt passage shows a relatively low output power. The clearance gap in the runner side space is considered, in which a small volume of flow is contracted into the clearance gap, forming the leakage flow. The leakage flow leads to a decrease in the efficiency.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제2권4호
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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.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• 제1권1호
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• pp.105-108
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• 2015

A digital Governor (GOV) has been developed for being used for a Francis hydro turbine, and the validity of the GOV has been tested. As for the hardware system for the GOV, we purchased a basic digital control system that already had proven its reliability in the power industry. We developed a set of new GOV software and integrated it with the hardware system, and finally verified the performance of the whole GOV system. For the human-machine interface (HMI), we configured and implemented appropriate graphic interfaces for the turbine operations. This paper describes the major GOV control functions, approaches we took in developing the GOV control logics, and the validity tests and the results.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제8권3호
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• pp.155-168
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• 2015

No-load speed is an important performance factor for the safe operation of hydropower systems. In turbine design, the manufacturers must conduct several model tests to calculate the accurate value of no-load speed for the complete range of operating conditions, which are expensive and time-consuming. The present study presents steady and unsteady methods for calculating no-load speed of a Francis turbine. The steady simulations are implemented using a commercial flow solver and an iterative algorithm that relies on a smooth relation between turbine torque and speed factor. The unsteady method uses unsteady RANS simulations that have been integrated with a user subroutine to compute and return the value of runner speed, time step and friction torque. The main goal of this research is to evaluate and compare the two methods by calculating turbine dynamic parameters for three test cases consisting of high and medium head Francis turbines. Overall, the numerical results agreed well with experimental data. The unsteady method provided more accurate results in the opening angle range from 20 to 26 degrees. Nevertheless, the steady results showed more consistency than unsteady results for the three different test cases at different operating conditions.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2005년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.687-689
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• 2005

Francis turbine of commercial small hydro -power plants under 10kw which is investigate a flow characterist and an efficiency in the research which it sees, the problem and an improvement is investigate. In the research which it is simply model with casing, guide-vane, runner, draft tube for simulation numerical analysis of small-sized Francis turbine. model uses the Gambit and it composes with approximately 800,000 nonuniform lattices. Solutions are investigate the hydraulic characteristics against an outward angle of guide vane, the number of guide vane, head(inlet velocity) by using FLUENT which is a commercial business code.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2005년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.690-692
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• 2005

Among many other alternative energy resources, small scale hydropower has been brought into attention as a reliable source of energy today, which had been relatively neglected since 1960s. Present low head of Francis turbines and small scale hydro turbines, however, have limitations in the minimum required head and flow rate for efficient operation. This study attempts to develope the Francis turbine which is expected to run efficiently even in very low head and small flow rate, so that the limitations on the conventional small scale hydropower could be alleviated and competition with other alternative energy sources in the changable design conditions could be attained. The Francis turbine of a new concept was designed based on changable design conditions, hydrodynamics and theory of power transmission.

• 한국마린엔지니어링학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국마린엔지니어링학회 2012년도 전기공동학술대회 논문집
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• pp.151-151
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• 2012