• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.85-96
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• 2011

Steady state computations are routinely used by design engineers to evaluate and compare losses in hydraulic components. In the case of the draft tube diffuser, however, experiments have shown that while a significant number of operating conditions can adequately be evaluated using steady state computations, a few operating conditions require unsteady simulations to accurately evaluate losses. This paper presents a study that assesses the predictive capacity of a combination of steady and unsteady RANS numerical computations to predict draft tube losses over the complete range of operation of a Francis turbine. For the prediction of the draft tube performance using k-${\varepsilon}$ turbulence model, a methodology has been proposed to average global performance indicators of steady flow computations such as the pressure recovery factor over an adequate number of periods to obtain correct results. The methodology will be validated using two distinct flow solvers, CFX and OpenFOAM, and through a systematic comparison with experimental results obtained on the FLINDT model draft tube.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.264-273
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• 2015

This presentation describes an experimental approach for the detection of cavitation in hydraulic machines by use of ultrasonic signal analysis. Instead of using the high frequency pulses (typically 1MHz) only for transit time measurement different other signal characteristics are extracted from the individual signals and its correlation function with reference signals in order to gain knowledge of the water conditions. As the pulse repetition rate is high (typically 100Hz), statistical parameters can be extracted of the signals. The idea is to find patterns in the parameters by a classifier that can distinguish between the different water states. This classification scheme has been applied to different cavitation sections: a sphere in a water flow in circular tube at the HSLU in Lucerne, a NACA profile in a cavitation tunnel and two Francis model test turbines all at LMH in Lausanne. From the signal raw data several statistical parameters in the time and frequency domain as well as from the correlation function with reference signals have been determined. As classifiers two methods were used: neural feed forward networks and decision trees. For both classification methods realizations with lowest complexity as possible are of special interest. It is shown that two to three signal characteristics, two from the signal itself and one from the correlation function are in many cases sufficient for the detection capability. The final goal is to combine these results with operating point, vibration, acoustic emission and dynamic pressure information such that a distinction between dangerous and not dangerous cavitation is possible.

• 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.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.400-408
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• 2009

Optimization of seal geometries can reduce significantly the energetic losses in a hydraulic seal [1], especially for high head runner turbine. In the optimization process, a reliable prediction of the losses is needed and CFD is often used. This paper presents numerical experiments to determine an adequate CFD model for straight, labyrinth and stepped hydraulic seals used in Francis runners. The computation is performed with a finite volume commercial CFD code with a RANS low Reynolds turbulence model. As numerical computations in small radial clearances of hydraulic seals are not often encountered in the literature, the numerical results are validated with experimental data on straight seals and labyrinth seals. As the validation is satisfactory enough, geometrical optimization of hydraulic seals using CFD will be studied in future works.