• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.182-193
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• 2016

Introduction of intermittent electricity production systems like wind and solar power to electricity market together with the deregulation of electricity markets resulted in numerous start/stops, load variations and off-design operation of water turbines. Hydraulic turbines suffer from the varying loads exerted on their stationary and rotating parts during load variations since they are not designed for such operating conditions. Investigations on part load operation of single regulated turbines, i.e., Francis and propeller, proved the formation of a rotating vortex rope (RVR) in the draft tube. The RVR induces pressure pulsations in the axial and rotating directions called plunging and rotating modes, respectively. This results in oscillating forces with two different frequencies on the runner blades, bearings and other rotating parts of the turbine. This study investigates the effect of transient operations on the pressure fluctuations exerted on the runner and mechanism of the RVR formation/mitigation. Draft tube and runner blades of the Porjus U9 model, a Kaplan turbine, were equipped with pressure sensors for this purpose. The model was run in off-cam mode during different load variations. The results showed that the transients between the best efficiency point and the high load occurs in a smooth way. However, during transitions to the part load a RVR forms in the draft tube which induces high level of fluctuations with two frequencies on the runner; plunging and rotating mode. Formation of the RVR during the load rejections coincides with sudden pressure change on the runner while its mitigation occurs in a smooth way.

• Design & Manufacturing
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2020

In this study, the variation of the shrinkage in the thickness direction of the molded parts according to the gate size of the polymer core fabricated through the 3D printer using the SLS method was studied. The polymer cores are laser sintered and the powder material is nylon base PA2200. The polymer cores have lower heat transfer rate and rigidity than the metal core due to the characteristics of the material. Therefore, the injection molding test conditions are set to minimize the deformation of the core during the injection process. The resin used in the injection molding test is a PP material. The packing condition was set to 80, 90 and 100% of the maximum injection pressure for each gate size. The runner diameter used was ∅3mm, and the gates were fabricated in semicircle shapes with cross sections 1, 2, and 3 ㎟, respectively. Thickness measurement was performed for 10 points at 2.5 mm intervals from the point 2.5 mm away from the gate, and the shrinkage to thickness was measured for each point. The shrinkage rate according to the gate size tends to decrease as the cross-sectional area decreases as the maximum injection pressure increases. The average thickness shrinkage rate was close to 0% when the packing pressure was 90% for the gate area of 1mm2. When the holding pressure was set to 100%, the shrinkage was found to decrease by 3% from the standard dimension due to the over-packing phenomenon. Therefore, the smaller the gate, the more closely the molded dimensions can be molded due to the high pressure generation. It was confirmed that precise packing process control is necessary because over-packing phenomenon may occur.