• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.397-402
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• 2016

This study presents the performance characteristics of a small Francis turbine with an inline casing and is a continuation of a previous study. A new runner design has been implemented using the previous facility. The specific speed of the new runner has been modified from $N_s$ 80 to $N_s$ $100m-kW-min^{-1}$. This turbine can be installed in a city water supply system. To dissipate excess pressures in the water line system an inline-turbine can be used instead of an inline-pressure reducing valve. Thus, some of the energy can be recovered by utilizing the pressure difference. For best applicability and minimal space consumption, the turbine is designed with an inline casing instead of a common spiral casing. As a characteristic of inline casing, the flow accesses to the runner are in the radial direction, showing low efficiency. The installation of vanes improves the internal flow and positively affects the output power. In contrast to the previous study, the new runner reduces the effect of the stay vanes by maintaining a higher efficiency.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.363-374
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• 2009

The 2D flow around 13 similar stay-vane profiles with different trailing edge geometries is investigated to determinate the main characteristics of the excitation forces for each one of them and their respective dynamic behaviors when modeled as a free-oscillating system. The main goal is avoid problems with cracks of hydraulic turbines components. A stay vane profile with a history of cracks was selected as the basis for this work. The commercial finite-volume code $FLUENT^{(R)}$ was employed in the simulations of the stationary profiles and, then, modified to take into account the transversal motion of elastically mounted profiles with equivalent structural stiffness and damping. The k-$\omega$ SST turbulence model is employed in all simulations and a deforming mesh technique used for models with profile motion. The static-model simulations were carried out for each one of the 13 geometries using a constant far field flow velocity value in order to determine the lift force oscillating frequency and amplitude as a function of the geometry. The free-oscillating stay-vane simulations were run with a low mass-damping parameter ($m^*{\xi}=0.0072$) and a single mean flow velocity value (5m/s). The structural bending stiffness of the stay-vane is defined by the Reduced Velocity parameter (Vr). The dynamic analyses were divided into two sets. The first set of simulations was carried out only for one profile with $2{\leq}Vr{\leq}12$. The second set of simulations focused on determining the behavior of each one of the 13 profiles in resonance.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.36-42
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• 2015

This is a study about one of the most widely used hydro machinery all over the world - pump-turbine. The system has an impeller which pumps water to an upper reservoir during the night and the same impeller acts as a runner for turbine mode during the day for providing stable electrical power to the grid. The internal flow analysis is investigated in this study to help understand how the water passes through the passage of the vanes and blades, providing the designer with useful information on the behavior of recirculation flows which could reduce the efficiency of the pump-turbine. The 100 kW pump-turbine model has H = 32 m, $Q=0.336m^3/s$ and $N=1200min^{-1}$. For this study there are 7 blades, 19 stay vanes and 20 guide vanes. From this study, it was observed that this pump-turbine design showed very good internal flow characteristics with no flow separation and no recirculation flows in normal operation mode.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.49-55
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• 2015

The pumped storage plant operates with quick change of the discharge as well as quick changes between pump mode and turbine mode. This study focuses on the cavitation analysis of a pump-turbine model because in turbo-machinery, cavitation can reduce the performance and shorten service life. The pump-turbine model system consists of 7 blades, 20 stay vanes (including tongue) and 20 guide vanes. This study adopts the Rayleigh-Plesset model as a cavitation model, which illustrates cavitation by using the air volume fraction method. The pump mode and turbine mode at the operating condition of partial loading, normal and excessive loading are analyzed to investigate the cavitation performance of the pump-turbine. It was observed that this pump-turbine design showed very good cavitation characteristics with no cavitation bubbles in all operating conditions. Overall value of air volume fraction of both mode at different operating condition are lower than 1, which confirms low possibility of cavitation occurrence at current situation.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.38 no.10
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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.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2006.08a
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• pp.53-56
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• 2006

The hydraulic performances of a Francis turbine which had been designed and tested by IMHEF were calculated with a commercial code and compared with the IMHEF test results. The non-dimensional specific speed of the turbine is 0.5, the runner exit diameter 0.4m and maximum efficiency 93.1% respectively. To make the calculation of the turbine more exact, the stay vanes, the guide vane, the runner and the draft tube were calculated simultaneously. The calculation results gave a quite good agreement with the IMHEF test data, and therefore it is expected that the present calculation technique will be utilized for the hydraulic design of efficient Francis turbines.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.561-566
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• 2011

In this paper, 1-D design of axial flow hydraulic turbine including runner blades, spiral casing with distributors(guide vanes and stay vane), and draft tube was conducted and then 3-D flow analysis was carried out using CFX-12.1. The results of 3 runners showed that with an increase in the number of blades, the flow rate and the power of the turbine system increased. On the other hand. the runner loss was not directly connected with the number of blades. As a result, proper blade number could be selected and more than 100kW small hydraulic turbine could be designed.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.278-285
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• 2009

Operational modal analysis (OMA) allows modal parameters, such as natural frequencies and damping, to be estimated solely from data collected during operation. However, a main shortcoming of these methods resides in the evaluation of the accuracy of the results. This paper will explore the uncertainty and possible variations in the estimates of modal parameters for different operating conditions. Two algorithms based on the Least Square Complex Exponential (LSCE) method will be used to estimate the modal parameters. The uncertainties will be calculated using a Monte-Carlo approach with the hypothesis of constant modal parameters at a given operating condition. In collaboration with Andritz-Hydro Ltd, data collected on two different stay vanes from an Andritz-Hydro Ltd Francis turbine will be used. This paper will present an overview of the procedure and the results obtained.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.2
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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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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.154-163
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• 2017

Performance characteristics in pump mode of pump-turbines are vital for the safe and effective operation of pumped storage power plants. However, the head characteristics are different under different guide vane openings. In this paper, 3-D steady simulations were performed under 13mm, 19mm and 25mm guide vane openings. Three groups of operating points under the three GVOs were chosen based on experimental validation to investigate the influence of guide vane setting on flow patterns upstream and downstream. The results reveal that, the guide vane setting will obviously change the flow pattern downstream, which in turn influences the flow upstream. It shows a strong effect on hydraulic loss (power dissipation) in the guide and stay vanes. It is also found that the hydraulic loss mainly comes from the flow separation and vortices. In addition, in some operating conditions, the change of guide vane opening will change the flow angle at the runner inlet and outlet, which will change the Euler momentum (power input). The joint action of Euler momentum and hydraulic loss results in the change of the head characteristics.