• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.33-48
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• 2013

If large pressure fluctuation is observed in the draft tube of a Francis turbine at part-load operation, we have generally called it draft-tube-surge. As occurrence of this phenomenon seriously affects the limit of turbine operating range, extensive studies on the surge have been made since proposal of surge-frequency criterion given by Rheingans. According to the literature survey of related topics in recent IAHR symposiums on hydraulic machinery and systems, in which state-of-the-art contributions were mainly presented, a certain review of them may be desirable for an outlook on the future studies in this research field. Thus, in this review paper, the authors' previous attempts for the last three decades to challenge the following topics: a rational method for component test of a draft tube, nature of spiral vortex rope and its behavior in a draft tube and cavitation characteristics of pressure fluctuations, are introduced together with other related contributions, expecting that more useful and significant studies will be accomplished in the future.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.230-239
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• 2015

The swirling flow in the draft tube of a Francis turbine can cause the flow instability and the cavitation surge and has a larger influence on hydraulic power operating system. In this paper, the cavitating flow with swirling flow in the diffuser was studied by the draft tube component experiment, the model Francis turbine experiment and the numerical simulation. In the component experiment, several types of fluctuations were observed, including the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour by the swirling flow. While the cavitation surge and the vortex rope behaviour were suppressed by the aeration into the diffuser, the loss coefficient in the diffuser increased by the aeration. In the model turbine test the aeration decreased the efficiency of the model turbine by several percent. In the numerical simulation, the cavitating flow was studied using Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) with particular emphasis on understanding the unsteady characteristics of the vortex rope structure. The generation and evolution of the vortex rope structures have been investigated throughout the diffuser using the iso-surface of vapor volume fraction. The pressure fluctuation in the diffuser by numerical simulation confirmed the cavitation surge observed in the experiment. Finally, this pressure fluctuation of the cavitation surge was examined and interpreted by CFD.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.179-190
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• 2011

The swirling flow developing in Francis turbine draft tube under part load operation leads to pressure fluctuations usually in the range of 0.2 to 0.4 times the runner rotational frequency resulting from the so-called vortex breakdown. For low cavitation number, the flow features a cavitation vortex rope animated with precession motion. Under given conditions, these pressure fluctuations may lead to undesirable pressure fluctuations in the entire hydraulic system and also produce active power oscillations. For the upper part load range, between 0.7 and 0.85 times the best efficiency discharge, pressure fluctuations may appear in a higher frequency range of 2 to 4 times the runner rotational speed and feature modulations with vortex rope precession. It has been pointed out that for this particular operating point, the vortex rope features elliptical cross section and is animated of a self-rotation. This paper presents an experimental investigation focusing on this peculiar phenomenon, defined as the upper part load vortex rope. The experimental investigation is carried out on a high specific speed Francis turbine scale model installed on a test rig of the EPFL Laboratory for Hydraulic Machines. The selected operating point corresponds to a discharge of 0.83 times the best efficiency discharge. Observations of the cavitation vortex carried out with high speed camera have been recorded and synchronized with pressure fluctuations measurements at the draft tube cone. First, the vortex rope self rotation frequency is evidenced and the related frequency is deduced. Then, the influence of the sigma cavitation number on vortex rope shape and pressure fluctuations is presented. The waterfall diagram of the pressure fluctuations evidences resonance effects with the hydraulic circuit. The influence of outlet bubble cavitation and air injection is also investigated for low cavitation number. The time evolution of the vortex rope volume is compared with pressure fluctuations time evolution using image processing. Finally, the influence of the Froude number on the vortex rope shape and the associated pressure fluctuations is analyzed by varying the rotational speed.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.375-382
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• 2009

Hydraulic instability associated with pressure fluctuations is a serious problem in hydraulic machinery. Pressure fluctuations are usually a result of a strong vortex created in the centre of a flow at the outlet of a runner. At every radial turbine and also at every single regulating axial turbine, the draft tube vortex appears at part-load operating regimes. The consequences of the vortex developed in the draft tube are very unpleasant pressure pulsation, axial and radial forces and torque fluctuation as well as turbine structure vibration. The consequences of the vortex are transferred upstream and downstream with amplitude and frequency modulation in respect of the turbine operating regime, cavitation conditions and air admitted content. Numerical prediction of the vortex appearance in the design stage is a very important task. The amplitude of the pressure pulsation is different for each operating regime therefore the main goal of this research was to numerically predict pressure pulsation amplitude versus different guide vane openings and to compare the results with experimental ones. For the numerical flow analysis of a complete Francis turbine (FT), the computer code ANSYS-CFX11 has been used.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.618-626
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• 2012

Suppression of abnormal flow phenomena in the Francis hydro turbine is very important to improve the turbine performance. Especially, as cavitation and cavitation surge makes serious problems when the turbine is operated in the range of partial flow rate, optimum method of suppressing the abnormal flow characteristics is required necessarily. Moreover, as swirl flow in the draft tube of the Francis turbine decreases pressure at the inlet of the draft tube, suppression of the swirl flow can be an useful method of suppressing the occurrence of cavitation. In order to clarifying the possibility of suppressing the swirl flow by J-Groove in the draft tube, a series of CFD analysis has been conducted in the range of partial load, designed condition and excessive flow rate of a Francis turbine. A kind of J-Groove is designed and applied to the draft tube of the Francis hydro turbine model. The pressure contours, circumferential velocity vectors and vortex core regions in the draft tube are compared by the conditions with or without J-Groove. In addition, a group of data about the velocity in the draft is presented to show the influence of J-Groove.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2015

For a prototype turbine operating under part load conditions, the turbine output is fluctuating strongly, leading to the power station incapable of connecting to the grid. The field test of the prototype turbine shows that the main reason is the resonance between the draft tube vortex frequency and the generator natural vibration frequency. In order to reduce the fluctuation of power output, different measures including the air admission, water admission and adding flow deflectors in the draft tube are put forward. CFD method is adopted to simulate the three-dimensional unsteady flow in the Francis turbine, to calculate pressure fluctuations in draft tube under three schemes and to compare with the field test result of the prototype turbine. Calculation results show that all the three measures can reduce the pressure pulsation amplitude in the draft tube. The method of water supply and adding flow deflector both can effectively change the frequency and avoid resonance, thus solving the output fluctuation problem. However, the method of air admission could not change the pressure fluctuation frequency.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.295-302
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• 2009

The flow in the draft tube cone of Francis turbines operated at partial discharge is a complex hydrodynamic phenomenon where an incoming steady axisymmetric swirling flow evolves into a three-dimensional unsteady flow field with precessing helical vortex (also called vortex rope) and associated pressure fluctuations. The paper addresses the following fundamental question: is it possible to compute the circumferentially averaged flow field induced by the precessing vortex rope by using an axisymmetric turbulent swirling flow model? In other words, instead of averaging the measured or computed 3D velocity and pressure fields we would like to solve directly the circumferentially averaged governing equations. As a result, one could use a 2D axi-symmetric model instead of the full 3D flow simulation, with huge savings in both computing time and resources. In order to answer this question we first compute the axisymmetric turbulent swirling flow using available solvers by introducing a stagnant region model (SRM), essentially enforcing a unidirectional circumferentially averaged meridian flow as suggested by the experimental data. Numerical results obtained with both models are compared against measured axial and circumferential velocity profiles, as well as for the vortex rope location. Although the circumferentially averaged flow field cannot capture the unsteadiness of the 3D flow, it can be reliably used for further stability analysis, as well as for assessing and optimizing various techniques to stabilize the swirling flow. In particular, the methodology presented and validated in this paper is particularly useful in optimizing the blade design in order to reduce the stagnant region extent, thus mitigating the vortex rope and expending the operating range for Francis turbines.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.197-208
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• 2017

When Francis turbines operate at partial load, residual swirl in the draft tube causes low-frequency pulsation of pressure and power output. Scale effects and system response may bias the prediction of prototype behavior based on laboratory tests, but could be overcome by means of a 1D analytical model. This paper deals with the two most important features of such a model, the compliance and the source of excitation. In a distributed-parameter version, compliance should be represented as an exponential function of local pressure. Lack of similarity due to different Froude number can thus be compensated. The normally unknown gas content in the vortex cavity has significant influence on the pulsation, and should therefore be measured and considered as a test parameter.

• 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.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.13-18
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• 2009

In this paper, it is intended to figure out the features and causes of the processes of creation, growth and disappearance of spiral-vortex-flow generated in Francis turbines generally. The spiral-vortex-flow generated in draft tubes of the Francis turbines is estimated to have negative effects on power plant structure and to the people inside the building as well as to lead to a low-frequency-vibration driven by sub-synchronous whirl vibration. Therefore, we intend to investigate how much the low-frequency-vibration has an influence upon the powerhouse structure and practice analyzing the effectiveness on the previously-introduced methods to reduce side-effects of sub-synchronous whirl vibration and finally we intend to show the optimal solutions through this paper.