• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제10권3호
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• pp.287-295
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• 2017

The most detrimental pressure pulsations in high-head pump-turbines is caused by the rotor-stator interaction (RSI) between the guide vanes and runner blades. When the pump-turbine operates in the S-shaped region of the characteristic curves, the deteriorative flow structures may significantly strengthen RSI, causing larger pressure pulsations and stronger vibration with an increased risk of mechanical failure. CFD simulations were carried out to analyze the impacts of flow evolution on the pressure pulsations in the S-shaped region of a model pump-turbine. The results show that the reverse flow vortex structures (RFVS) at the runner inlet have regular development and transition patterns when discharge reduces from the best efficiency point (BEP). The RFVS first occur at the hub side, and then shift to the mid-span near the no-load point, which cause the strongest pressure pulsations. The locally distributed RFVS at hub side enhance the local RSI and makes the pressure fluctuations at the corresponding sections stronger than those at the rest sections along the spanwise direction. Under the condition of RFVS at the mid-span, the smaller flow rate make the smaller difference of pressure pulsation amplitudes in the spanwise direction. Moreover, the rotating stall, rotating at 35.7%-62.5% of the runner rotational frequency, make the low frequency components of pressure pulsations distribute unevenly along the circumference in the vaneless space. However, it have little influence on the distributions of high components.

• 전력전자학회:학술대회논문집
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• 전력전자학회 2006년도 전력전자학술대회 논문집
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• pp.534-535
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• 2006

This study attempts to develope the micro-turbine generators 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 micro turbine generator of a new concept was designed based on changable design conditions, hydrodynamics and theory of power transmission.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.174-182
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• 2014

The ultimate objective of this study is to develop a water turbine appropriate for low-head open channels to effectively utilize the unused hydropower energy of rivers and agricultural waterways. The application of a cross-flow runner to open channels as an undershot water turbine has been considered and, to this end, a significant simplification was attained by removing the turbine casing. However, the flow field of an undershot cross-flow water turbine possesses free surfaces, and, as a result, the water depth around the runner changes with variation in the rotational speed such that the flow field itself is significantly altered. Thus, clear understanding of the flow fields observed with free surfaces to improve the performance of this turbine is necessary. In this study, the performance of this turbine and the flow field were evaluated through experiments and numerical analysis. The particle image velocimetry technique was used for flow measurements. The experimental results reflecting the performance of this turbine and the flow field were consistent with numerical analysis. In addition, the flow fields at the inlet and outlet regions at the first and second stages of this water turbine were clarified.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제2권4호
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• pp.392-399
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• 2009

The paper concerns the description of the step by step development process of the new fixed blade runner called "Mixer" suitable for the uprating of the Francis turbines units installed at the older low head hydropower plants. In the paper the details of hydraulic and mechanical design are presented. Since the rotational speed of the new runner is significantly higher then the rotational speed of the original Francis one, the direct coupling of the turbine to the generator can be applied. The maximum efficiency at prescribed operational point was reached by the geometry optimization of two most important components. In the first step the optimization of the draft tube geometry was carried out. The condition for the draft tube geometry optimization was to design the new geometry of the draft tube within the original bad draft tube shape without any extensive civil works. The runner blade geometry optimization was carried out on the runner coupled with the draft tube domain. The blade geometry of the runner was optimized using automatic direct search optimization procedure. The method used for the objective function minimum search is a kind of the Nelder-Mead simplex method. The objective function concerns efficiency, required net head and cavitation features. After successful hydraulic design the modal and stress analysis was carried out on the prototype scale runner. The static pressure distribution from flow simulation was used as a load condition. The modal analysis in air and in water was carried out and the results were compared. The final runner was manufactured in model scale and it is going to be tested in hydraulic laboratory. Since the turbine with the fixed blade runner does not allow double regulation like in case of full Kaplan turbine, it can be profitably used mainly at power plants with smaller changes of operational conditions or in case with more units installed. The advantages are simple manufacturing, installation and therefore lower expenses and short delivery time for turbine uprating.