Computational Methods in Research of Hydraulic Turbines Operating In Challenging Environments

Design of hydraulic turbines involves several stages of iterative calculations. The operational challenges of these turbines are unique to each site conditions. This makes the R&D of the hydraulic turbines a complicated and time consuming work. Recent advancements in computational tools and processors have added advantages to the R&D process of hydraulic turbines. These tools are able not only to compute solutions for the complex design equations but also provide the user friendly virtual environment for performance test and design optimization. This study is conducted tosimulate the design and operational problems of Francis and Pelton turbines by the application of computational tools. A new program is developed to optimize designs of Francis runners for sediment erosion problems and CFD analysis of some new design conditions is done. True size Pelton runner model is developed by using SolidWorksfor stress and fatigue analysis by using CosmosWorksin its operating conditions. It was found that numerical models are capable to simulate the design and operational problems in hydro turbines. The computational tools can also suggest the design optimization needed to minimize these problems. It was observed that sediment erosion in Francis turbines can be reduced up to 50% by optimizing the hydraulic design.