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Numerical Simulation of Pressure Fluctuations in a Large Francis Turbine Runner
WANG Fujun 1, *, LIAO Cuilin 2 , and TANG Xuelin 1
1 College of Water Conservancy & Civil Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
2 China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Abstract: The pressure fluctuation caused by unsteady flow in runner is one of the main reasons of vibration for a large Francis hydraulic
turbine. It directly affects the steady operation of the hydraulic turbine unit. The existing research of the pressure fluctuation in hydraulic
turbine mainly focuses on the unsteady flow in draft tube. Accurate distribution of pressure fluctuations inside a runner is not very clear. In
this paper, the numerical method for predicting the pressure fluctuations in runner is investigated and the numerical simulation is performed
for a large Francis hydraulic turbine. It is proved that the combination of shearstress transport (SST) kw turbulence model and pressure
implicit with splitting of operators (PISO) algorithm could give more reliable prediction of pressure fluctuations in runner. The frequencies
of pressure fluctuations in runner are affected by the flow in guide vane and the flow in draft tube. The first dominant frequency is
significantly determined by the flow in draft tube, especially at part load condition. This frequency is approximately equal to onethird of the
runner rotating frequency. The evident second dominant frequency is exactly equal to the guide vane passing frequency. The peaktopeak
amplitudes of pressure fluctuations in runner at small guide vane open angle are larger than that at large open angle at the same operating
head. The amplitudes at points on blade pressure surface are generally greater than that on suction surface. The research results could be used
to direct the hydraulic design and operation stability improvement of a large Francis hydraulic turbine.
indicated that the flow details in hydraulic turbine are well
1 Introduction simulated. The authors also did similar research work by
numerical and experimental approaches in large hydraulic
Francis turbines usually experience unsteady pressure turbines [4–5] .
fluctuations, especially at partial loads. The pressure However, until now, most investigations in this field have
fluctuation is becoming more severe in large turbine units, been mainly focused on the pressure pulsation induced by the
and may cause the parts to flaw or even break, which vortex rope in draft tube [6] . Prototype test and experimental
substantially influences the steadiness of hydraulic turbine measurements of pressure fluctuation in runner are difficult
operation [1] . to carry out and cost too much since flow paths are rotating
Much attention has been occupied by these issues. with the runner, transducer cannot be easily installed [7–8] . The
Experimental and numerical methods are employed to study pressure pulsation in runner of a large Francis turbine usually
the unsteady feature. RUPRECHT, et al [2] , compared could not be obtained by similarity law from model test [9] .
numerical results with experimental data from model tests to Therefore, numerical simulation is a good way to predict
show that the amplitudes and frequencies in draft tube agreed pressure pulsation in runner and improve understanding of
quite well. WANG, et al [3] , compared simulation results with the flow at partload operation.
experimental data of a prototype hydraulic turbine, and The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for the
computation of turbomachinery flows has significantly
*
increased in recent years [10–11] . When simulating unsteady
Corresponding author. Email: wangfj@cau.edu.cn
This project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of flows, such as the pressure fluctuations, large eddy simuation
China (Grant Nos. 51079152, 91010003, 51079151), Research Fund for the (LES) is usually the ideal method. However, the pressure
Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No.
0100008110012), and Beijing Municipal Research Fund of Commission of
fluctuations in a large hydraulic turbine runner are dominated
Education of China (Grant No. 20100909) by large turbulent scales. This special unsteady flow can not
© Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society and SpringerVerlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
∙2∙ WANG Fujun, et al: Numerical Simulation of Pressure Fluctuations in a Large Francis Turbine Runner
be resolved by LES without too fine meshes [12] . Therefore, renormalization group (RNG) ke and shearstress transport
Reynoldsaveraged NavierStokes (RANS) approach is a (SST) kw models are adopted. The walls are modeled using a
alternative method that could be used to obtain a resolution scalable wall function. Validation of this code can be found
within a acceptable accuracy at an affordable cost. from the work done by LIAO [13] and other contributions [3,14] .
In this study, a 3D geometry model including the full flow The governing equations are discretized using the control
passage of a large Francis turbine is setup. The numerical volume technique with the semiimplicit method for
method based on RANS for predicting the pressure pressurelinked equations consistent (SIMPLEC) scheme and
fluctuation in runner is investigated and the numerical pressure implicit with splitting of operators (PISO)
simulation is performed. The features of pressure fluctuations scheme [12] . A secondorder upwind scheme is used for the
in runner are analysed in detail. convection terms with a central difference scheme for the
diffusion terms in the momentum equations. And the second
2 Numerical Models and Computational order upwind scheme is also employed to discretize other
Schemes equations, such as turbulent kinetic energy k equation.
2.4 Recording points
2.2 Turbulence model and discretization scheme To observe the pressure distribution on the runner blade
At present study, the commercial CFD code, CFX is used. surfaces, 9 recording points were set up on the pressure
The timedependent RANS method with twoequation surface and suction surface of the runner blade respectively,
CHINESE JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Vol. 25,aNo. *,a2012 ∙3∙
as shown in Fig. 2. Here, 1, 2, and 3 recording points are 580
close to runner crown, and 3, 6 and 9 recording points are
close to blade trailing edge. 570
Pressure p /kPa
560
550
540
530
0 1 2 3
Time t /s
580
570
Pressure p /kPa
Fig. 2. Recording points on the runner
blade surface 560
550
3 Results and Discussions 540
530
3.1 Pressure fluctuation with different numerical
0 1 2 3
models
Time t /s
To evaluate the effect of turbulence models and
computational schemes on the simulation, two RANS (b) RNG ke, PISO
models, RNG ke and SST kw, with two discretization 580
schemes, SIMPLEC and PISO, are used. Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and
Fig. 5 show the pressure fluctuations on runner blade 570
Pressure p /kPa
The results in Fig. 3, Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 show no significant 540
difference between RNG ke and SST kw turbulence models,
while the effect of discretization schemes on simulation 530
0 1 2 3
results is obvious. The PISO algorithm could capture more
Time t /s
pressure pulsation information.
The peaktopeak values of the pressure fluctuations on (c) SST kw, SIMPLEC
pressure surface, which conducted from the above time
580
domain results, are shown in Table 1. For the reason of
comparison, the peaktopeak value is divided by local 570
Pressure p /kPa
this value is always be concerned by researchers and 530
engineers. Usually we use this dynamic value to predict the 0 1 2 3
fatigue life of blade. If the value with SST kw and PISO Time t /s
algorithm is used to predict structure properties of a runner, a
(d) SST kw, PISO
more safe prediction result would be carried out. Therefore,
Fig. 3. Pressure fluctuations at point 1
the SST kw and PISO algorithm is adopted at the following
on pressure surface
simulations.
∙4∙ WANG Fujun, et al: Numerical Simulation of Pressure Fluctuations in a Large Francis Turbine Runner
460 380
450 370
Pressure p /kPa
Pressure p /kPa
440 360
430 350
420 340
410 330
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Time t /s Time t /s
470 380
365
Pressure p /kPa
Pressure p /kPa
450
350
430
335
410 320
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Time t /s Time t /s
470 380
Pressure p /kPa
Pressure p /kPa
450 360
430 340
410 320
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Time t /s Time t /s
(c) SST kw, SIMPLEC (c) SST kw, SIMPLEC
470 380
365
Pressure p /kPa
Pressure p /kPa
450
350
430
335
410 320
0 1 2 3 0 1 2 3
Time t /s Time t /s
(d) SST kw, PISO (d) SST kw, PISO
used to predict the pressure fluctuation in the turbine in the 16
view of engineering.
Pressure P/ kPa
12
160 Measured
8
Calculated
4
140
Pressure p /kPa
0 9
4 8
8 7
12 6
120 16 5
20 4
3
24 2 Points
28 1
Frequency f/f n 32
100
Fig. 7. Amplitude spectrum of pressure fluctuations
on pressure surface (for case 2)
80
0 4 8 12 16
Time t /s
15
Pressure P/kPa
As typical results, the amplitude spectrum of pressure With the guide vane open angle increases, the turbine
fluctuations at different recording points for case 2 and case 3 output correspondingly changes to full load condition. The
are shown in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 respectively. At part load pattern of amplitude spectrum of pressure fluctuations in full
condition with low guide vane open angle, the dominant
∙6∙ WANG Fujun, et al: Numerical Simulation of Pressure Fluctuations in a Large Francis Turbine Runner
load condition is different with that in part load condition. We suction surface, especially at low guide vane open angle. The
can find the evident second dominant frequency that is close vortex may results to more strong pressure fluctuations.
to 24 times of runner rotating frequency, as shown in Fig.8.
This special frequency is exactly the runner passing a= 19° Suction Pressure
frequency relative to stationary guide vane. We also find that a= 27° Suction Pressure
the amplitudes of pressure fluctuations for point 1, 4 and 7
are larger than other points. These three points locate near the
leading edge of the blade. Therefore, we can conclude that
the flow structure in the guide vane has more effects on
runner flow at full load condition. On the other hand, the
effects of draft tube also exist, in which the low frequencies
are first dominant.
According to the above discussion, it is could be
concluded that the frequencies of pressure fluctuations in
runner are affected by the flow in guide vane and the flow in
draft tube. The first dominant frequency of pressure (a) H= 72 m
fluctuation in the runner is significantly determined by the
flow in draft tube, especially at part load condition. This a= 19° Suction Pressure
frequency is a low frequency that is approximately equal to a= 27° Suction Pressure