Modal Response of Hydraulic Turbine Runners

The mechanical design of hydraulic turbines is conditioned by the dynamic response of the runner that is usually estimated by a computational model. Nevertheless, the runner has complex boundary conditions that are difficult to include in the computational model. One of these boundary conditions is the water in which the runner is submerged. The effect of the added mass and damping of water can modify considerably the natural frequencies of the runner. In order to analyze this effect on a Francis turbine runner, an experimental and a numerical investigation in a reduced scale model was carried out. The experimental investigations was based on modal analysis. Several impact tests with the runner in air and in water were done. The response was measured with accelerometers located in different positions of the runner. Special attention was taken to determine the most suitable positions of measurements and impacts. From the modal analysis, the natural frequencies, damping ratios, and mode shapes were determined. The simulation of the same runner was also carried out using a FEM method. First, some tests including a sensitivity analysis wee done to check the accuracy of the numerical results. Second, the runner was simulated and the frequencies and mode shapes were calculated both in air and in water like in the experiment. The simulation was compared with the experimental results to determine its accuracy especially regarding the added mass effects. Similar mode shapes and frequency reduction ratios were obtained so the simulation gave rather good results. In the paper, the frequencies, damping and mode shapes obtained in air and in water both from experiment and simulation are indicated. The same mode shapes obtained in air were obtained in water bit with lower natural frequencies and higher damping ratios. The difference in the natural frequencies is shown to be dependent basically on the added mass effect of the water and not on its added damping. This difference also depends on the geometry of the mode presenting different values for different mode shapes. Using non-dimensional values, the reduction in the natural frequencies can be extrapolated to other Francis runners presenting similar geometrical characteristics.

Experimental investigation of added mass effects on a Francis turbine runner in still water

François Avellan, Eduard Egusquiza

2006

Modal behavior of a reduced scale pump-turbine impeller. Part 1: Experiments

François Avellan, Eduard Egusquiza, Mohamed Farhat

An experimental investigation has been carried out to quantify the effects of surrounding fluid on the modal behavior of a reduced scale pump-turbine impeller. The modal properties of the fluid-structure system have been obtained by Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA) with the impeller suspended in air and inside a water reservoir. The impeller has been excited with an instrumented hammer and the response has been measured by means of miniature accelerometers. The Frequency Response Functions (FRF’s) have been obtained from a large number of impacting positions in order to ensure the identification of the main mode shapes. As a result, the main modes of vibration have been well characterized both in air and in water in terms of natural frequency, damping ratio and mode shape. The first mode is the 2 Nodal Diameter (ND), the second one is the 0ND and the following ones are the 3ND coupled with the 1ND. The visual observation of the animated mode shapes and the level of the Modal Assurance Criterion (MAC) have permitted to correlate the homologous modes of vibration of the fluid-structure system in air and in water. From this comparison the added mass effect on the natural frequencies and the fluid effect on the damping ratios have been quantified for the most significant modes. With the surrounding water, the natural frequencies decrease in average by 10%. On the other hand, the damping ratios increase in average by 0.5%. In any case, the damping ratio appears to decrease with the frequency value of the mode.

International Association For Hydraulic Research2010

Part load flow in radial centrifugal pumps

Olivier Braun

Centrifugal pumps are required to sustain a stable operation of the system they support under all operating conditions. Minor modifications of the surfaces defining the pump's water passage can influence the tendency to unstable system operation significantly. The action of such modifications on the flow are yet not fully understood, leading to costly trial and error approaches in the solution of instability problems. The part-load flow in centrifugal pumps is inherently time-dependent due to the interaction of the rotating impeller with the stationary diffuser (Rotor-Stator Interaction, RSI). Furthermore, adverse pressure gradients in the pump diffuser may cause flow separation, potentially inducing symmetry-breaking non-uniformities, either spatially stationary or rotating and either steady or intermittent. Rotating stall, characterized by the presence of distinct cells of flow separation on the circumference, rotating at a fraction of the impeller revolution rate, has been observed in thermal and hydraulic turbomachines. Due to its complexity, the part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps is a major challenge for numerical flow simulation methods. The present study investigates the part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps and pump-turbines by experimental and numerical methods, the latter using a finite volume discretization of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation. Physical phenomena of part load flow are evidenced based on three case studies, and the ability of numerical simulation methods to reproduce part-load flow in radial centrifugal pumps qualitatively and quantitatively is assessed. A numerical study of the flow in a high specific speed radial pump-turbine using steady approaches and the hypothesis of angular periodicity between neighboring blade channels evidences the relation of sudden flow topology changes with an increase of viscous losses, impacting on the energy-discharge characteristic, and thus increasing the risk of unstable operation. When the flow rate drops below a critical threshold, the straight through-flow with flow separation zones attached to the guide vanes changes to an asymmetrical flow. Energy is drawn off the mean flow and dissipated in a large vortex-like structure. Besides flow separation in some diffuser channels, time-dependent numerical simulations of the flow in a double suction pump evidence a flow rate imbalance between both impeller sides interacting with asymmetric flow separation in the diffuser. Viscous losses increase substantially as this imbalance occurs, the resulting segment of positive slope in the energy-discharge characteristic is found for a flow rate sensibly different from measurements. Different modes of rotating stall are identified by transient pressure measurements in a low-specific-speed pump-turbine, showing 3 to 5 zones of separated flow, rotating at 0.016 to 0.028 times impeller rotation rate, depending on discharge. For operating conditions where stall with 4 cells is most pronounced, velocity is measured by Laser-Doppler methods at locations of interest. The velocity field is reconstructed with respect to the passage of stall cells by definition of a stall phase obtained from simultaneous transient pressure measurements. Time-dependent numerical simulation predicting rotating stall with 4 cells shows velocity fields that are in reasonable agreement with the measured velocity fields, but occurring at a sensibly higher flow rate than found from experiments. In consideration of the quantitative shortcomings of the numerical simulation, a novel modelling approach is proposed: Replacing the costly 3-dimensional simulation of the major part of the impeller channels by a 1-dimensional model allows a significant economy in computational resources, allowing an improved modeling for the remainder of the domain at constant computational cost. The model is validated with the challenging cases of rotating stall and impeller side flow rate imbalance. The satisfying coherence of the results with the simulation including the entire impeller channels qualifies this approach for numerous turbomachinery applications. It could also provide improved, time-dependent boundary conditions for draft tube vortex rope simulations at reasonable computational cost. Parameter studies modifying deliberately some quantities of mean flow and turbulence at the modeled boundary surfaces can be implemented in the framework of the method.

EPFL2009

Part load flow in radial centrifugal pumps

Olivier Braun

EPFL2009