Numerical investigation on the volute cutwater for pumps running in turbine mode

The hydropower sector has recently raised the interest in pump as turbine (PaT) that can be a valid trade-off between capital cost and performance in micro-scale installations. Nevertheless, the modest efficiency of PaTs often restricts their exploitation. In this paper, available experimental data are used to tune a numerical model which aims to investigate the effect of the pump cutwater design on the PaT performance to improve the hydraulic efficiency. Because of its finite thickness, the cutwater interferes with the flow at the runner inlet, and generates local flaws in the velocity field such as swirl and deviations of the streamlines which limit the machine performance. To identify the geometrical characteristics of the cutwater impacting on the PaT performances, different values of stretching and thickness of the cutwater are studied at variable inclination by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. A multivariate regression method is applied on the CFD results to build a surrogate model of the PaT hydraulic characteristics as a function of the geometrical parameters of the machine cutwater. Based on this model, an optimization problem is solved to identify the most advantageous geometrical asset of the PaT cutwater to maximize the efficiency. The results highlight that the length and the cutwater angle are the most affecting variables in favouring a tangential component at the entrance of the runner. The hydraulic efficiency peak of the optimized geometry results to be 86.3%, while the baseline configuration records an efficiency of 82.4%, and the Psi - phi characteristic moves the best efficiency point towards higher head (+7.5%) and lower discharge (-13.0%). The proposed methodology allows identifying the best geometrical characteristics of the PaT cutwater to maximize the performances while significantly reducing the computational time. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

CFD simulations of a Y-junction for the implementation of hydraulic short-circuit operating mode

François Avellan, Daniel Biner, Cécile Münch-Alligné

In the framework of the XFLEX HYDRO H2020 European Project, one of the demonstrators focuses on the implementation of the hydraulic short-circuit on the pump storage power plant of Grand-Maison owned by Electricite De France (EDF). The Grand-Maison power plant is a two-level plant production with one plant located above the downstream reservoir and equipped with four Pelton turbines; a second plant located downstream the reservoir and equipped with eight reversible pump-turbines. Hydraulic short circuit consists in running pumps and turbines in the meantime to balance the energy consumption of the pumps compared to the grid. Such an operating mode allows increasing the flexibility of the power plant and targeting the requirement of balancing the intermittent production due to the growing of new renewable energies such as wind and solar power plants. The hydraulic short-circuit operating mode leads to a change in the flow paths in the penstocks and junctions compared to the normal turbine or pump modes. Indeed, compared to the pump mode, this mode will lead to a flow derivation at the junction between the penstocks directed to the Pelton units and the penstocks directed to the upper reservoir. As this mode have not been scheduled at the beginning of the power plant construction, it is necessary to quantitatively assess the singular head losses generated at the junction to be able to simulate the complete behaviour of the power plant by means of a 1D model. CFD simulations are carried out with the Fluent software for several configurations of hydraulic short-circuit defined by the ratio of flow rate deviated to the Pelton turbines.

IOP PUBLISHING LTD2021

Small scale SOFC systems

Nordahl Autissier

The increasing cost of carbon based fuels pushes the electricity generation market towards more efficient electricity generation technologies. In this context, fuel cells offer the opportunity to increase efficiency and lower CO2 and NOx emissions, in particular with co-generation units. The complexity, as well as the number and different combinations of components involved with a SOFC stack make their analysis impossible without dedicated tools. The simultaneous consideration of economic and thermodynamic considerations is a key challenge for engineers and decision makers. The present work contributes to the development of design tools for fuel cells and energy systems. A detailed model of fuel cell stack and a model of a complete system were developed. Based on a commercial CFD code, additional routines were implemented to model the electro-chemical behavior of a fuel cell as well as the reforming reaction schemes. The model is able to predict cell behavior under various fuel feeds. The detailed 3-D model of stack repeat unit allowed to identify weaknesses of a first stack geometry. With the combination of experimental observations and modeling activities, specific problems of the existing concept were identified and a new geometry designed, together with the corresponding stack concept. A new stack design is presented with successful experiments up to 1 kWe. Besides the stack, a co-generation fuel cell system is composed of multiple components such as heat exchangers, reformer, recycle loops... The number, the type and size of those components influence the system costs but also its efficiencies (thermal and electrical). A multi-objective thermo-economic optimization methodology was defined, allowing to optimize at the same time the configuration and operating parameters of a system. This method was applied to two sizes of co-generators : a 1 kW unit and a 30 kW unit. HTceramix SA (Yverdon, Switzerland) is developing part of a co-generation unit. The work indicates the potential improvement of their prototype. The 1 kW unit was optimized in a first phase on thermal and electrical efficiencies, and in a second phase on electrical efficiency and installed costs. Those two results indicate the influence of the objective function selection on the results. The high operating temperature of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) offers good opportunity for coupling with a gas turbine. A simple concept of pressurized SOFC-µGT was studied and optimized, for an net electrical output of 30 kW. The simple layout described in this work allows present technical feasibility of the concept. Moreover, the costs of electricity, lower than 0.20$/kWh, makes it economically viable solutions. The methodology and the tools developed allow the engineer to explore the solution space through optimal configurations, in order to select those fitting with its priorities and technical constraints.

EPFL2008

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.