Name-- Muddassar Shaikh

PRN—17070125106

Journal of Physics- Conference

series

Publication Year- 07/06/2017

Pressure Pulsation in a High

Head Francis Turbine
Operating at Variable Speed.
 As Hydropower turbines are more flexible in usage, they are used to stabilize the
grids by changing operating points and hence changing the power output. The
downside of using this is that the turbine runs at Off-Design phenomena such as
power swings and part load pressure pulsations can drastically reduce a runners
operating life. One of the major problems in Francis Turbines is that there are
formation of cracks in the runner due to pressure fluctuations. This is a problem in
both new and old Francis turbines.
It is very important to find a method to reduce the pressure fluctuations and
reduce the crack formation on runners. For that one of the method is used is
Variable Speed Method. This method enables us to change operation points by
changing the speed of the runner to the part where pressure fluctuations are lowest.
The aim of the experiment was to investigate the pressure pulsations for the
whole operating range and to study how pressure pulsation varies with different
operational conditions. The guide Vane was opened from 1 degree to 14 degree(full
opening) and a total of 270 different operation points were measured. Using this
analysis it was possible to identify 6 operational points where the pressure pulsations
were lowest which were Full Load(FL),High Load(HL), Best efficiency Points (BEP),
Part Load(PL), Minimum Load(ML) and Speed NO Load(SNL) . These points were
chosen to check peak-peak values and how frequency graph of pressure pulsations
varies when the speed is changed by +-50 rpm.
Variable Speed Operation is used to make Francis turbine more flexible as the
speed of Francis turbine is predetermined by the combination of generator and grid
frequency and hence controlling the turbine power output by changing=g guide vane
opening and water discharge.
The Experiment was conducted on a Francis Turbine model test rig in a
Waterproof Laboratory at NTNU. The test rig was based on open loop configuration.
The water was pumped from the basement reservoir to a channel located at top of
the laboratory. The water was passed through pressure tank before entering the
turbine. Downstream the draft tube there was a pressure tank that was used to
regulate the pressure at the outlet from the runner. From here the water then goes
back to the reservoir and hence the open loop configuration gave uniform water level
and provided same conditions for all operation points. It was a scaled down model
(1:5:1) of the Tokke Turbine. It has 14 stay vanes, 28 guide vanes and 30 runner
blades .For the measurement of the system there were pressure sensors along the
Guide Vanes , Draft tube cone and On-Board Runners Blades.
Peak to Peak values was calculated for all operation points(total 6) of each
sensors and a hill chart was obtained. By having lines for constant peak to peak
values it was easier to identify where pressure pulsations had high values and which
operational areas should be avoided.

For off-design operations increasing the speed resulted in higher peak to peak
values, while reducing the speed was resulted into reduced pressure pulsations in
most cases. For operation below BEP (Best efficiency Point) highest reduction in
pressure pulsation was found. The pressure pulsation diagram gave the indication
that other operational points would give even lower peak-peak values. RSI was
found to be most dominating in the upper part of the turbine , together with the vortex
rope at certain part load operation points. Pressure fluctuations are dependent upon
change of speed and hence it is important to avoid runner speeds that can cause
high resonance in the system.