See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/292018788

Flow Analysis of Kaplan Hydraulic Turbine by Computational Fluid Dynamics;

Article · June 2013

CITATION READS
1 2,012

3 authors:

Dinesh Kumar Saurabh Sangal

UCET,VBU, Hazaribag Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
8 PUBLICATIONS   138 CITATIONS    4 PUBLICATIONS   56 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

R.P. Saini
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
169 PUBLICATIONS   6,490 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Hydro Kinetic turbines, Renewable Energy, CFD, Savonius Rotor View project

PhD Work View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Saurabh Sangal on 30 August 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Flow Analysis of Kaplan Hydraulic Turbine by Computational Fluid Dynamics
Dinesh Kumar1, Saurabh Sangal2 and R.P.Saini3
1, 2,3
Alternate hydro energy Centre, IIT Roorkee

IIT Roorkee, India

1 2 3
dinesh.mech009@gmail.com, er.saurabh.sangal@gmail.com, rajsafah@iitr.ernet.in

ABSTRACT
In a hydro power plant the potential energy of water is converted into electricity through the hydro turbine and the generator.
Kaplan turbine is an axial flow turbine; consist of wicket gates mounted in the stationary casing and the moving blades attached on
the hub. This combination of wicket gate and blades creates blade cascade to regulate the variable discharge over the blades in
order to maintain the efficiency of turbine over a wider range of operation. CFD is one of the tools to evaluate efficiency of
alternate design of turbines for optimization. Under this paper CFD analysis has been carried out to evaluate the part load
efficiency of Kaplan turbine under different operating conditions so as a range of part load efficiency for the Kaplan turbine is
determined.
Keywords- Kaplan turbine, CFD (computational fluid dynamics), Efficiency, Head losses, WGO (wicket gate opening).

1. INTRODUCTION
A hydraulic turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from fluid flow and converts it into useful work. It converts the
potential energy into electricity through a generator. Now days the conversion efficiency of a hydraulic turbine could be
achieved up to 95%.For large units’ even small improvements in the turbine efficiency may be of interest for industry due to
huge production volume. The use of numerical method such as CFD in the design process has increased considerably due to
the rapid development, in computer technology. Many researchers consider the CFD based analysis as reliable tool to
design the hydraulic machines and CFD predictions of the main flow features are becoming quite accurate. In Axial flow
turbine water passes through the series of blade rows and blade profile is designed at different sections from hub to casing
to get the best performance. Kaplan turbine is an axial flow turbine where the energy conversion occurs over the wicket
gates mounted in the stationary casing, and the moving blades attached on the hub .This combination of wicket gates and
blades creates blade cascade. It is widely used for low head schemes because of having best part load efficiency over the
wide range of discharge. To maintain efficiency over the wide range low head units have double regulating systems. It is
therefore, there is a need to develop Kaplan turbine in order to improve part load conditions. CFD is one of the tools to
analyze the efficiency of alternate design of a turbine for optimization before final experimental testing of selected design is
restored. However, in order to prove reliability of these tools for application of turbine, validation with experimental results
is required. This system permits designers to interactively generate, modify and visualize the geometric model of a design. It
offers an interactive inexpensive and rapid means for a designer to acquire detailed flow field information and evaluate
performance.

In this paper, 3-D viscous flow simulation with SST K-ɷ turbulence model is employed to analyze the performance
of an axial flow turbine i.e. Kaplan turbine which has a specific speed of 413mkW under a head of 15 m by using ANSYS 14
software.

2. GEOMETRIC MODELING AND BOUNDARY CONDITIONS

Kaplan turbine consist of spiral casing to provide uniform to wicket gates, wicket gates, blades with hub called runner and
draft tube. The energy transformation takes place in runner. The analysis is carried out from wicket gate inlet to draft tube
outlet where attempt has been made to create proper boundary conditions. There are 15 aero foil wicket gates and 5
runner blades in this study model analyzed by available design standards. Each component is having 3-D model and then 3-
D models are assembled through proper interfaces with the help of PRO-E cad software. The unstructured tetrahedral mesh
is generated in mesh module of ANSYS 14 software for all domains. The accuracy and convergence of solution are greatly
affected by the size of elements. 3-D real flow simulation analysis is done for the turbine using ANSYS 14 software. Skew,
orthogonal quality and aspect ratio of meshing elements are within limits. Summary of mesh data is given in Table 1. The
inlet and outlet boundary conditions are to be specified for each run and the accuracy of solution depends on location and
manner, these conditions are specified. For inlet boundary condition magnitude of mass flow rate and direction are
specified at the casing inlet and pressure is specified at outlet of drat tube as outlet boundary condition. In the present
analysis, mass flow rate is taken as 47570 kg/s at full gate opening and wicket gate opening is modeled at 60%, 80%, 100%
and 110%.The static pressure 19620 pa is specified at outlet boundary condition .The reference pressure is taken as 1
atmospheric. The rotational speed of runner is specified as 125 rpm. The wicket gate and draft tube domains are taken as
stationary. The SST K-ɷ turbulence model has been used and the wall of all domains is assumed to be smooth with no slip.

Table 1.Summary of mesh data

Domain No. of nodes No. of elements Type of element

Casing 55674 264179 tetrahedral

Runner 375127 2087179 tetrahedral
Draft tube 13134 66553 tetrahedral

3. COMPUTATIONAL FLOW PARAMETERS

Computational fluid dynamics analysis provides pressure and velocity distribution for each domain in the form of pressure
and velocity profile. Hydraulic parameters are calculated for performance assessment of Kaplan turbine under different
wicket gate openings by using following formulas;
Specific speed Ns=NΓP/H5/4
Available power P= ρgQH
Pressure Pr=ρgH
(Head loss) domain H loss= (Pr inlet - Pr outlet))/9810
H available = (inlet pressure casing – outlet pressure draft tube)/9810
Turbine Efficiency (η) = (H available - H loss)*100/ H available

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Rotational speed of turbine is taken as the rated speed of 125 rpm, specific speed calculated is 413 m-kW and runner
3
diameter is calculated as 3.4 m. The efficiency of turbine is calculated at rated head of 15 m and rated flow of 47.54 m /s as
well as at part flow at rated head. The numerical flow analysis is accomplished by considering steady sate at four Wicket
gate openings corresponding to four different loading on the turbine from best efficiency point to overload. The computed
efficiencies and head losses in various domains for different WGO are given in Table 2, which shows that head losses are
minimum at 80% WGO as compared to other regimes as well as the best efficiency point is also at 80%WGO. This supports
that for efficient and optimum performance of turbine, wicket gate opening should be near 80%. Results obtained from the
solver are used to get the real picture inside the geometry and to know the velocity and pressure variation across the whole
domain. The pressure and velocity contours are shown in figure 1 and 2 respectively for different WGO. It is seen that there
is a gradual reduction in pressure from casing inlet to exit of runner and static pressure variation in hub region is found
more at larger wicket gate opening. Velocity profile inside the turbine assembly as shown in figure 2 indicates that wicket
gate and runner domain has smooth velocity profile whereas as soon as water enters in draft tube domain, velocity starts
decreasing and profile becomes non-uniform. It is observed that main components affecting efficiency of turbine are runner
and draft tube. Form Table 2 it is observed that maximum head losses are in the runner due to high turbulence, therefore
runner part plays critical role for deciding the efficiency of turbine. The 3-D stream line and pressure contours are observed
and it is seen that at 80% WGO, losses in runner are minimum. The effect of boundary layer at the blade surface can be
seen at 80% WGO. Similarly the pressure and velocity contour variation on suction and pressure side of the runner is
observed as smooth at 80% WGO as compared to other operating regimes as shown in figure 3.
 TABLE 2.Computational Head Losses in Various Domains at Different WGO
WGO Wicket gate Runner Draft tube Total Turbine
loss (m) Loss(m) Loss(m) losses Efficiency
(m) (%)
60% 0.86 1.1 0.42 2.38 84.09
80% 0.63 0.93 0.32 1.89 87.39
100% 0.6 0.98 0.53 2.11 85.92
110% 0.55 1.3 0.61 2.46 83.55

Figure 1.Streamline pattern of pressure variation at different WGO

Figure 2.Streamline pattern of velocity variation at different WGO

(a) (b)
Figure 3.Pressure and velocity contours on pressure side (a) and suction side (b) of the Runner

The 3-D streamlines and pressure contours at 80% WGO in runner and draft tube are shown in Figure 4. Figure 4(a)
indicates that high velocity and low pressure has been observed on suction side while trend is reversed on pressure
side of runner blades. Figure 4(b) indicates that low velocity zone is formed at diverging side of passage. The velocity
decreases and pressure increases from the runner domain to exit of draft tube. Figure 5(a) shows a graph between
the head losses and the discharge in various domains of Kaplan turbine. It is seen that head losses are maximum into
the runner and these increase with operating load. These head losses in runner are due to flow separation and
friction loss. Reduction in head loss in wicket gate is due to reduction in velocity because of higher opening, which
reduce friction losses. When wicket gate is operated from fully close to fully open, it is just like nozzle and as
operating load increases wicket gate opening should be increase. In case of draft tube, as operating load increases
head loss also increases this is because of lower pressure recovery. Figure 5(b) shows the curve between turbine
efficiency and discharge at different WGO.
 (a) (b)
Figure 4.3-D Streamline pattern of pressure and velocity variation in runner (a) and in draft tube (b)

18
16
14
head loss in (%)

wicket gate
12 head loss

efficiency in (%)
10
8 runner head
6 loss
4
draft tube
2
head loss
0
total head
loss
Discharge in (m3/s)
discharge in (m3/s)

Figure 5.Head losses (a) and Efficiency (b) trend at different WGO in the turbine

5. CONCLUSION
In the present study flow analysis of Kaplan turbine has been carried out using commercial CFD package ANSYS 14 at
different wicket gate openings. This analysis can be useful to determine the basic flow physics in various domains. A turbine
3
having rated capacity of 7 MW at rated head and discharge of 15 m and 47.54 m /s respectively has been considered for
this analysis. Based on CFD results obtained, it is observed that best efficiency point of turbine is at 80% WGO. The analysis
ascertained the trend of losses and flow pattern in various domains. The numerical simulation results are found in order to
be consistent with the real situation. It shows that ANSYS-14 is able to generate good computational results in an efficient
way.

6. REFERENCES
Horlock, J.H. and J.D. Dento (2005), A review of some early practices in computational fluid dynamics, Journal of Turbo
Machinery 127(1) pp 5-12.
Rajoo, S. and R. Martinez-Botas (2008), A Review on mixed flow turbine research, Journal of Turbo Machinery 130(10),pp
44001-440012.
Jain, S, Saini R.P. & Kumar (2010), A CFD approach for prediction of efficiency of Francis turbine, IGHEM, AHEC, IIT Roorkee,
India.
Kim Y T Nam, S H Cho, Y J Hwang, Y C Choi, Y D Nam, C D & Lee Y H(2007) ,Tubular-Type hydro turbine performance for
variable guide vane opening by CFD, The fifth international conference on fluid mechanics, Shanghai, China.
Prasad V, Gahlot V K & Krin namachar P (2009),CFD approach for design optimization and validation for axial flow hydraulic
turbine, Indian Journal of Engineering & Material science Vol.,pp 229-236.

View publication stats