Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Runner blade number influencing RPT runner flow characteristics

under off-design conditions
Xiao-Bin Li a, 1, Maxime Binama b, 1, Wen-Tao Su c, *, Wei-Hua Cai d, **, Alexis Muhirwa b,
Biao Li b, Feng-Chen Li a
a
Sino-French Institute of Nuclear Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, China
b
School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China
c
College of Petroleum Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun, 113001, China
d
Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Nuclear Engineering, Northeast Electric Power University, Jilin, 132012, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Reversible pump turbine (RPT)’s runner inter-blade flow unsteadiness onset and development especially
Received 12 February 2019 under off-design conditions is still one of unresolved issues, yet continues to cause different complica-
Received in revised form tions on a daily basis within pumped storage power plants, detrimental pressure pulsations and resulting
17 December 2019
structural vibrations among others. Though different methods have been used to solve the issue at hand,
Accepted 18 January 2020
an adequate solution suitable for all designs has not yet been found; a fact that calls for a more deep
Available online 23 January 2020
understanding in terms of RPT runner flow dynamics and possible influencing parameters. Therefore, the
present study seeks to investigate the RPT flow dynamics and associated runner inlet pressure pulsations
Keywords:
Reversible pump-turbine
under off-design operating conditions, as well as the effect of runner blade number on the same. Three
Flow unsteadiness RPT models with different runner blade numbers were numerically investigated. The results showed that
Pressure pulsation runner flow unsteadiness has a close relationship with the machine flow conditions, where flow vortices
Blade number are mostly located at the runner shroud and vicinities. The runner flow unsteadiness decreased with the
Numerical simulation increasing blade number. The runner blade number considerably influenced runner inlet pressure pul-
sations where pulsation levels of models with 9 and 10 blades were the highest and lowest respectively.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The living standards on earth cannot be maintained without
energy [1]. The role of energy reflects itself in every crucial areas of
life be it in economic, social or political domains [2]. In the last few
decades, with a continuously growing world population and
correspondingly changing living standards, energy demand has
tremendously increased, where conventional fossil fuels have been
used as major energy sources [3e5]. However, their expensive price
and destructive impact on nature have recently pushed energy
actors to adopt different renewable energy sources [6], solar and
wind among others [7], which in turn lead to a high penetration
* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author. School of Energy Science and Engineering, Harbin
Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150001, China.
E-mail addresses: suwentao@hit.edu.cn (W.-T. Su), caiwh@neepu.edu.cn
(W.-H. Cai).
1
X.-B. Li and M. Binama both contributed equally to the paper.
level of renewables within the electrical power grids [8,9]. For the
advantages of renewable energy sources taking hydropower as an
example, authors are referred to recent articles by Feng et al.
[10,11]. Nevertheless, the intermittent nature of these sources has
caused power grid stability issues, where pumped storage hydro
power technology ranks among the most efficient solutions avail-
able [12e16]. Pumped Storage Plants (PSPs) are widely known for
their ability to flexibly operate hand in hand with the power grid
unstable nature, where quick and frequent switching between
pumping and generating modes, is a routine [17]. This however,
threatens the operational safety of the used Reversible Pump Tur-
bines (RPTs) within these plants, where corresponding flow insta-
bility occurrence especially under off-design conditions [18], lead
to different detrimental effects such as pressure pulsations [17,19]
and associated structural vibrations [20,21], with a high possibility
of complicated machine synchronization process with the power
grid [22e24]. It has been reported that for a machine operating
with a constant guide vane opening (GVO) under off-design con-
ditions, the speed-discharge (N11-Q11) characteristic curve may shift

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.081
0960-1481/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Nomenclature
Acronyms
RPT Reversible Pump Turbine
PSP Pumped Storage Plant
GVO Guide Vane Opening
MOC Machine Operating Conditions
MGV Misaligned Guide Vane
BPF Blade Passing Frequency
RBN Runner Blade Number
HILEM Harbin Institute of Electric Machinery
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
OP Operating Point
RANS Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations
SST Shear Stress Transport turbulence model
GGI General Grid Interface
VFS Vortical Flow Structures
FFT Fast Fourier Transform
PPA Pressure Pulsation Amplitude
to an s-shaped trend; a phenomenon known to always be accom-
panied by serious flow instabilities emergence at different locations
within the machine flow passages [25]. So far, different studies have
been carried out, mainly investigating the RPT flow instabilities
development mechanism and reasons behind, through both nu-
merical simulation and experimentation. Hasmatuchi et al. [26]
witnessed a substantial increase of pressure pulsation levels when
the machine operating conditions (MOCs) shifted from best effi-
ciency point to lower flow conditions in the s-shape zone. At
runaway, at the discretion of the formerly recorded blade passing
frequency (BPF) component and its harmonics, new low frequency
components emerged and grew in amplitudes as the MOCs
approached the zero flow conditions. Correspondingly, Gong et al.
[27] noticed the increase of emerged flow vortices within the
runner channels and vaneless space as the machine operated from
turbine through runaway to braking conditions. As for Xia et al.
[28], vaneless space backflow vortices may serve a crucial param-
eter from which others can be predicted. These ones change their
locations depending on the MOCs, where they were found to shift
from hub to mid-span locations when the machine operations
shifted from runaway to braking conditions. Fluctuation charac-
teristics of pressure, torque, radial and axial forces were found to
closely relate to these vaneless space backflow vortices. The same
fluctuations were observed by Cavazzini et al. [29], where the onset
and development of rotating stall cells as the machine moved from
stable to unstable operating zones was recorded. These ones
completely or partially blocked different runner channels, and
continuously moved from one channel to another with a frequency
of 65% of the runner rotational frequency. Their onset, development
and disappearance inflicted the above mentioned flow, torque, and
pressure fluctuations. It was also pointed out that the s-shaped
trend of the speed-discharge characteristics curve starts to form
only when the evolved flow unsteadiness develops into a well-
organized and fully developed rotating stall with a specific fre-
quency. Widmer et al. [30] made a distinction of possible RPT flow
unsteadiness types depending on the operating guide vane opening
(GVO). It was revealed that stationary vortex flow type develops in
the runner channels and vaneless space when under small GVOs;
whereas the above mentioned rotating stall cells type emerges only
under large GVOs. This type not only causes pressure pulsations
within the runner and vaneless space, but extends even at guide/
877
RSI Rotor-Stator Interactions
Latin & Greek letters
Q11 Unitary Discharge
T11 Unitary torque
n11 Unitary rotational speed
yþ Dimensional height from the wall
Q Discharge
H Head
P Static pressure
z Number of runner blades
fn Runner rotational frequency
n Runner rotational speed
Ap Relative pressure pulsation amplitude
g Gravitational acceleration
Pimax Maximum pressure pulsation amplitude
Pimin Minimum pressure pulsation amplitude
Nq Specific speed
h Efficiency
r Density
stay vane channels. More about RPT rotating stall dynamics can be
found in review articles by Zhang et al. [31] and Binama et al. [32].
In addition to the above, different parametric studies about RPT
flow instability, a big number of them trying to bring about
changes, be it in terms of associated fundamental understanding or
resolutional techniques, have been conducted. Among the others,
Zhang et al. [33] and Li et al. [34] experimentally investigated the
impact of load and water head variations respectively, on RPT
pressure pulsation characteristics. Deyou et al. [35] highlighted the
existing close relationship between low frequency pressure pul-
sations at the runner upstream and those at downstream flow
zones. The improvement of s-shape characteristics through the
misaligned guide vanes (MGV) technique has been applied by
different investigators, Xiao et al. [36,37] among others. The effect
of distributor pitch diameter on RPT pressure pulsation was
investigated by Sun et al. [38]. More optimization techniques have
been applied to RPT structural design and the results have been in
some cases satisfying [39e41].
For fluid machinery in a general sense, the rotor component
plays a fundamental role of fluid-contained energy conversion to
mechanical energy or vice-versa, which therefore means that its
design can considerably influence the machine performance char-
acteristics [42e44]. In line with this, different investigators have
opted for RPT flow instability reduction through runner design
modifications. Among others, Tao et al. [45] improved the RPT
cavitation performance characteristics by redesigning the blade
inlet profile to the optimal shape, where the inception cavitation
number was improved especially under large incidence angle
conditions. Yin et al. [46] on the other hand, after identifying the
runner as the main component from which huge hydraulic losses
leading to the appearance of s-shape characteristics occur, decided
to modify the runner design by broadening its meridional section,
where the newly built model managed to completely eliminate the
formerly experienced s-shape characteristics. Binama et al. [47]
investigated the effect of runner trailing edge position on pressure
pulsations within a centrifugal pump as turbine. Basing on the fact
that runner blade lean constitutes a crucial design parameter from
which hydraulic stability can be controlled for hydraulic turbines,
Zhu et al. [48] tested two runner designs, one with negative another
with positive lean, where the one with negative lean exhibited
better performance in terms of efficiency and pressure pulsation.
878 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891

Fig. 1. HILEM experimental testing facility (a) and the RPT experimentally found characteristic curves (Q11-n11 and T11 e n11) for 23 mm GVO (b).

Fig. 2. Full RPT computational model: (a) The whole assembly, (b) Model components.

Olimstad et al. [49] in the same respect, recommended different
runner design modifications in the struggle to decrease the runner
inlet flow separations.
Generally speaking, the above cited studies have significantly
contributed to the understanding of RPT flow unsteadiness onset
and development mechanism, where different case-dependent
solutions have also been presented. However, there have not yet
been found a solution that works well for a wide range of designs,
meaning that there is still an open research area in this field, where
different alternatives are still needed to if not eliminate then
decrease the bitterness of RPT flow instability damages. In the
literature, it has been repetitively shown that RPT flow instabilities
mainly take source from flow separations within the runner
channels, which develop and extend even at flow zones in the
upstream (vaneless space and guide/stay vanes), the same zones
which are frequent victims to resultant detrimental pressure
pulsations. This means that any runner design modification would
result into different flow unsteadiness onset and development
mechanisms within the inter-blade flow zones, as well as the
associated pressure pulsation distribution modes, probably leading
to any kind of improvement. In line with this, the present study
seeks to investigate the flow unsteadiness onset and development
within a high-head RPT’s runner and corresponding inlet pressure
pulsations, where the effect of runner blade number (RBN) on the
two aspects is also analyzed. CFD-backed three-dimensional nu-
merical simulations are conducted on a centrifugal type RPT, for
which the original model was built and tested at Harbin Institute of
Electrical machinery (HILEM), Harbin-China. In this paper, it ana-
lyzes the evolutional flow field characteristics and corresponding
pressure pulsations for a turbulent flow through three runner
models with different runner blade numbers namely 8 blades
(RBN8), 9 blades (RBN9), and 10 blades (RBN10).
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891 879

Table 1
RPT selected grid details.

RPT Components Grid number (million) Grid type Quality

Scroll casing 0.37 Hexahedral þ unst. 0.3

Stay vanes ring 0.54 Hexahedral 0.5
Guide vanes ring 1.05 Hexahedral 0.7
Runner 4.7 Hexahedral 0.4
Draft tube 1.15 Hexahedral 0.6
Total 7.8 e e

HILEM and the experimentally found characteristics curve of the

here-investigated RPT under 23 mm GVO. Under the 23 mm GVO,
experiments were carried out for fourteen operating conditions
expanding from the turbine zone through runaway all the way
down to turbine brake and reverse pump zones, where the s-sha-
ped trend on both Q11-n11 and T11 e n11 curves is obvious, especially
with operating conditions between OP7 and OP13, marking the RPT
unstable operating zone. The mathematical expressions of the used
unitary Speed (N11), Torque (T11), and Flow (Q11) are as follows:

nD T Q
Fig. 3. Effect of mesh number on RPT hydraulic Head. n11 ¼ pffiffiffiffi1 T11 ¼ Q11 ¼ pffiffiffiffi (1)
H D31 H D21 H

2. Research object and method

2.1. RPT geometric model

2.2. Numerical simulation scheme and validation
The whole system is originally composed of a volute type spiral
casing, 20 stay vanes, 20 guide vanes, a nine-bladed centrifugal 2.2.1. Computational domain and grid generation
type runner, and the draft tube. The investigated RPT unit’s basic The used computational domain is a reduced-scale reversible
dimensions are as follows: the runner inlet and outlet diameters pump turbine with 5 main components viz the spiral casing, stay
(D2 and D1) are 560 mm and 270 mm respectively, the guide vane vanes ring (20 stay vanes), guide vanes ring (20 guide vanes), the
distribution diameter (DV) is 662 mm, stay vanes inlet and outlet runner, and the draft tube (see Fig. 2). For the runner component, in
diameters (DSI and DSO) are 966 mm and 763 mm respectively, which the incurred flow dynamics constitute the main research
whereas the Guide and stay vanes height ,(BGS) is 37.8 mm. The target for this study, three models were built; the first with 8
pffiffiffiffi 1 blades, the second with 9 blades, and the third with 10 blades. A
specific speed of this model is: Nq ¼ n Q 3 ¼ 36:8min
=
. The
H 4 computer aided design software “Unigraphix NX8” has been used
model’s external performance characteristics tests were carried out
at Harbin Institute of Electrical Machinery, where the used test rig
is composed of components as shown above. All the performed Table 2
measurements were carried out following the International Elec- Selected operating conditions.
trotechnical commission standards (IEC) [50]. Though RPT oper-
Operating conditions n11 Q11 Operating zones
ating performance characteristics were tested under a large range
of guide vane opening values, the here presented study only con- GVO23-OP2 15.70115 0.54801 Turbine (High Discharge)
GVO23-OP4 31.36754 0.51463 Turbine (Medium Discharge)
cerns itself on one GVO of 23 mm (1.2GVOopt), as the carried out
GVO23-OP6 45.94246 0.40719 Turbine (Low Discharge)
investigations are only focused on the RPT runner flow field char- GVO23-OP8 50.19131 0.20738 Runaway
acteristics. Fig. 1 shows the external view of the used test rig at GVO23-OP9 47.88025 0.07254 Turbine Brake

Fig. 4. Generated grid for crucial flow zones: (a) stay vanes ring, (b) Guide vanes ring, and (c) Runner.
880 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891

Fig. 5. Experimental and numerical results in terms of external performance characteristics: (a) H-Q curve and (b) h - Q curve.

to design all the above-stated structural components, whereas their This model combines the strengths of the famous k-ε and k-u
respective grids have been generated using the Ansys mesh gen- models [55,56], where the flow details for both the free streams far
eration code “Ansys ICEM” and the professional grid generator code away from the wall and the wall bounded ones, can be accurately
for turbomachinery “Ansys turbo-grid”. Structural hexahedral captured using the so called blending functions to know the dis-
mesh has been generated for all the components, except the spiral tance of the flow zone into consideration to the closest wall. This
casing tongue, for which due to its sharp shape, an unstructured model’s mathematical expression is shown by equations (4) and
tetrahedral grid has been generated. Fine mesh has been generated (5). Throughout the RPT flow simulation process, the flow is sup-
at wall vicinities for areas of special importance such as the runner posed to enter the computational domain from the spiral casing
blades and guide/stay vanes, where the value of yþ is on a global inlet, successively passes through the inter-spaces of stay and guide
scale less than 30. In order to avoid the simulation results depen- vanes, then whirl up in the runner inter-blade channels before
dence on the used grid number, mesh independence test has been passing through the draft tube to finally exit the domain at the draft
carried out on six different node numbers ranging between 3.4 and tube outlet.
11 million, where steady state numerical simulations were carried   " #
out on each mesh set with same boundary conditions as picked vðrkÞ v ruj k * v vk
þ ¼ P  b ruk þ ðm þ sk mt Þ (4)
from the already available experimental results. As shown in Fig. 3, vt vxj vxj vxj
the developed head for each set, dropped as the mesh number
increased from 3.4 to 7.8 million, from where the rest of mesh   " #
numbers exhibited an almost stable level of developed head. vðruÞ v ruj u g v vu
þ ¼ P  bru þ
2
ðm þ su mt Þ
Therefore, in line with the available computational resources, the vt vxj nt vxj vxj
grid with 7.8 million nodes was chosen for farther transient sim-
rsu2 vk vu
ulations. Fig. 4 displays different components’ used mesh, while þ 2ð1  F1 Þ (5)
details about the finally selected mesh are shown through Table 1.
u vxj vxj
In this study, RPT 3D turbulent flow simulations were conducted
2.2.2. Turbulence modeling and numerical simulation scheme through the CFD commercial code Ansys CFX under different off-
The RPT flow, as it is the case for any other fluid machinery, is design conditions expanding from turbine through runaway to
governed by a set of mass and momentum conservation equations, turbine brake zones. In order to ensure a quick solution conver-
otherwise referred to as Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equa- gence, steady state simulations were first carried out, the results of
tions (RANS), which are expressed in cartesian coordinates as which served as initial conditions for the followed transient sim-
shown by equations (2) and (3). These equations closure can only ulations. Different discharge (Q) and static pressure (P) values, as
be achieved through the already under use turbulence models. For picked from the available experimental results, were successively
the present case study, Menter’s Shear Stress Transport (SST) tur- imposed at both the spiral casing inlet and draft tube outlet zones
bulence model is used [51,52], owing to its comparatively high as respective in and outlet boundary conditions, while the non-slip
ability to accurately capture the flow dynamics within fluid ma- wall boundary condition was imposed to all walls in the whole
chinery [53,54]. computational domain. Taking from the grounds that the investi-
gated domain is composed of both rotating and stationary com-
vCi0 ponents, corresponding frames were created where different kinds
¼0 (2) of interfaces were used to link them. The so called “stage mixing”
vxi
and “frozen rotor” types were used at the runner inlet and outlet
! zones respectively, linking the runner flow field to components at
vC i vC 1 vp v2 C i vCi0 Cj0
þ Cj i ¼  þm  þ fi (3) up and downstream flow zones for steady state simulations;
vt vxj r vxi vx2j vxj whereas for transient simulations, the “transient rotor-stator” type
was used at both the runner inlet and outlet zones. The General
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891 881

Fig. 6. Flow streamlines and corresponding vorticity measure in different spanwise plans.

Grid Interface (GGI) type was used between stationary components
for both steady state and transient simulations.
Every simulation session was carried out for 11 runner revolu-
tions, with one degree runner rotation equivalent to one timestep
(Dt z 1 ), making one runner full rotation worth 360 timesteps. For
each timestep, 5 internal iteration loops were performed. Transient
numerical simulations were conducted on the RPT full flow pas-
sage, where three runner models namely RBN8 (8 blades), RBN9 (9
blades) and RBN10 (10 blades) were investigated. Different
operating conditions were investigated, though this study only
selected 5 operating points (OPs), expanding from turbine (OP2,
OP4, and OP6) through runaway (OP8) to turbine brake zone (OP9),
to be analyzed in this article. Table 2 displays the details of all
investigated operating conditions, while through Fig. 5, experi-
mental results in terms of RPT external characteristic curves (H - Q
and h - Q) are compared with numerical simulation ones. As it can
be seen, numerical results were consistent with experimental ones,
with a global error rate of values less than 5% on a global scale. The
882 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891

Fig. 7. Velocity streamlines under OP9 conditions for RBN8 (a), RBN9 (b), and RBN10 (c).
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 8. Pressure monitoring points positions at the runner inlet zone. (a) Circumferential direction, (b) Spanwise direction.
noticed overestimation of experimental results by the used nu-
merical scheme can be attributed to different factors; the simpli-
fication of the used computational model by ignoring some flow
domains like the runner back and front chambers among others.
However, it could be globally found that the here-used numerical
scheme could accurately predict the RPT flow field characteristics,
making the results as presented in this article quite reliable.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Runner flow field analysis
For the sake of a detailed description of RPT flow instability
onset and development, different operating conditions have been
investigated where the MOCs gradually vary from turbine to low
flow conditions (turbine brake zone). Under these circumstances,
as also displayed through Table 2, the RPT discharge flow Q (m3s1)
continuously decreases while the runner rotational speed n (rpm)
correspondingly increases. Fig. 6 shows the evolution of flow
structures and corresponding vorticity contours at different span-
wise layers within the RPT runner inter-blade channels for RBN9
model. The five investigated layers span from the runner hub to the
shroud side as follows: layer SP1 at 0.024, layer SP2 at 0.262, layer
SP3 at 0.5, layer SP4 at 0.738, and layer SP5 at 0.976 (see Fig. 8 (b)).
As shown in Fig. 6, under high flow conditions (9RBN-OP2), runner
inter-blade flow streams are quite disturbed where large vortical
flow structures (VFSs) are formed at every blade’s suction side,
almost blocking the inter-blade flow passage, which in turn leads to
an accelerated flow at every blade’s pressure side. These vortices
are, as shown by the corresponding vorticity measure contours, the
results of the wakes as formed at every blade’s leading edge. These
ones are also believed to take source from the high flow operating
conditions and resulting large flow incidence angle at the runner
blade leading edge. It can also be noticed that, under high flow
conditions, inter-blade VFSs are more concentrated around the
blade mid-span (SP3 and SP4) and get weaker and weaker from
mid-span to shroud vicinities (from SP3 and SP4 to SP5).
This means that VFSs are tougher in both mid-span location and
the shroud side vicinities. When the MOCs shift from turbine high
flow to turbine medium flow conditions (RBN9-OP4), the inter-
blade flow velocity correspondingly decreases and the formerly
noticed blade suction side-attached vortices get weaker; but now
883
they even extend at the runner shroud vicinities. This may be
having a close relationship with the decreasing flow incidence
angle at blade leading edge as the flow discharge decreases, and the
resulting decrease in blade leading edge wakes. Under these con-
ditions, just as it is the case for high flow conditions, the toughest
vortical structures are located at layer SP4, which is the flow zone in
the mid-distance between the mid-span zone and the runner
shroud side.
Under low flow conditions (RBN9-OP6), as the flow discharge
continues to decrease, the formerly noticed blade leading edge flow
wakes completely disappear, while the inter-blade flow vortical
structures considerably weaken, at the same time shifting their
locus from blade suction side to pressure side, towards the blade
leading edge vicinities. Moreover, the toughest VFSs under these
conditions are merely located at layer SP2 which is the flow zone in
mid-distance between the mid-span zone and the runner hub side.
From these conditions to runaway conditions (RBN9-OP8), the
above discussed hub side vicinities VFSs get tougher again and
extend back to layers bellow (SP3 and SP4), with SP2 and SP3 layers
being the highly occupied ones. Under these conditions, with the
already considerably increased runner rotational speed and the
correspondingly decreasing flow discharge, flow streams at the
runner trailing edge downstream zones turn to a more inclined
trend.
The turbine brake conditions (RBN9-OP9), which mark the
emergence of a highest level of VFSs within the runner inter-blade
flow channels, is the most disturbed state of the five investigated
operating conditions. Under these conditions, VFSs expand all over
the five layers, with layer SP3 (blade mid-span zone) experiencing
the toughest VFSs. Moreover, due the present RPT runner’s very
high rotational speed, whereas the flow discharge is already
decreased to values close to zero; flow streamlines at the blade
trailing edge’s downstream zones turn to a completely horizontal
trend. This phenomenon is linked with the flow velocity’s
tangential continual increase as the runner rotational speed in-
creases, and the decrease of its axial component as the flow
discharge tends to zero, which therefore pushes the water flow at
the runner blade downstream zone to follow the tangential
component more than they tend to go down towards the draft tube
flow zone. From the above RPT flow instability development
description, it is therefore obvious that inter-blade flow separations
are the trigger of the followed VFSs development which grew to
884 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891

Fig. 9. Runner inlet pressure pulsation frequency spectra for RBN9 model: (a) OP2, (b) OP4, (c) OP6, (d) OP8, and (e) OP9.

block some of the runner flow channels especially under low flow
conditions. These inter-blade flow separations were found to also
depend on the flow incidence angle at the runner blade leading
edge. Moreover, the flow vorticity measurements of the here
investigated conditions, as expressed through flow velocity curl
contours show that, as the MOCs change from turbine through
runaway to turbine brake operating zones, inter-blade high
vorticity zones gradually shift towards the runner inlet zones, thus
confirming the presence of a high level flow instability at the
runner inlet zones and vaneless space, especially under runaway
and turbine brake conditions.
Taking from the grounds that the turbine brake zone presents
the most disturbed flow structures, the next section seeks to
investigate the effect of runner blade number of this situation. To
do so, the flow structures at the above mentioned five spanwise
layers for three runner blade numbers; namely 8 blades, 9 blades
and 10 blades are displayed for turbine brake operating conditions
through Fig. 7. In this figure, just as it is the case for the above
discussed low flow conditions, VFSs are expanded all over the 5
layers from Hub to Shroud for the three investigated blade
numbers, where mid-span zones and the flow zones in the vicin-
ities are occupied by tough VFSs (SP2, SP3, and SP4), whereas flow
streams in flow zones close to hub and shroud sides are smoother
with comparatively weak VFSs. Moreover, VFSs are found to
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 10. Runner Inlet pressure fluctuation amplitudes variation under different operating conditions. (a) 8RBN, (b) 9RBN, (C) 10RBN.
generally get weaker and weaker with the increase of runner blade
number. For instance, it can be seen that the number of inter-blade
channels with no flow blockage by the developed VFSs on the mid-
span layer (SP3) changes from 1 for RBN8 model to 2 for RBN9 and
finally to 5 for RBN10. Therefore, one would conclude that the in-
crease in runner blade number can bring a bit of improvement in
terms of runner inter-blade flow dynamics under off-design
conditions.
3.2. Pressure pulsation analysis
In order to get an understanding on how the above discussed
runner inter-blade flow dynamics affect the pressure pulsation
characteristics at the runner inlet zones, pressure fluctuations at
the runner inlet has been investigated. To do so, different pressure
monitoring points have been placed at different locations around
the runner inlet as follows: 24 monitoring points have been equi-
distantly distributed around the runner inlet circumference on
three of the five formerly used spanwise layers, where GU1 to GU24
are located layer SP1, GS1 to GS24 on layer SP3, and GR1 to GR24 on
layer SP5 (see Fig. 8 (a)). Moreover, for the sake of exploring the
variation of pressure pulsation characteristics along the spanwise
direction, two more monitoring points were positioned on the
885
formerly used SP2 and SP4 layers (GU71 and GS71 respectively),
thus making a spanwise succession of five monitoring points from
the hub to shroud side (GU7, GU71, GS7, GS71, and GR7), as shown
in Fig. 8 (b).
In order to investigate the pressure pulsation characteristics and
their eventual variations with the gradually changing RPT operating
conditions from turbine through runaway to turbine brake condi-
tions, four monitoring points with a constant angular interval of
90 on the mid-span layer SP3 of the RBN9 model, were selected for
further pressure pulsation characteristics analysis. Fig. 9 presents
the FFT-based pressure pulsation frequency spectra at monitoring
points GS1, GS7, GS13, and GS19; for five operating conditions. In
good agreement with the VFSs evolution as found in Fig. 6, runner
inlet zone pressure pulsation amplitudes (PPAs) tremendously
decreased from turbine-high flow to turbine-medium flow condi-
tions then increased again under turbine-low flow conditions. At
runaway, PPAs got to the highest values of the five investigated
operating conditions, where they decreased again towards the
turbine brake conditions. For all the five investigated operating
conditions, the Rotor-Stator Interactions (RSI)-born blade passing
frequency (BPF) and its harmonics are the dominant frequencies,
where BPF is the first, 2BPF the second for some locations and 3BPF
the third or fourth dominant pressure pulsation frequency. Note
886 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 11. Runner inlet pressure pulsation frequency spectra in the spanwise direction for (a) RBN8-OP9, (b) RBN9-OP9, and (c) RBN10-OP9.
that the BPF under any operating conditions is found by multiplying
the runner rotational frequency by the number for runner blades
(z  fn). Therefore, the blade passing frequencies for five investi-
gated operating conditions in Fig. 9 are 25.5Hz, 52.492Hz, 74.98Hz,
75Hz, and 74.815Hz respectively. In addition to RSI related pressure
pulsation components, low frequency pressure pulsation compo-
nents are also present for all operating conditions. Note that this
component is associated with flow unsteadiness within the vane-
less space, where back flows from the runner inter-blade flow
zones constitute the main contributing factor. Low frequency
components are found to decrease in amplitude when the machine
shifts from OP2 to OP4 conditions. For both these conditions, low
frequency components and their amplitudes are quite distin-
guishable, unlike the ones for the followed OP6 conditions, where a
multitude of low frequencies can be noticed marking the emer-
gence of serious flow unsteadiness at runner inlet zones. Under
runaway conditions, more inter-blade flow channels are blocked by
the emerged VFSs leading to more back flow at the runner inlet
zones, which in turn enhances detrimental pressure pulsations in
the same zones. Under these conditions, the amplitudes of low
frequency components get higher before getting to their highest
level under the turbine brake conditions. It’s therefore obvious that
the level of runner inter-blade VFSs can play an important role in
deciding the fate of runner inlet pressure pulsation characteristics.
In the next section, the impact of runner blade number on pressure
pulsation characteristics within the runner inlet zones, is explored.
In this respect, in order to have an idea on the global level of
pressure pulsation for monitored locations in each of the three
investigated models, the averaged relative pressure pulsation
amplitude measurement Ap, for which the mathematical expres-
sion is given by equation (6), is used.
X
24
Ap ¼ 100=24rgH ðPimax  Pimin Þ (6)
i¼1
The used symbols r, g, H, Pimax, and Pimin stand for flow density
(kgm3), gravitational acceleration (ms2), hydraulic head (m),
Individual maximum and minimum pressure pulsation amplitudes
(pa) respectively. In Fig. 10, relative pressure pulsation amplitudes
at all five operating conditions for the three investigated runner
blade numbers (8, 9, and 10 blades) are presented. In this figure,
layer SP1 represents the flow zones at the hub side and vicinities,
SP3 the flow zones at the mid-span and vicinities, and SP3 the flow
zones at the shroud side and vicinities. For the three models, the
pressure pulsation amplitudes fall from OP2 to OP4, from where
they grow through OP6 until OP8 before falling back to OP9 con-
ditions; making pressure pulsation amplitudes under OP2 and OP8
flow conditions the lowest and highest for every individual model.
This situation is in good agreement with the above Figs. 6 and 9.
Moreover, it is generally found that the difference between
pressure pulsation amplitudes at different spanwise locations is
almost null for both OP2 and OP4, whereas it continuously grows
for the rest of points with OP8 conditions recording the highest
pulsation amplitude differences between layers in spanwise di-
rection from runner hub to shroud side. It can also been seen that,
at the exception of OP2 and OP4 for which spanwise pressure
pulsation amplitudes differences are negligibly small, pressure
pulsation amplitudes are generally found to grow from hub
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 12. Runner inlet Pressure pulsation components distribution in the spanwise direction. (a) BPF, (b) 2BPF, (c) 3BPF, and (d) Low frequencies.
through mid-span to shroud side vicinities, thus making pressure
pulsations on layer SP5 the highest on a global scale. Pressure
pulsation amplitude differences between the hub side and mid-
span zones is found to keep almost constant with negligible vari-
ations at all operating points, whereas the shroud side zones
experience big growths as compared to flow zones above, with OP8
conditions recording the peak value of all, followed by OP9
conditions.
Taking from the grounds that pulsation amplitudes at runaway
and turbine brake are twice to three times the ones occurring under
turbine operating conditions, it may then be reasonable to only
consider OP8 and OP9 conditions when quantifying the impact of
runner blade number on runner inlet pressure pulsation charac-
teristics. In line with this, it was globally found that pressure pul-
sation amplitudes were the highest under OP8 conditions at the
RBN9 model’s shroud layer and vicinities whereas the lowest pul-
sation amplitudes were recorded under OP4 conditions at the
RBN10 model’s mid-span layer and vicinities.
In other details, pulsation amplitudes at the three investigated
layers (SP1, SP3, and SP5) under turbine brake conditions (OP9)
were found to generally grow from RBN8 to RBN9 and then fall back
to RBN10. This situation persisted even for flows at the shroud side
and vicinities, under runaway conditions (OP8). However, for the
flow zones above (SP3 and SP1), pressure pulsations amplitudes
887
grew from RBN8 through RBN9 to RBN10. It’s therefore obvious that
RBN9 presented a highest level of pressure pulsation, where for all
the models, pressure pulsation levels were the highest at runner
shroud side and flow zones in its vicinities.
In the next sections, an effort has been done to devise the effect
of runner blade number on pressure pulsation distribution. In line
with this, Fig. 11 displays the FFT-based frequency spectra of
pressure pulsations under turbine brake conditions (OP9) for the
three investigated models, at flow locations in the spanwise di-
rection. Just as it was shown by Fig. 9, under turbine brake condi-
tions, dominant pressure pulsation frequencies are generally the
BPF and its harmonics (2BPF, 3BPF, 4BPF, …), where BPF is the 1st
dominant frequency. However, for some flow zones, the 2nd
dominant frequency can sometimes be the low frequency compo-
nent rather than 2BPF. In this figure, it can be seen that with the
increase of runner blade number, the BPF also increases. Therefore,
in a corresponding way, for a fixed pressure pulsation frequencies
range from 0 to 400Hz, different models exhibited different
numbers of BPF harmonic frequencies, where this number de-
creases with an increasing blade number. The distribution of
different dominant frequencies for the three cases in Fig. 11, are
presented through Fig. 12. It can be seen that for all the presented
pressure pulsation frequency components, the pulsation ampli-
tudes at the runner hub side (GU7) exhibit a quick shift to higher
888 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 13. Runner inlet pressure pulsation frequency spectra in the circumferential direction for (a) RBN8-OP9, (b) RBN9-OP9, and (c) RBN10-OP9.
values at GU71 especially for RBN9 and RBN10 models, after which
they slight grow towards the shroud side and flow zones in the
vicinities (GR7 and GS71). This situation, in total agreement with
Fig. 10, shows that runner inlet flow instabilities are more likely to
be based in flow domains at the runner mid-span and shroud side
vicinities for turbine brake conditions.
In addition to that, at the exception of low frequency compo-
nents, pressure pulsations amplitudes for BPF and its harmonics
(2BPF and 3BPF) at RBN8 and RBN9 models are higher than those of
RBN10 model. For the BPF components, for which the pulsation
amplitudes are twice to three times the rest of components, the
highest of its amplitudes is found to be at flow locations in the
vicinities of runner shroud side (GS71) of the RBN9 model, thus
making this model the one with highest pressure pulsations as
even found in Fig. 10. It can also be noticed that, as mentioned in the
above sections, the low frequency components exhibited higher
amplitudes than 3BPF components, thus having a global impact of
almost same level as the 2BPF components. The amplitudes of low
frequency components, at the exception of runner hub side and
flow zones in the vicinities, have been found to increase with the
runner blade number.
Fig. 13 presents the FFT-based pressure pulsation frequency
spectra at 24 locations (GS1 to GS24) around the circumference of
the mid-span layer, for the three investigated models under turbine
brake conditions (OP9). The resemblance of this figure and pressure
pulsation characteristics to the formerly discussed ones (Figs. 9 and
11) is obvious. The distribution of pressure pulsation dominant
frequency components in a circumferential direction is presented
through Fig. 14. For the BPF component and its harmonics, the
amplitudes of RBN10 are far lower than the ones for RBN9 and
RBN8. These two present the pulsation amplitudes which are close
in numbers and self-crossing along the entire circumference, where
at a bigger number of locations, RBN9 pulsation amplitudes are
higher than RBN8’s. For instance, RBN9-associated BPF amplitudes
are higher than the RBN8 ones at GS7 to GS13, GS16, GS18 to GS22,
and finally at GS24. While there is an almost symmetric distribution
of BPF pressure pulsation amplitudes of both RBN8 and RBN9 with
respect to the rotational axis, corresponding amplitudes for RBN10
seem to be periodical with four distinct peaks at GS9-GS10, GS16,
GS22, and GS2-GS4. This trend persists even for 2BPF components;
where RBN10 still presents the lowest level of pulsation amplitudes
while RBN8 now dominates a big number of locations.
There is also a noticeable resemblance between the pulsation
amplitudes distribution of RBN8 and RBN9-related BPF and 3BPF.
While Deyou et al. [57] attributed such a distribution trend as the
one of 2BPF amplitudes and others of the same kind to flow tur-
bulence distribution pattern around the runner inlet zones, which
is a demonstrable truth, one would even think of an implicated
close relationship with different respective sources, in such a way
that any similarly distributing signals may be contributed by one of
the interacting components (Rotor or Stator).
In other details, one would notice that pressure pulsation am-
plitudes of low frequency components are actually higher than
those of 2BPF, thus making them the 2nd dominant frequencies
under certain cases. Moreover the peak amplitudes of this kind are
attained by RBN10 model at GS10 and GS11 locations, followed by
RBN9 and lastly RBN8. This situation resembles the one for span-
wise pressure pulsation distribution in Fig. 12 (d). The lowest
pressure pulsation amplitudes on a global scale are of the 3BPF
component, and are exhibited by RBN10 model. Therefore, it is very
 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
Fig. 14. Runner Inlet Pressure pulsation components distribution in the circumferential direction. (a) BPF, (b) 2BPF, (c) 3BPF, and (d) Low frequency components.
obvious that runner blade number considerably affects both the
pressure pulsation levels and respective distribution at runner inlet
zone.
4. Conclusions
In this study, 3D numerical simulations of the flow through RPT
full flow passage are carried out to mainly investigate two aspects.
The first is the onset and development of flow turbulence within
the runner inter-blade channels and associated pressure pulsation
characteristics at runner inlet zone, while the second is the effect of
runner blades number on the same. Three runner models with
different blade numbers were used namely RBN8, RBN9, and
RBN10; where for each model, five operating conditions expanding
from turbine zone (OP2-OP6) through runaway (OP8) to turbine
brake (OP9), were investigated. A number of conclusions were
drawn as follows:
(1) The flow instability first decreases from turbine-high flow
conditions towards the BEP conditions, from where it in-
creases again to lower flow operating conditions, where VFSs
grow to block some runner channels, leading to more back
flow in the vaneless space. The flow unsteadiness under
turbine conditions (high, medium, and low flow conditions)
are mainly caused by large flow incidence angle-triggered
wakes, while the ones under low flow operating conditions
889
may be taking source from inter-blade flow separations,
probably resulting from critical operating conditions in this
stage, where the runner rotational speed is very high
whereas the corresponding flow velocity radial components
nears zero. From turbine through runaway to turbine brake
zones, VFSs were found to shift from mid-span and shroud
vicinities to Hub zones, before shift back to mid-span and
shroud side zones and the vicinities. Inter-blade VFSs were
also found to weaken with runner blade number increase.
(2) In a corresponding way, runner inlet pressure pulsations
were found to decrease and increase as the machine gradu-
ally changed its operating conditions from high flow through
runaway to low flow conditions. The RSI-associated BPF
component was the dominant frequency. Under runaway
and turbine brake zones, with the increased vaneless space
back flow, new low frequency component rose with ampli-
tudes higher than the RSI-born components (3BPF) in some
cases. Pressure pulsations in flow zones at the runner shroud
side and the vicinities were the highest, where runner
models with 9 and 10 blades recorded the highest and lowest
level of pressure pulsations respectively. Therefore, it is
obvious that the runner blade number is an important design
feature which considerably affects RPT operating perfor-
mance characteristics, thus needing more attention at the
design stage.
890 X.-B. Li et al. / Renewable Energy 152 (2020) 876e891
3) Future researches will compare the dynamic numerical
simulation results with the one presented in this article,
where different operating conditions will be simulated at
once, by continuously decreasing the inlet flow rate at the
same time increasing the runner rotational speed, from tur-
bine through runaway to turbine brake zones. Moreover, an
optimization study will be carried out to select an adequate
combination of guide vane opening-runner blade number
(GVO-RBN), targeting a considerable reduction of runner
inlet flow instability and associated pressure pulsations.
Author contribution
Conceptualization: Xiao-Bin Li, Maxime Binama; Methodology:
Biao Li, Xiao-Bin Li; software: Maxime Binama, Alexis Muhirwa;
validation: Xiao-Bin Li, Wen-Tao Su; formal analysis: Xiao-Bin Li,
Maxime Binama, Wei-Hua Cai; resources: Xiao-Bin Li, Wei-Hua Cai;
writing and original draft preparation, Xiao-Bin Li, Maxime
Binama; writing-review and editing: Maxime Binama, Wei-Hua
Cai, Feng-Chen Li; supervision: Wei-Hua Cai, Feng-Chen Li; funding
acquisition: Wen-Tao Su and Wei-Hua Cai.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding
the publication of this article.
Acknowledgement
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation
of China (51606050, 51976043), Chinese Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (2016M591527), Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Fund (LBH-
Z16057), Natural Science Foundation of Heilongjiang Province
(E2017038), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central
Universities, China (HIT.NSRIF.2019062).
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