TANAKPUR POWER PROJECT

NATIONAL HYDROELECTRIC POWER CORPORATION

ANIMESH RANJAN, MECH ENGG, NITK SURATHKAL

Salient Features
Tanakpur Power Station is a run-of-river scheme utilizing about 22m head between Tanakpur Barrage and Banbassa Barrage to generate upto 120 MW power. First of its kind, it is also the first hydroelectric power station set up by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation in the Central Sector on the Sarda Basin in Uttarakhand. It is also the biggest power station constructed by NHPC with its 475.3m long Barrage consisting of 22 bays and a 78.45m long head regulator with 6 bays. The power channel ranging over 6.4 km with discharge capacity over 566 cumecs at full supply depth of 9m is the largest of its kind constructed so far.

 A surface Power House consisting of 3 Generating Units of 40 MW each. Tail Race, over 1.15 km long to discharge the water back into the river upstream of Banbassa Barrage. A 110 Km long 220 KV D/C line for evacuating power from the Power Station to Northern Grid at Bareilly. A 15 Km long 132 KV S/C line for supplying power to Nepal. Design of the project to meet the requirements of 452 million units of electricity in 90% dependable year. Over 6.6 lakh trees have been planted as part of the efforts to green the environment with a survival rate of 70%.

 The project required over 10000 workers and engineers for completion. There are plans to execute 5 more projects in the Sards Basin. The 280 MW Dhauliganga H.E. Stage I Project has already been completed in March, 2005. The Power Station has been set up at an estimated cost of almost Rs. 400 Crores including transmission line and interest during construction.

Details of Runner

 A water turbine runner comprising a plurality of blades coaxially fixed to one axis each of said blades is composed of an iron-based material, wherein each blade is provided with a smooth surface weld metal on the surface where erosion due to cavitation liable to take place, said weld metal being made of an erosion-resistant metal consisting essentially of up to 0.5 wt% of C, 10 to 30 wt% of Cr, 0.5 to 30 wt% of Co, up to 1 wt% of Si, up to 3 wt% of Mn, and the balance of Fe. Parameters for either preliminary or final runner type choosing are as follows :

Net head Flow discharge Specific speed Runaway speed Power to net head ratio Cost

 Net head is gross head decreased for head of energy losses during water flow between two points regarded. Gross head is vertical difference between level of two points regarded. Flow discharge is a time dependent value. It varies from minimum to maximum through seasons. For turbine runner type selecting mean value called rated discharge is needed. Specific speed is a non dimensional value that can be calculated from net head and flow discharge and turbine speed of rotation. Thus, runner type can also be determined. Runaway speed is theoretical maximum turbine runner speed of rotation that one can attain if being disconnected from electric load. Power to net head ratio and cost are result of chosen runner type and are considered after preliminary runner type selection.

3D visualization of water turbine flow

When numerical simulations of turbulent flow have been performed, the major task of post-processing (investigating) the results begin. The more complex flow and geometry, the more complex it is to investigate. The flow in water turbines is indeed very complex and the threedimensionality of the geometry makes it hard to investigate on a flat screen. Modern commercial post-processors, such as Ensight and Tecplot, are very good at representing the three-dimensionality on a flat screen using perspective view, lighting and shading that creates a virtual reality. Some commercial post-processors even ignore the flatness of the screen and let the model "float" in space in front of the user, using sophisticated graphics cards and LCD shutter glasses. However, when it comes to user interaction and virtual reality immersion, this kind of system is not sufficient.

 To go beyond the limits of these systems, large-screen Immersadesks and Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) systems can be used. In these environments a full 3D picture of the model can be viewed and tracking of the user movements can be included. The same thing would of course be possible on a workstation flat-screen, but the limitations of a small screen are too big to make it useful. The results of computations of the flow in water turbines, which are performed in this work, are investigated both on flat-screen workstations and in a CAVE environment. The CAVE visualization is performed in a collaboration with Chalmers Medialab and people at CERCA. The 3D-Cube that is used for these visualizations has five walls (four walls and a floor) with 3D graphics, a Polhemus 3space Fastrak Longranger electromagnetic tracking system, a complete 3D sound system and a number of different input devices. This is what it may look like in action:

Turbine Generator Assembly

A central assembly includes a shaft, a generator and a water turbine which are axially spaced apart and non-rotatably connected to shaft, and bearing means for shaft. A housing assembly is mounted or adapted to be mounted in a duct structure, which defines a flow passage. The housing assembly comprises a shell, which surrounds or is adapted to surround central assembly so that turbine is adapted to receive water from flow passage, at least two arms, each of which projects radially from shell and has an outer end which is anchored or adapted to be anchored in duct structure. An inner end disposed inside shell, a plurality of spars, each of which extends in shell substantially parallel to the axis of shaft and is rigid with the inner end of one of arms. The first end portion disposed or adapted to be disposed near turbine and second end portion disposed or adapted to be disposed near generator, a peripheral reinforcing flange disposed in and rigid with shell and with first end of each of spars, and retaining means disposed in and rigid with shell and second end portion of each of spars, whereby arms are rigidly interconnected.

 The precise shape of hydraulic turbine blades is a dependant on the supply pressure of water, and the type of impeller selected. Following is a list of water turbines divided into two groups - reaction turbines and impulse turbines.
Reaction turbines: Francis Kaplan, Propeller, Bulb, Tube, Straflo Tyson Water Wheel Archimedean screw turbine Impulse turbines: Pelton Turgo Michell-Banki (also known as the Crossflow or Ossberger turbine)

 Reaction turbines are acted on by water, which changes pressure as it moves through the turbine and gives up its energy. They must be encased to contain the water pressure, or they must be fully submerged in the water flow. Impulse turbines change the velocity of a water jet. The jet impinges on the turbine's curved blades which change the direction of the flow. The resulting change in momentum causes a force on the turbine blades. Prior to hitting the turbine blades, the water pressure is converted to kinetic energy by a nozzle and focused on the turbine.

 In general, impulse turbines are used for high head sites, and reaction turbines are used for low head sites.

Kaplan turbine
Higher specific speed corresponds to a lower head. This requires that the runner should admit a comparatively large quantity of water. For a runner of given diameter, the maximum flow rate is achieved when the flow is parallel to the axis. Such a machine is known as axial flow reaction turbine. An Australian engineer, Vikton Kaplan first designed such a machine. The machines in this family are called Kaplan Turbines.

 The Kaplan turbine is an inward flow reaction turbine, which means that the working fluid changes pressure as it moves through the turbine and gives up its energy. The design combines radial and axial features. The inlet is a scroll-shaped tube that wraps around the turbine's wicket gate. Water is directed tangentially through the wicket gate and spirals on to a propeller shaped runner, causing it to spin. The outlet is a specially shaped draft tube that helps decelerate the water and recover kinetic energy. The turbine does not need to be at the lowest point of water flow, as long as the draft tube remains full of water. A higher turbine location, however, increases the suction that is imparted on the turbine blades by the draft tube. The resulting pressure drop may lead to cavitation.

 Variable geometry of the wicket gate and turbine blades allow efficient operation for a range of flow conditions. Kaplan turbine efficiencies are typically over 90%, but may be lower in very low head applications.

Development of Kaplan Runner from the Change in the Shape of Francis Runner with Specific Speed
Figure below shows in stages the change in the shape of a Francis runner with the variation of specific speed. The first three types [Fig. 30.2 (a), (b) and (c)] have, in order. The Francis runner (radial flow runner) at low, normal and high specific speeds. As the specific speed increases, discharge becomes more and more axial. The fourth type, as shown in Fig.30.2 (d), is a mixed flow runner (radial flow at inlet axial flow at outlet) and is known as Dubs runner which is mainly suited for high specific speeds. Figure 30.2(e) shows a propeller type runner with a less number of blades where the flow is entirely axial (both at inlet and outlet). This type of runner is the most suitable one for very high specific speeds and is known as Kaplan runner or axial flow runner.

Figure below shows a schematic diagram of propeller or Kaplan turbine. The function of the guide vane is same as in case of Francis turbine. Between the guide vanes and the runner, the fluid in a propeller turbine turns through a right-angle into the axial direction and then passes through the runner. The runner usually has four or six blades and closely resembles a ship's propeller. Neglecting the frictional effects, the flow approaching the runner blades can be considered to be a free vortex with whirl velocity being inversely proportional to radius, while on the other hand, the blade velocity is directly proportional to the radius. To take care of this different relationship of the fluid velocity and the blade velocity with the changes in radius, the blades are twisted. The angle with axis is greater at the tip that at the root.

Simulation of water flow through a Kaplan turbine

 As it is almost impossible to carry out the prototype hydroturbine experiment before the power plant is built up, rational prediction of pressure fluctuations in the prototype turbine is very important at the design stage. From this viewpoint, we at first treated the unsteady turbulent flow computation based on the modified RNG k- turbulence model through the whole flow passage to simulate the pressure fluctuation in a model turbine. Since fair agreement was recognized between the numerical results and the experimental data, this numerical method was applied to simulate the pressure fluctuations in the prototype turbine. From the comparison of them with the model turbine results, it is seen that their qualitative trend of pressure fluctuations are similar, but an appreciable difference is observed between the amplitudes of pressure fluctuation of the prototype turbine and that of the model turbine.

 Though the present findings may be explained by the effect of Reynolds number, further studies are expected for quantitative interpretation. We paid attention to the interaction between the fluid and turbine structure. Adopting a weak fluid-solid coupling method, we studied the pressure fluctuation in the prototype turbine to clarify how the elastic behavior of runner blades influenced the characteristics of pressure fluctuation.

Simulation videos

Francis Turbine Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulation- Energy

Francis Turbine Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulation- Displacement

Hydraulic Turbine Simulation including 2way Fluid-Structure Interactions

3 Virtual Turbines- Pelton, Francis and Kaplan

Ot er activities a
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T r m te better e vir me t a ec l gy, NH C as c m e sat ry aff restati sc eme. Over 6.66 lak s trees ave alrea y bee la te at vari by G vt f U .

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Welfare activities
T e er stati as a te be e s ital i t e cam s c tai i g q alifie ct rs a ara-me ical staff. Facilities available are mi r OT, e tal secti , lab r r m a X-ray. Over 200 atie ts are exami e aily at t e OPD. T e s ital as t ree amb la ces a it als c cts imm isati r grammes s c as He atitis-B, Puls Poli, etc. Free me ical cam s are orga ise i t e surrounding villages and os itals at Bareilly and Haldwani ave also been em anelled for serious atients.

 Campus
The employees are provided residential accommodation close to the power house in a lush green and modern campus with necessary facilities.

Guest house
There are two guests houses namely Ganga Sadan and Sardan apart from a field hostel having all necessary amenities.

Security
To safeguard the power station, round the clock security is provided by Central Industrial Security Force(CISF) and ex-servicemen security guards.

Education
The campus houses a Parent body nursery school and a Kendriya Vidyalaya, catering to the educational requirements of students of the employees and security personnel. The Kendriya Vidyalaya has a modern and well furnished science laboratory

Canteen
Canteen facility has been provided through public-private partnerships.

Animesh Ranjan

Btech. Mechanical Engineering

National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal.