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6 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
Krishna Khanal
Tribhuvan University
Kathmandu University
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Renewable Energy
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Article history:
Received 23 June 2015
Received in revised form
15 October 2015
Accepted 15 October 2015
Available online xxx
Sediment particles, especially quartz which has very high hardness factor, owing along with water
erodes turbo machinery parts such as guide vanes, runner, draft tube etc. Among them runner is very
crucial part, so its design should be optimum for minimum erosion by maintaining the highest possible
efciency.
This paper reports on methodology for designing Francis runner blade. This involves nding best
outlet angle (b2) and blade angle distribution (b-distribution) causing minimum possible erosion for
given volume ow rate (Q 14.34 m3/s), head (H 40 m), rpm (N 333.33 rpm) and eroding particle
ow rate (0.08 kg/s). At rst, the outlet angle b2 (designing parameter) was varied from 14 to 32 using
linear blade angle distribution for all models. Then these models were simulated to nd b2. In second,
with that b2, blade angle distribution was varied and simulated to nd the best blade angle distribution
having minimum erosion rate with considerable efciency. By using hydrodynamic theory for given Q
and H, main dimensions were found out and 3D model was generated using b-distribution. Relation of
designing parameters with erosion and efciency was made. Optimum blade was obtained from proposed methodology and was compared with the reference blade in terms of erosion and efciency.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Francis turbine
Erosion
Efciency
b-distribution
1. Introduction
The hydroelectric projects in the Himalayan range of Nepal is
facing severe silt erosion problem in turbines, which over a
period of time signicantly reduce the overall efciency of hydropower. Erosion is complex process which depends upon the
number of factors such as particle hardness, size, shape, concentration, velocity of water, base material of turbine, etc. [1].
Erosion in run-of-river is more challenging than that of reservoir
type. Rivers contain very high sediment concentration, especially
quartz, during the monsoon season. Quartz is one of the
extremely hard particle which causes mechanical wear on the
turbo components due to dynamic action of particles owing
along water [2].
Studying the dynamics of a Francis turbine has been a challenging and costly job. As Francis turbine is a reaction turbine, its
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: krishnakhanal2048@gmail.com (K. Khanal).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2015.10.023
0960-1481/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
308
Nomenclature
b1
b2
B
C
D
U
W
N
Cm
Cu
h
1
2
the application of CFD, FEM and FSI at different stages [4]. Neopane et al. presents the laboratory study of particle velocity
measurement in highly swirl conditions similar to turbine ow in
curved path [5]. Thapa et al. studied the relation between blade
angle distribution of runner blade and the erosion rate [6].
Gaungjie et al. investigated the relation between the wear rates
on the surface of runner blade and guide vane and the sediment
concentration, and analyzed the distribution of wear rates for
normal turbine operating condition [7].
The main objective of the research is to propose a methodology which minimizes the erosion in Francis runner blade by
considering efciency. This research also aims to obtain the
relation of designing parameters with erosion and efciency so
that it can help in prediction of designing parameters for any
analogous case. Based on the methodology, this paper intends to
propose an optimum blade and compare result with reference
blade. For this, Devighat Hydropower Plant (DHP) with head
(H) 40 m, volume ow rate (Q) 14.34 m3/s, speed
(N) 333.33 rpm situated at Nuwakot district of Nepal was taken
as the reference site. This study focuses on the erosion of the
Francis runner blade for design condition (not for partial and full
load condition) without considering the effect of guide vanes and
draft tubes. Coalesced effect of erosion and cavitation was also
not included in this study.
D2, U2, U1, D1, B and b1 are calculated from following relations [3].
D2
q
4:Q
P:Cm2
N 60.U2/(P.D2)
Cm2 U2.tan (b2)
h (U1Cu1 U2Cu2)/(gH)
Rearranging we have
q
240:Q
D2 3 p2 :N:tanb
U2 (P.D2.N)/60
Cm1 Cm2/1.1 (10% meridional acceleration)
p
C1 1 reaction degree:2gH (reaction degree 0.5 chosen)
q
Cu1 C 21 C 2m1
i
h
E k1 $f g$Vp2 $Cos2 g 1 R2T f VPN
where
f g 1 k1 k12 sin g
p
2
2
go
RT 1 k4 Vp sin g
4
f VPN k3 Vp sin g
k2
1:0 if g 2go
0:0 if g > 2go
309
310
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Average
40
80
125
170
215
260
305
350
0.28
0.21
0.27
0.24
0.32
0.30
0.26
0.35
0.28
vrk
v
v
rUj k
vt
vxj
vxj
"
"
DUi
vP
v
vUi vUj
m
vXi vXj
Dt
vxj
vxi
vru
v
v
rUj u
vt
vxj
vxj
The left hand side of the equation describes the change in mean
momentum of uid element and the right hand side of the equation
is the assumption of mean body force and divergence stress. ru;i u;j is
an unknown term and called Reynolds stresses. Due to the averaging procedure information is lost, which is then feed back into
the equations by turbulence model [9].
The shear-stress transport (SST) k-u model [9] was developed by
Menter to effectively blend the robust and accurate formulation of
the k-u model in the near-wall region with the free-stream independence of the k- model in the far eld. To achieve this, Baseline
(BSL) k-w model, which combines advantages of Wilcox k-w and k model, is provided with the proper transport behavior to limit the
over prediction of eddy viscosity. The equations are:
BSL model:
"
#
mt vu
m
su3 vxj
1 F1 2r
1 vk vu
u
a3 Pk
su2 u vxj vxj
k
b3 ru2 Pu b
#
ru0i u0j
#
0
mt vk
m
Pk b rku Pkb
sk3 vxj
vt
a1 k
maxa1 u; SF2
where
vt mt =r
Fig: 5. (a) Test specimen before test. (b) Test specimen after 350 min. (c) Result of CFD analysis d) Runner of JHC [12].
311
of elements in a domain so that the result does not vary signicantly with increase in the mesh size. This method helps to obtain
minimum number of mesh elements which saves the computation
time without deviating from the accuracy.
Head was chosen as observant parameter. Fig. 4 shows the
relation of head and mesh elements. Since, the change in head is
not so different for more than 600,000 elements. But for the convenience and fast computation study was carried out at
300,000 mesh elements with an error of only 0.2 m (with respect to
600,000 elements).
were compared.
The observation for wear pattern was made with painted surface. After running the apparatus for half an hour, it was observed
that paint in some location of blade surface was removed. Fig. 5(a)
and (b) shows the wear pattern in test specimen. The painted
surface has been found to be scratched severely in the outlet region
of blade while some minor scratches have also been observed
throughout the blade surface.
It can be seen that the erosion damage is mostly located in the
far outlet region near to the edge of the blade. The location of paint
removal is identical to the pattern of wear observed in the turbines
operating in real cases. Fig. 5(d) shows the wear observed in the
runner blades of JHC, which is also observed most severe in the
outlet region of the blades. The wear pattern observed during the
experiment is also quite similar to the pattern which has been
predicted from the CFD analysis.
Table 1 shows the rate of erosion in the specimens for each test.
The average rate of erosion was found to be 0.28 mg/gm/min, which
explains that in average, 0.28 mg of material was worn out of 1 g of
test specimen in a minute of operation. It can also be observed that
the overall trend of the erosion rate is increasing with the total
duration of the test run.
CFD results of JHC and DHP will be compared in result and
discussion section so as to conrm the validation of this study.
3.3. Methodology
In general there are two approaches to runner design; the direct
312
method and the inverse method. This study uses the direct method,
which begins by setting Q, H and N. Main dimensions such as inlet
diameter, outlet diameter, inlet height, inlet blade angle and outlet
blade angle of runner geometry were obtained by using basic hydrodynamic theory [3]. The modeling of the turbine include
creating 2D view in the BladeGen software, which is then converted
into the 3D view by applying the beta distribution. Fig. 6 shows a 3D
model blade obtained in BladeGen.
The 3D Models are created in two ways in two parts:
A) Method on Varying outlet angle:
Design parameter b2 was chosen from 14 to 32 with
difference of 2 i.e. 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32. Ten
models were created with linear beta distribution and
simulated to nd out best outlet angle.
B) Method on Varying b-distribution:
From the best outlet angle obtained on (A) part, b-distributions were varied as shown in the Fig. 7.
M-prime is dened as the non-dimensional parameter showing
the position of streamline of blade from leading edge. It ranges from
0 to 1; 0 represents the Leading Edge (LE) and 1 represents the
Trailing Edge (TE). Values from 0 to 1 show the point in streamline
of blade how far from the leading edge.
For the quantication of concave downward and concave upward,
new terms named as curvature percentage and curvature position
(same as M-prime) were dened. Certain percentage of angle is
increased at certain M-prime from the linear b-distribution to form
concave downward distribution (positive curvature percentage) and
certain percentage of angle is decreased at certain M-prime from the
linear b-distribution to form concave upward (negative curvature
percentage). Beizer curve points in the BladeGen were created to form
b-distribution. Fig. 8 describes the various terms such as curvature
percentage, curvature position (M-prime), b1 and b2. At LE, inlet blade
angle is b1 and at TE, outlet blade angle is b2.
Nine curvature position (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9)
with eleven curvature percentage (35%, 25%, 15%, 5%, 5%, 0%,
15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, 55%), total 91 models (blade with 0% is same for
all curvature position), were analyzed for the erosion and efciency
of blade. Positive curvature percentage at all curvature position
produces concave downward b-distribution whereas negative
curvature percentage at all curvature position produces concave
upward b-distribution. Beta-distribution of each blade was created
by BladeGen.
Relation of curvature position (x) and curvature percentage (y):
For each curvature position (x), angle deviation (D) from the
linear blade angle is given by:
y
*b b2
100 1
rDyut
m
Boundary conditions:
Analysis type:
Fluid and particle Denition:
Reference pressure:
Erosion model:
Eroding material:
Blade material:
Average diameter of quartz:
Shape factor:
Turbulence model:
Drag force:
Volume ow rate:
Flow direction:
Number of Position:
Mass ow rate of quartz:
Convergence Criterion:
Wall function:
The automatic wall treatment allows a consistent y insensitive mesh renement from coarse grids, which do not resolve
the viscous sub-layer, to ne grids placing mesh points inside
the viscous sub-layer [9]. CFX solver was used to solve the
domain.
3.4. Result and discussion
At rst erosion and efciency relation with b2 was observed and
best b2 was chosen. From Figs. 10 and 11, erosion as well as
313
Table 2
Detail of runner inlet.
Position
Hub
Mean
Shroud
22.2
18.7
23.64
18.7
26.08
18.7
63.04
54.4
43.05
Table 3
Detail of runner outlet without swirl.
Position
Hub
Mean
Shroud
12.18
31.94
17.46
23.52
27.06
15.68
efciency of b2 14 and b2 16 were nearly same and were best
than others. It can be noticed from the graph that erosion tends to
increase as outlet angle increases and efciency tends to decrease
with increase in outlet angle with some irregularities. By considering the manufacturing complexity, b2 14 is relatively difcult
to manufacture than b2 16 . So b2 16 was selected as best b2
whose corresponding b1 43 .
Different blade prole of selected outlet angle (b2 16 ) was
produced and then the result was plotted. Fig. 12 shows meridional
view of Francis runner including the main dimension of the blade
used in the simulation.
Fig. 12. Meridional view of runner blade showing main dimensions of b2 16o.
The hub and shroud curve were chosen arbitrarily and also the
leading edge and trailing edge of blade were made as shown in
Fig. 12. Each of the stream line has different inlet blade angle b1 and
different outlet blade angle b2. Table 2 and Table 3 summarize the
inlet and outlet blade angle at hub, mean and shroud of the blade.
All the dimension of geometry such as leading edge, trailing
edge, hub, shroud, b1 and b2 were kept same but blade angle distribution (b-distribution) from leading to trailing edge were varied.
Such variation was done to produce 91 blade models.
91 models were simulated and their erosion and efciency
pattern was observed. Erosion was not the absolute measurement
but only the relative one. The relation of erosion and efciency with
blade proles was obtained from these simulations. Also the optimum blade having minimum erosion relative to other blades
without compromising the efciency was selected and was then
compared to the reference one.
Fig. 13 shows the relation between erosion and curvature percentage for all curvature position. As maximum erosion take place
at single dot point on the blade and contribute more than 60% of
total erosion, so, y-axis is set as total erosion minus maximum
erosion and this compares the blade models effectively. The gure
reveals that erosion is relatively high at 35% curvature and higher
values of curvature position also has higher erosion. For example,
0.9 curvature position has highest erosion at 35%, 55% curvatures.
Although there is no exact regular pattern of erosion according to
curvature percentage, it can be seen that the trend of erosion decreases as we shift from negative curvature to zero curvature but
positive curvatures has almost same value of erosion with small
uctuation for all curvature position. It was observed that the
erosion increased with the increase of curvature towards the
trailing edge; that is at 0.9, 0.85, 0.8 have generally higher erosion
than other curvature positions.
Fig. 14 shows the representative graph for the erosion verses
curvature position. The plot shows that erosion increases as the
curvature is shifted towards trailing edge. It can also be seen that
larger area is eroded when the curvature position is shifted toward
trailing edge as the value of total minus maximum erosion is larger
when the curvature is near trailing edge.
It is necessary to observe the efciency of the models to determine the appropriate blade for specic hydro site. Fig. 15 shows the
efciency verses curvature percentage for all curvature positions.
The graph shows that efciency at negative curvatures is almost
constant with small deviation but there is signicant variation toward positive curvatures. Blade models with curvature position
greater than 0.45 have regular decrease in efciency as curvature
percentage increases from zero but other curvature position show
some irregularity in efciency as curvature percentage increases
from zero. The notable point is that the efciency is higher at
trailing edge (near 0.9 position) for negative curvature percentage
314
Fig. 13. Erosion verses Curvature percentage for all curvature position.
Table 4
Erosion and efciency of reference and optimum blade.
but has minimum efciency for leading edge curvature (near 0.1
position). This trend reverses after zero curvature; that is curvature
at leading edge has higher efciency compare to those having
curvature at trailing edge.
Blade
Erosion
Efciency
Reference
Optimum
1.7e-6 kg/m2/s
5.4E-8 kg/m2/s
95.46%
95.21%
Fig. 15. Efciency verses Curvature percentage for all Curvature position.
315
Fig. 16. Erosion on the pressure and suction side of reference blade respectively.
Fig. 17. Erosion on the pressure and suction side of optimum blade respectively.
optimum one respectively. Red color shows the eroded area on the
blade. The gures clearly shows that erosion is signicantly less in
optimized blade compare to the reference one. In optimized blade,
pressure side has only some small dots of erosion and has no more
erosion in the suction side.
3.4.2. Blade prole comparison
Fig. 18 shows blade prole comparison of optimum and reference blade. Red color prole is the optimized blade where as black
color prole is the reference blade.
316
Table 5
General parameters for CFX-Pre.
Parameter
DHP
JHC
Turbulence
Flow state
Flow type
Erosion model
SST
Steady
Inviscid
Tabakoff
SST
Steady
Inviscid
Tabakoff
Table 6
Parameters for CFX-pre sediment data.
Data
DHP
JHC
Material
Diameter
Shape factor
Flow rate
Quartz
0.12 mm
Off
0.08 kg/s
Quartz
0.1 mm
1
0.07 kg/s
Table 7
Result from CFX-post erosion analysis.
Parameter
DHP
JHC
Sediment erosion
Efciency
1.7E-6 kg/m2/s
95.46%
3.0E-7 kg/m2/s
95.05%
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