Hydraulic turbines—basic principles and state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics applications

• Published in: Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part C, Journal of mechanical engineering science Vol. 213; no. 1; pp. 85 - 102
• Main Authors: Drtina, P, Sallaberger, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications 01.01.1999; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Computational fluid dynamics; Machine design; Mathematical models; Navier Stokes equations; stage simulation; hill chart; Navier-Stokes and Euler computations; hydraulic turbines; flow prediction
• ISSN: 0954-4062; 2041-2983
• DOI: 10.1243/0954406991522202

Abstract The present paper discusses the basic principles of hydraulic turbines, with special emphasis on the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a tool which is being increasingly applied to gain insight into the complex three-dimensional (3D) phenomena occurring in these types of fluid machinery. The basic fluid mechanics is briefly treated for the three main types of hydraulic turbine: Pelton, Francis and axial turbines. From the vast number of applications where CFD has proven to be an important help to the design engineer, two examples have been chosen for a detailed discussion. The first example gives a comparison of experimental data and 3D Euler and 3D Navier-Stokes results for the flow in a Francis runner. The second example highlights the state-of-the-art of predicting the performance of an entire Francis turbine by means of numerical simulation.