CFD Analysis Of Flow In Francis Hydraulic Turbine Runner

As the core component of hydropower station, hydraulic turbine plays an important role in the integrity of the station. Research on the technology of hydraulic turbine is continuously increasing with the development of water and electricity. However, both in our nation and in foreign countries, damage of overflowing parts in many hydropower stations are caused by some unsolved technical problems.Therefore several technical problems which are affecting the high efficiency and the stable operation of hydraulic turbine should be solved.CFD technology which is developed in recent years has the characteristics of agility, short cycle, low cost, and so on. This technology provides researcher with a new and effective researching means. We think that properly applying mathematic model and computational technology for turbulent flow in the hydraulic turbine, and conducting flow simulation and computation are the feasible researching methods and are also the development trend of hydraulic turbine flow computation.According to actual hydraulic parameters of a specific station, this paper establishes the geometric model for full overflowing passage of the hydraulic turbine. Through using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), this paper conducts three-dimensional numerical simulation and analysis to the internal flow and the characteristics of the turbine. This paper also emphasizes on simulation of internal flow and characteristic of Francis turbine runner by using FINE series software produced by NUMECA Company. Main contents are:1,According to actual hydraulic parameters of a specific station, establish three-dimensional geometric model for full overflowing passage of the hydraulic turbine.2,Introduce the three-dimensional geometric model into 1GGTM in the series of FINETM produced by NUMECA Company, and conducts structured mesh dividing, finally forms the single flow passage mesh used for computation.3,Apply EURANUS of FINE series software for boundary setting, solving and computing of fixed guide vane, movable guide vane and runner blade.4,Apply CFView^TM for solving convergence results and subsequent treatment. Velocity vector distribution, relative pressure distribution and static pressure distribution are obtained. The flowing status in the runner is analyzed and the efficiency and torque of turbine runner is accurately computed.