Prediction of energy and cavitation characteristics of high specific speed Francis hydraulic turbines

BACKGROUND: Cavitation is a phenomenon that occurs in vane hydraulic machines: pumps, hydraulic turbines, when the pressure in a certain area of the flow reaches the level of saturated steam pressure. Its occurrence depends on the design and mode of operation of the hydraulic turbine. In order to design a hydraulic turbine with high cavitation qualities, it is necessary to be able to reliably predict this phenomenon. AIMS: The article describes approaches to modeling the operation of Francis hydraulic turbines based on the ANSYS software package. METHODS: Using quasi-3D methods was modeled turbine blade system with 75 meters head. Hydrodynamic computation carried out in single-phase and two-phase formulations using the ANSYS CFX package. RESULTS: The design of a flow path Francis turbine 3D solid model with a specific speed coefficient ns =283 has been completed. The flow part of the hydraulic turbine includes a spiral case, a stator, a guide vane, an impeller and a draft tube. Computational modeling of the flow of a single-phase viscous fluid in a hydraulic turbine in different modes was carried out to construct a universal characteristic. The optimal efficiency is found and the flow characteristics are calculated. The losses in the elements of the flow part of the hydroturbine under various operating modes are determined, the zone of optimal operation is found. The cavitation flow is calculated using a two-phase flow model (water-steam). For both sides of the impeller blade, a pressure distribution was obtained, which can be used to judge the possibility of cavitation in areas where the pressure of the water column is less than the vaporization pressure. The value of the critical cavitation coefficient for the three most unfavorable modes was determined, and the dependence of the efficiency on the cavitation coefficient was constructed. The area occupied by steam on the blade during cavitation flow is visualized, its area is determined relative to the surface area of the blade. CONCLUSIONS: The designed hydraulic turbine has good energy and cavitation qualities, confirmed by the calculation. This version of the hydroturbine can be used as the initial one with further optimization of the blade system and elements of the flow path, to improve the energy and cavitation qualities.