Effect of Rotational Speed on Pressure Pulsation Characteristics of Variable-Speed Pump Turbine Unit in Turbine Mode

Abstract

The pumped storage power station plays a vital role in modern power systems, where the key component is the pump turbine. Variable-speed operation can improve the operating efficiency of the pump turbine and increase the operating efficiency under turbine operating conditions and the automatic frequency regulation capability under pump operating conditions, thus obtaining higher efficiency and better stability. However, its operation characteristics are different from many conventional pumped storage units, which makes the study of variable-speed pump turbines more difficult. Therefore, in this paper, 10 representative pressure monitoring points are selected in the model to compare and study the flow characteristics and pressure pulsation characteristics of a variable-speed pump turbine at three speeds (N1-398.57 m/s, N2-412.16 m/s, and N3-428.6 m/s). According to our results, it is shown that the maximum pressure and pressure pulsation are small at low rotational speeds, which means that the unit will maintain better stability during the reduction in rotational speed and reducing the speed will not affect the safety and stability of the equipment. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance for the safe operation of the unit and to improve the effect of speed in terms of dynamic behavior of variable-speed water pump turbine units. Meanwhile, this study will lay the groundwork for the optimal design of variable-speed pump turbines.

Keywords

• variable-speed pump turbine
• numerical simulation
• flow characteristics
• pressure pulsation