Effect of 3D Shape of Pump-Turbine Runner Blade on Flow Characteristics in Turbine Mode

Abstract

The effect of blade spatial profiling with the help of tangential blade lean of Francis pump-turbine runner with heads up to 200 m on the flow structure and energy characteristics was numerically investigated. A flow part model of Francis pump-turbine of the Dniester pumped storage plant was adopted as original version. Two new blade systems were designed, which differed from the original version by mutual position of cross-sections in tangential direction: with positive and negative lean, while the shape of the cross-sections themselves remained unchanged. Modeling of the viscous incompressible flow in calculation domain, which contains one channel of the guide vane and the runner, for three variants of flow parts, was performed using the IPMFlow software based on numerical integration of the Reynolds equations with an additional term containing artificial compressibility. To take into account the turbulent effects, the SST differential two-parameter turbulence model of Menter is applied. Numerical integration of the equations is carried out using an implicit quasi-monotonic Godunov scheme of second order accuracy in space and time. The study was carried out for models with runner diameter of 350 mm in a wide range of guide vane openings at reduced rotation frequencies corresponding to the minimal, design and maximal heads of the station. A comparison of pressure fields and velocity vectors in the runners, pressure graphs on runner blades, distribution of velocity components at inlet to a draft tube, and efficiency of three variants of flow parts are presented. It was concluded that calculation domain with the new RK5217M2 runner with negative tangential lean has the best characteristics. An experimental study of three runners on a hydrodynamic stand are planned.

Keywords

• runner blade
• francis pump-turbine
• flow part
• tangential lean
• numerical study
• spatial flow
• flow structure