Hydraulic Turbine Modelling Including a Fuzzy Model of Efficiency

Abstract

The hydraulic turbine is considered as a heart of the hydropower plant because of its important function in the whole process of electrical energy production. Turbine´s efficiency calculation is analytically demanding and dependent on parameters that are often obtained only by a theoretical estimation. Therefore, using its accurate model, which takes into account its efficiency, is necessary to achieve realistic and relevant results. The article briefly surveys current knowledge and methods of designing the hydraulic turbine model. The new idea consists in that a fuzzy system was used to create turbine´s efficiency model based on a measured operating data of the turbine flow rate and its mechanical speed without any need of knowing exactly the turbine parameters. Such a model can be used in the design and development process of an optimal energy control of a hydraulic turbine, as well as in the effective process of determination the actual turbine’s wear rate. The achieved results were obtained using the computational tools of the Fuzzy Toolbox in the MATLAB.

Keywords

• small hydropower plant
• hydraulic turbine
• fuzzy system
• efficiency