Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements

Hydrodynamic design of axial hydraulic turbines

DANIEL BALINT VIOREL CÂMPIAN
Eftimie Murgu University of Reşiţa Eftimie Murgu University of Reşiţa
Faculty of Engineering - CCHAPT Faculty of Engineering - CCHAPT
P-ţa Traian Vuia 1-4, RO-320085 Reşiţa P-ţa Traian Vuia 1-4, RO-320085 Reşiţa
ROMANIA ROMANIA
daniel.balint@gmail.com v.campian@uem.ro

Abstract: This paper presents a complete methodology of the hydrodynamic design for the runner of axial hydraulic
turbines (Kaplan) using the finite element method. The procedure starts with the parametric design of the meridian
channel. Next, the stream traces are being computed in the meridian channel using the finite element method. The
finite element method is implemented numericaly in an original software called QTurbo3D. The last stage is to
design the runner blade using Q3D techniques.

Key–Words: design, axial hydraulic turbines, meridian channel, runner blade, QTurbo3D

1 Introduction ployed. The last part is to design the runner blade

surface and to assure a smooth three dimensional link
The hydrodynamic design of the hydraulic turbines between the designed foil cascades.
should be ourdays fast enough to obtain a blade pat-
tern for the optimization. Even if a reliable optimiza-
tion procedure will adjust the runner blade surface, the 2 Meridian channel design
time spent to converge to a suitable blade depends on
The hydrodynamic design of the meridian channel is
the first guess of the blade made in the design. based on the design guidelines presented by Wu in [5],
The hydrodynamic design of the runner blade is chapter 12. A special graphical user interface has been
performed usualy with Q3D techniques and next the developed in QTurbo3D as shown in Fig. 1.
blade hydrodynamics is computed with 3D codes as The design starts from the head H and power P
presented in [1] and [2]. The parametrization of the of the turbine. With these, the specific speed is:
runner blade surface is directly linked to the speed of
the optimization loops and also to its numerical con- 21447
ns = √ − 924 (1)
vergence as presented in [3]. H + 10
A procedure of the hydrodynamic design and op-
timization of hydraulic turbines is presented in [4] and next the speed of the runner becomes:
where an original software called TurboCADoptim is
developed. The software QTurbo3D is based on the ns H 5/4
n= √ (2)
design ideas of TurboCADoptim, but other power- P
ful numerical techniques are being employed. Also
The speed of the runner should be adjusted to a
special programming tools like numpy and psyco of synchronous one linked to a particular electrical pole
Python programming language are used for having a pairs p e as:
faster computing time. For having a friendly acces to 3000
the code, an original graphical user interface is devel- n= (3)
pe
oped in Qt4 library and next it is translated to Pyhton
programming via PyQt4 tool. The discharge of the turbine is computed as:
The first part of the hydrodynamic design of the P
runner of axial turbines is to design the hydrodynamic Q= (4)
ρgH
meridian channel. For this, a fast and reliable tech-
nique of parametrization is used as presented in [5]. where ρ is the density of the water and g is the gravity.
Next the stream traces are computed in the 2D axi- The peripheral velocity coefficient is:
symmetric meridian channel of the turbine. For this
part, a finite element method presented in [6] is em- kuR = 0.90163 + 0.001414ns (5)

ISBN: 978-960-474-298-1 104

Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements

Figure 1: Parametric design of Kaplan hydraulic turbines

Figure 2: Building the meridian channel of the hydraulic turbine

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 Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements

and then the diameter of the runner becomes: in Fig. 4. The region of the stream traces in the runner
√ part is cut off and parameterized in order to have the
2gH stream tubes for the design of the runner blade. They
D = kuR (6)
nπ are transposed in coordinates and fitted with a 5th or-
The relative hub diameter is: der polinomial function.
The two-dimensional axi-symmetrical flow is as-
83.2338 sumed incompressible, irrotational and inviscid. The
ν = 0.2718 + (7)
ns problem formulation uses the stream function ψ
where the velocities are obtained as:
The number of the blades in the runner equals to
8 for heads greater than 35m, 4 blades if the head of ∂ψ
vx = (8)
the turbine is less than 18m and in the rest of the head ∂y
range the runner contains 6 blades. The distributor
height is usualy 40% of the runner diameter while the ∂ψ
vy = − (9)
relative runner depth is 21% of the runner diameter. ∂x
The hub curve is as follows (relatively to the run- The stream function formulation ψ satisfies the
ner diameter): 2D Laplace equation:
◦ height of the sphere over the runner shaft is 5%.
∇2ψ = 0 (10)
◦ elbow radius is 50%.
◦ the ogive radius is 60%. The computational domain is shown in Fig. 3.
The stream function ψ is constant on the hub and
◦ the ogive length is 90%. shroud curves, therefore ψ = 0 for the hub and ψ = 1
◦ the ogive lowest diameter is 10%. for the shroud respectively.
The shroud curve is as follows (also relatively to The elemental equation is:
the runner diameter): n
∂ψ
Z Z
◦ the elbow 1st center and radius is 8.1% and 5%. X
ψj ∇Ni · ∇Nj dΩ = Ni ds (11)
◦ the elbow 2nd center and radius is 8.7% and 10%. Ωe Se ∂n
j=1

◦ the cone 1st and 2nd radii equal to 15.4% and where n = 4 is the number of quadrilateral element
5.52%. nodes.
◦ the cone starts with a diameter of 98.1% and has an The matrix form becomes:
angle of 8.3 degrees.
The output of the meridian channel of the turbine [Ee ] {ψ}e = {Ψ}e (12)
is plot in real-time when scrolling the bar as shown
in Fig. 1. Multiple choices are available to be set as where the element matrix and the right-hand-side
parameter and modified in the design algorithm. terms are as follows:
The next stage is to split the meridian channel in Z 
∂Ni ∂Nj ∂Ni ∂Nj

three parts: distributor, runner and cone. For this, the Eij = + dΩ (13)
Ωe ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
interfaces between the three parts should be delivered
by slope and interface as presented in Fig. 2. Z
∂ψ
Ψi = Ni ds (14)
Se ∂n
3 Computation of the stream traces
using the finite element method 4 Hydrodynamic design of the tur-
The stream traces in the meridian channel of the hy-
bine runner blade
draulic turbine are computed using the finite element For starting the design of the Kaplan runner blade, few
method presented in [6]. First of all, the meridian parameters should be available from plant geometry or
channel of the turbine should be meshed as presented from the previous meridian channel design: the head
in Fig. 3. The mesh element is a quasi-linear quadri- of the turbine, the power, the runner speed and diam-
lateral one. The flow is assumed to be inviscid and eter together with the relative hub diameter, but also
incompressible. Both plane and axi-symmetric solver the number of blades.
are available in QTurbo3D. The stream traces com- The inlet and outlet velocity profiles should be de-
puted are quickly visualized and interpreted as shown livered related to the flow produced by the distributor

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Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements

Figure 3: The mesh of the meridian channel with quadrilateral elements

Figure 4: Computing the streamlines using the finite element method

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Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements

Figure 5: Designing the runner of the turbine using the Q3D technique

Figure 6: Vizualization of the designed 3D runner blade

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 Proceedings of the 4th WSEAS International Conference on Finite Differences - Finite Elements - Finite Volumes - Boundary Elements
of the one designed for the draft tube inlet. The dif-
ference between them shows the loading of the cas-
cades, therefore a law of the radial loading distribu-
tion should be imposed. Usualy, the loading at hub
and shroud cascades should be decreased in order to
reduce the unsteady effects due to the clearance be-
tween the hub/shroud curves and runner blade. It is
known that this clearance is usualy 0.1% of the runner
diameter and it generates vortex ropes at off-design
operating regimes.
Next, the relative chord length of the foils should
be delivered (the values in the middle span section and
at the hub) or they will be imposed as:
78
(l/t)med = zbl
360
(l/t)hub = 1.1(l/t)med
where zbl is the number of blades.
The thickness function of the foils should be de-
livered to QTurbo3D by its maximum thickness d max
and the position of the maximum thickness xdmax (the
values are relative to the chord length of the foil):
√ References:
d max m
x− x
yd = √ (17)
2 m xdmax − xdmax
where yd is the thickness value for a foil with unit
chord length and placed orizontaly with the leading
edge in the origin of coordinate system. The coeffi-
cient m of the root in the above formula is computed
in the range of 20 ÷ 60% of the relative position of the
maximum thickness as:
4
X [4] D. Balint, Numerical Computing Methods for
m(x dmax ) = ui xidmax
i=0
where the coefficients have the values u0 = 10.985,
u1 = −69.7486, u2 = 187.632, u3 = −237.949 and
u4 = 115.706.
Next, the relative position of the maximum load-
ing from leading to trailing edge of the foils should
be delivered. Usualy, a value of 35% is used, but it
should be related also to the position of the blade axis
in order to avoid torsion moments of the blade.
For this part of the hydrodynamic design of the
runner blade, a graphical user interface is built in
QTurbo3D as shown in Fig. 5. Then, the three di-
mensional blade is plot using the Gnuplot library as
presented in Fig 6.
ISBN: 978-960-474-298-1
5 Conclusion
This paper shows a method to employ the finite ele-
ment method in the hydrodynamic design of the run-
ner of axial turbines. The finite element formulation
presented in [6] is implemented in an original soft-
ware QTurbo3D developed by the authors.
The meridian channel of the turbine is meshed
by quasi-linear quadrilateral elements directly in
QTurbo3D and the stream traces are being computed
using the finite element method (the solver is a part of
QTurbo3D).
In conclusion, the design of the runner became
faster and more easily to adapt in parametrical opti-
mization procedures.
(15)
Acknowledgements: The present work has been
(16) co-funded by the Sectoral Operational Programme
Human Resources Development 2007-2013 of the
Romanian Ministry of Labour, Family and Social
Protection through the Financial Agreement POS-
DRU/89/1.5/S/62557.
[1] High Performance Computing Center, COVISE,
http://www.hlrs.de/organization/vis/covise/.
[2] Advanced Design Technology, TURBOdesign,
http://www.adtechnology.co.uk/products/turbo-
design1/.
[3] L. Ferrando, Surface Parametrization and Op-
timum Design Methodology for Hydraulic Tur-
bines (PhD Thesis), Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology, Lausanne 2006.
(18)
3D Flows in the Distributor and the Runner
of Kaplan Turbines (PhD Thesis), Politehnica,
Timişoara 2008.
[5] R. Krishna, Hydraulic Design of Hydraulic Ma-
chinery, Aldershot, Avebury 1997.
[6] R. Resiga, S. Muntean, Periodic boundary
conditions implementation for the finite ele-
ment analysis of the cascade flows, Sc. Bul.
of Politehnica University of Timişoara, 1999,
pp. 151–160.
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