Hydrotechnical Construction, Vol. 29, No.

4, 1995

OPERATING STABILITY OF HYDROELECTRIC STATIONS WITH DOWNSTREAM SURGE TANKS

O. A. Murav'ev and V. V. Berlin

Surge tanks are installed on outflow pressure conduits of a hydroelectric station to prevent discontinuity of the flow in draft tubes during transients accompanied by a decrease of the hydrostation discharge. The need to install downstream surge tanks arises already with a length of the outflow conduits of several hundred meters, as at the Teri, Hoa-binh, and Khudoni hydrostations. Such stations have an underground machine hall, and the surge tank is located in a parallel underground working. The area of its horizontal section is determined on the basis of providing stable operating conditions of the hydrostation and pressure system and should be greater than some critical value obtained by calculation. At large hydrostations the critical area of a downstream surge tank is very large, sometimes up to 1000 m2. This creates difficulties when performing underground works and providing strength of the rock mass between workings for the machine hall and surge tank. The possibilities of reducing the cross-sectional area of downstream surge tanks under the condition of providing stable regimes of the hydrostation are analyzed in the article. Two ways of solving the problem are noted: first -- correct consideration of local head losses in the outflow conduits second -- consideration of all factors providing stabilization of processes, including the power system with its dynamic characteristics, automatic regulating system (ARS), and discharge and torque characteristics of the turbines. Here it is possible to analyze the relations between the area of the tank and adjustment parameters of the ARS providing stable regimes of a hydrostation and the necessary quality of regulating the frequency and power. An analysis of stability is based on solving differential equations describing an oscillatory process. These are the Bernoulli equation with an inertial term, which for the adopted rule of signs of discharges and levels (Fig. 1) has the form
dQ d gF d .

d---i- = ~

(z + H w t - HWd - Hv.o~t ");

(1)

and the equation of continuity ~" - ~

dz_ 1

(Qto- Qd),

(2)

where Hwt = e d - e t is the head losses at the base of the tank, determined as the difference between the specific energy of the section of the diversion adjacent to the tank and the specific energy in the tank branch; Hwd is the head losses in the diversion; Hv.out is the velocity head at the outlet to the lower pool; z is the elevation of water in the tank reckoned from the lower pool; Qa is the discharge of the diversion conduit; Qto is the total discharge of the turbines related to the diversion conduit. The head losses at the base of the surge tank with small deviations of the regime of the hydrostation from equilibrium (Qto = Qd) is traditionally calculated by the formula
HWt = Q2/2gF2,

(3)

where F is the cross-sectional area in the abutment to the tank. Let us analyze how formula (3) agrees with the experimental data of hydraulic studies of forks similar to the intersection of the tank with conduits [1].

Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 4, pp. 40-43, April, 1995. 242 0018-8220/95/2904-0242512.50 9 Plenum Publishing Corporation

to

to

d-I

to
.....

-_--_#__

7UP ~- -'Z--~-~

t, o~o
/, uoo

/
o,##0
0, g'#O

4#20
0,3#

0to / ~d
o0

Otol~d
0,9~

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 1. Diagram of the pressure system of the hydrostation with a downstream surge tank: 1) energy line; 2) hydraulic grade line. Fig. 2. Dependences of head losses in the base of the surge tank with a velocity head of the total flow of 1 m and small deviations of the regime from the equilibrium regime Qto = Qd: 1) according to experimental data [1]; 2) calculation by Eq. (4); 3) calculation by Eq. (3).

The data on losses in forks are usually represented in the form of a variable hydraulic resistance coefficient. Here the transition to head losses is realized by multiplying this coefficient by the velocity head in the branch along which passes the total discharge. Let us examine the form of the relation of head losses for a fixed value of this velocity head equal to 1 m. Figure 2 (curve 1) shows the experimental relation of head losses between branches of the diversion and tank for a fork in the region of interest to us, corresponding to small deviations of the hydrostation regime from equilibrium. Here the head losses calculated by formula (3) are represented by curve 3. It is easy to see that curve 3 does not agree with the experiment either in magnitude or, what is more significant, in the character of variation of the relation of discharges in the fork. Thus, the formula traditionally used (3) does not reflect the physical phenomena occurring in the fork of the intersection of the downstream tank with the conduits. Curve 2, approximated by formula

Hwt = ~2o/2gF2,

(4)

where the velocity head is determined by the discharge of the station conduit and not of the diversion conduit as in (3), has the best approximation to flae experimental data for the downstream tank. With consideration of (4) we obtain the dynamic equation (1) in the form

dOd

a-/- =

gFd(Z 4- H
2-2

~.m - Hw~

- H v out
.

),

(5)

where Hv.in = Qto2/2gF 2 is the local head losses in the base of the tank with small deviations of the discharge from the equilibrium regime Qto = Qd. When analyzing stability by methods of the theory of automatic regulation of turbine-generator units, the automatic regulating system and the pressure system with a surge tank are represented in the form of a closed chain of linear links. In Laplace transforms the transfer function of the link describing the operation of the pressure system and tank is obtained from Eqs. (2) and (5) written in relative quantities for deviations from the equilibrium regime: ~.q,) -_ T~p + r 1
(6)

W(.p) = l~q ~ ) 9 Td Tt p2 + Tt r2 p + 1 '

243

TABLE 1
Characteristics Diversion conduit: length, m cross-sectional area, m 2 discharge, m3/sec head losses along length and local, m velocity head at outlet to lower pool, m velocity head in abutment of conduits to tank, m Surge tank: critical area according to Thoma (7), m 2 critical area according to proposed formula (8), m 2
42.0

Hoa-binh hydro: station

Teri hydrostation 630 102 224 0,18 0,28 0,2

129 488 0,57 0,73 0,73

1154 506

534 302

where T t = FtHdv/Qdv is the time constant of the tank; T d = LdQdv/2HdvFd is the inertia constant of the diversion; ( = AZ/Hdv is the relative deviation of the level in the tank; Aqto = AQto/Qd v is the relative deviation of the discharge of the conduit from the equilibrium regime; p is the Laplace operator. Two coefficients characterizing the head losses are used in (6): r 1 - - . 2 ( 9 0 - lpt ) and r 2 = 2 9 d , where 6t = Hv.in/Hdv is the relative head losses in the base of the tank with small deviations from an equilibrium regime, expressed by the velocity head in the intersection of the reservoir with the conduits; ~d = (Hwd + Hv.out)/Hdv is the relative head losses in the diversion conduit, including the velocity head at the outlet to the lower pool; Hdv is the net head in the equilibrium regime. If in the calculations we use the traditional expression of head losses in the base of the tank according to Eq. (3), then the form of formula (6) remains as before. Only the coefficient r 2 will have another value, which in this case proves to be equal to r 1. To obtain a quantitative evaluation, we will examine the expression for the time constant of the surge tank with a critical area according to Thoma [2]

Tt = TTh = T d / ( 1 - ~s)r2,
where ~'s = Hws/Hdv, Hw s is the head losses in the station conduit, and we will explain how the ratio for the head losses in the base of the tank affects the size of the critical area. In the traditional approach with the use of expression (3) the formula for FTh takes the form
F T h = ,, . L d Q2dv , 2gFd (Hd~-2//Ws) ( H w d + H v.out -Hv.in ) '

(7)

and with the use of refined expression (4) for losses

L d oo 2

FTh =

2gFd (Hdv.._ 2Hi4,s) (Hwd + Hv.out ) .

(8)

Expression (7) is obtained on the basis of simplified notions about losses in the intersection of the tank with the conduits, and expression (8) with consideration of the results of laboratory model hydraulic investigations of forks. It permits a more accurate consideration of head losses in the intersection of the tank with the conduits with small disturbances of the hydrostation regime. 244

I Controlled ~ I divider F
~ ,_.___

pCoewntrral [,-'--.--m~
L~gulator -m~e I
m~ _ ~ ,....I ~

atic re- ~[l?urbines~'~lGenerat~ ..~ulators ,th '[' , ~ conduits .~_{ Diversion and surge tank

[_,~tcm ] ~,

;vstern

Fig. 3. Block diagram of hydrostation regulating system. In expressions (7) and (8) the difference in the right parentheses of the denominator by the amount of the velocity head in the intersection is not so insignificant as it may seem at first glance, since the magnitude of the velocity head is commensurate with the total losses in the outflow conduits, which are usually short. Correct consideration of the losses permits establishing the additional stabilizing potential of the dynamic system and, as is seen from Table 1, substantiating in individual cases a reduction of the critical area of the surge tank by 1.8-2.3 times. Improved algorithms compared with that examined by Thoma were recently developed for stability calculations, which make it possible to take into account adjustment of automatic regulating systems, water hammer in pressure conduits, torque and discharge characteristics of turbines, and parameters of the power system [2, 3]. The results of analyzing the stability of regimes of hydrostations with downstream surge tanks with the use of the stabilizing possibilities of the regulating system of the unit are presented below. The block diagram of the regulating system for analyzing stability in such a formulation is given in Fig. 3. Two calculation schemes are possible in principle: the hydrostation operates in a large power system in a powerregulating regime or in an isolated power system, regulating the frequency. The condition of constancy of the frequency in the power system is taken in the power-regulating regimes. The turbine speed governor is taken with astatic adjustment (bp = 0) and zero time constant of the main servomotor of the gate apparatus (Ts = 0). The characteristic equation of the regulating system in this case reduces to an equation of the fourth order. Stability is analyzed with the use of a computer program realizing Routh's algebraic criterion developed by the authors

[3].
Figure 4a shows the relation between the values of the stabilization parameters of the regulating system (time offset b t and time constant of the proportional-plus-integral (PI) element Td) and area of the surge tank, which varied in the range from zero to the critical, calculated according to Thoma. It is easy to see that stabilization of the system with critical and zero areas occurs at the same values of adjustments of the ARS. In the case of small cross-sectional areas of the tank, less than 10% of FTh according to Thoma, stabilization is achieved with an insignificant increase of the adjustment values. The maximum values of the stabilization parameters are required for cross-sectional areas of the tank amounting to 20-30% of the Thoma critical area. Hence follows the important conclusion that to reduce the amount of works on the surge tank it is expedient to limit oneself to small cross-sectional areas of the surge pipe, less than 10% of FTh according to Thoma. This permits achieving stabilization of the system with adjustment parameters of the PI element by the ARS practically the same as in the case of a Thoma critical area. Thus a change to a more economical and technologically efficient design of surge tank of the expansion chamber type with an area of the surge pipe substantially less than the critical is substantiated. The operating stability of a hydroelectric station (HES) with frequency regulation was analyzed for an isolated power system (PS). We used the average statistical values of the inertia constant of the PS ("running time of the power system") Tas = 7 sec and coefficient of self-regulation with respect to the torque: basic units Bb = 0.8 and load/31 = 0. The proportion of the investigated regulating HES with a downstream surge tank in the generating capacity of the system varied from 10 to 70%. The turbine governor was assumed astatically adjusted. The results of the calculations are given in Fig. 5. The boundary of the stability region with frequency regulation in an isolated power system is shown for various ratios of the capacity of the system in coordinates of the stabilization parameters. The dashed line shows the boundaries of the stability region with power regulation and constant frequency in the power system. The stability conditions were examined for two characteristic values of the area of the surge tank: Ft/FTh = 1 (Fig. 5a) and Ft/FTh = 0.07 (Fig. 5b). 245

8t

o,e o,6
Td = ~

1|1

SeC

o,~ B~

a)

O,2
0

Bt

0,8
o,s
oA,
o,2
|

o,6
o,~

o,2
Or2 O~t/ 0,6 0,8 F/For
0 q 8 12 16 Td, sec

b)

b)

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 4. Dependence of the minimum values of the stabilization parameters b t and T d on the cross-sectional area of the surge tank with power regulation in a large power system (a) and frequency regulation in an isolated power system with PHEs/PPs = 0.5 (b). Fig. 5. Boundaries of the stability region of frequency regulation in an isolated power system in the field of stabilization parameters bt--T d for various ratios of the capacity of the hydroelectric station in the power system PHEs/PPs with a horizonal cross-sectional area of the surge tank equal to FTh (a) and 0.07Fxh (b); the boundary of the stability region with power regulation is shown by a dashed line.

As is seen from the data given in Fig. 5, with increase of the proportion of the capacity of the HES in the power system, operating stability is provided by an increase of the values of the stabilizing adjustments of the turbine governors. Calculations show that stability can be provided even with a proportion of the capacity of the regulating HES exceeding 50% of the total capacity of the power system. It was considered earlier that stability of frequency regulating regimes is provided at smaller values of the stabilizing parameters than stability of the power regulating regimes. The analysis as a whole confirms this. However (Fig. 5), with small values of T d it is possible to provide stability only by increasing the intensity of bt to values greater than the stability conditions with power regulation require this. The same is observed for small Ft/FTh and PHEs/PPs . Just as with power regulation, our noted regularity of an increase of stability with small and very small ratios Ft/FTh is found in frequency-regulating regimes (Fig. 4b). Maximum adjustment values are required for a tank area (0.2-0.4)Ft/FTh.

246

CONCLUSIONS 1. Hydraulic investigations of T-shaped forks made it possible to refine the character of head losses in the junction of the tank with the conduits. The use of the dependences obtained in calculating the stability of the regimes of a hydroelectric station just due to a more accurate consideration of the effect of the velocity head in the base of the surge tank permits substantiating a considerable decrease of the critical area of downstream surge tanks. 2. In calculations of the critical area of downstream surge tanks it is necessary to include in total head losses the velocity head in the outlet section of the outflow channel. In this case the value of the critical area decreases. 3. The proposed method of analyzing the stability of HES regimes with the use of the Routh algebraic criterion permits relating the adjustment parameters of the ARS, turbine characteristics, and power system among themselves to the area of the surge tank and solving the problem of stability in the complex. 4. At hydrostations with short outflow pressure conduits it is advisable to take small, up to 10% of the Thoma critical, cross-sectional areas of the surge pipe of a surge tank with an expansion chamber. This makes it possible, on one hand, to reduce the amount of works on the tank and, on the other, to provide stabIe regimes of the hydrostations while retaining the adjustment parameters of the ARS.

REFERENCES
1.

2. 3.

G. I. Krivchenko, I. S. Ivanov, and A. P. Mordasov, Pressure Conduits of Hydroelectric and Pumping Stations [in Russian], l~nergiya, Moscow (1969). G. I. Krivchenko, "Permissibility of deviations from the Thoma criteria when assigning the cross-sectional area of surge tanks," Gidrotekh. Stroit., No. 7 (1988). V. V. Berlin and O. A. Murav'ev, Transients at Hydroelectric Stations with Surge Tanks [in Russian], l~nergoatomizdat, Moscow (t991).

247