Numerical Simulation of the Francis Turbine and CAD used to

Optimized the Runner Design (2nd).

Priyono Sutikno

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1225, 816 (2010); doi: 10.1063/1.3464932

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3464932
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1225/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics
Numerical Simulation of the Francis Turbine and CAD used
to Optimized the Runner Design (2nd).
Priyono Sutikno

Fluid Machinery Laboratory, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace

Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia.
priyono@fluida.ms.itb.ac.id

Abstract. Hydro Power is the most important renewable energy source on earth. The water is free of charge and with the
generation of electric energy in a Hydroelectric Power station the production of green house gases (mainly CO2) is
negligible. Hydro Power Generation Stations are long term installations and can be used for 50 years and more, care must
be taken to guarantee a smooth and safe operation over the years. Maintenance is necessary and critical parts of the
machines have to be replaced if necessary. Within modern engineering the numerical flow simulation plays an important
role in order to optimize the hydraulic turbine in conjunction with connected components of the plant. Especially for
rehabilitation and upgrading existing Power Plants important point of concern are to predict the power output of turbine,
to achieve maximum hydraulic efficiency, to avoid or to minimize cavitations, to avoid or to minimized vibrations in
whole range operation. Flow simulation can help to solve operational problems and to optimize the turbo machinery for
hydro electric generating stations or their component through, intuitive optimization, mathematical optimization,
parametric design, the reduction of cavitations through design, prediction of draft tube vortex, trouble shooting by using
the simulation. The classic design through graphic-analytical method is cumbersome and can’t give in evidence the
positive or negative aspects of the designing options. So it was obvious to have imposed as necessity the classical design
methods to an adequate design method using the CAD software. There are many option chose during design calculus in a
specific step of designing may be verified in ensemble and detail form a point of view. The final graphic post processing
would be realized only for the optimal solution, through a 3 D representation of the runner as a whole for the final
approval geometric shape. In this article it was investigated the redesign of the hydraulic turbine’s runner, medium head
Francis type, with following value for the most important parameter, the rated specific speed ns.
Keywords: Mini Hydro Power, Numerical Flow Simulation, Francis Turbine, Runner design.
PACS: 62

INTRODUCTION
The position of hydro plants becomes more and more important in today’s global renewable technologies. The
small scale renewable generation may be the most cost effective way to bring electricity to remote villages that are
not near transmission lines. In the new millennium demand of electricity is expected to increase more rapidly than
demand for other forms of energy. Hydro electric energy is the most reliable and cost effective renewable energy
source. The market for small and medium sized hydro-electric power plant is more attractive than ever. For design
and research in hydro turbines the application of computational methods is steadily increasing. Nowadays it is fairly
standard to simulate the different components separately. By assuming steady state uniform flow conditions in
circumferential direction only one channel of the tandem cascade (stay vane and guide vane) and of the runner has to
be considered. Since very often there are strong interaction between the components it is inevitable to introduce this
interaction into the simulation. This still allows to consider only one channel tandem cascade and runner and to
apply a steady state computation, which results in a severe for saving computer resources. The classic design
through graphic-analytical method is cumbersome and can’t give in evidence the positive or negative aspects of the
designing options. So it was obvious to have imposed as necessity the classical design methods to an adequate
design method using the CAD software. There are many option chose during design calculus in a specific step of
designing may be verified in ensemble and detail form a point of view. The final graphic post processing would be
realized only for the optimal solution, through a 3 D representation of the runner as a whole for the final approval

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CP1225, The 10th Asian International Conference on Fluid Machinery,

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geometric shape. In this article it was investigated the redesign of the hydraulic turbine’s runner, medium head
Francis type, with following value for the most important parameter, the rated specific speed n=220.

FLOW DOMAIN IN THE RUNNER ZONE

The initial design data establishes the operation parameter of hydraulic turbine for the most frequently hydro
energy conditions. The hydraulic turbine runner’s needs to show suitable energy and cavitations characteristic in
large interval of the main parameter design values. In the step at very beginning of classical design of Francis type
hydraulic turbine. The important dimensions of runner are calculated by the parameter of specific speed, Regarding
parameter head, flow rate and rotation speed of turbine, the dimensionless specific speed can be defined as follows
[2]:
Which fixed the form of the runner channel ns=220 or nq=70

(1)

TABLE 1 Design parameters

The reason consists in the believable experimental result published, till now, for this subject. Also the above
mentioned the methods fittings for the soft construction. In Table I are represented the non dimensional result
obtained from the empirical result [2]. All the runner dimensions are rated in respect of the inlet diameter D. The
real value of the outlet radius is calculated with formula:

(2)

The geometry of the hub and shroud in the blade zone can be formulate in form of parabola by

(3)

We use flow streamlines in the blade zone locate the front and situation of these edges. To obtain the streamline,
the Poisson equation in cylindrical coordinate system will be considered:

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 (4)

The above equation is solved by FEM in the Fluent 6.1, considering the following boundary condition:

After these stream line are determined and knowing the location of fixed point, we can estimated the form of
leading and trailing edge by assuming equal flow rate for each of flow channels: In another way, the field of velocity
and pressure along streamlines can be determined and with values of the velocities and the pressure in the direction
of fluid, it would be possible to find useful result for design of the entrance and exit turbine runner. In his case the
form of these edges is two parabola curves. By using the Pro Eng we can determine the form of leading and trailing
edge.
When the flow streamlines between the entrance and exit edges are determined, other turbine parameter such as
entrance and exit flow angles can be calculated. Then we can use the conformal mapping method to draw the form
of blade in the perpendicular plan. This method is based on trial and error and gives us the ability to map each of the
streamlines from meridional view to the perpendicular plan. A curved triangle can be drawn by know streamlines
and its angles. This triangle is a transformation link between two plants.
With the β1 is the leading edges entrance angle and β2 is the trailing edge exit angle on the horizontal plan. We
can estimated the curved edge of triangle as a second order polynomial and each of the three unknown of this
function can be calculated and we have,

(5)

Any method of designing the camber surface of the blades uses as initial elements the blade angles at entrance
and exit. The value of A is determined and without using trial and error loop and in shorter period of the
transformation, the perpendicular plan of blade can be obtained. Technically the conformal mapping method reduces
to straighten out the liquid trajectories on the blades to multiple cylindrical coaxial surfaces.
Once the camber surface is determined and verified in space, it follow of put the profiles of adequate thickness,
which consist the necessary mechanical strength, the maximum energy transfer and the minimum drag by the liquid
flow. For the designed runner with the specific speed it was chosen NACA profile from the series 65. In last step of
design process, the 3 D image of the whole runner can be drawn using the two plans and it was use an Inventor CAD
environment through which there are sketched the pressure and suction surface of the blades at the hub and the
shroud. The transposition of profiles for all the 12 streamlines produces the shape of the blades as shown at Figure
10. It is necessary to observe that for the sake of clarity and non superposition the drawing was so made than one
profile is embedded on the hub and shroud of runner. Finally, for a 3D image of the whole runner it was used a Pro-
Eng. through which there are sketched the pressure and suction surface on the blades and closing surface at the hub
and the shroud fig 7.

FIGURE 1 Flow stream lines pattern

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FIGURE 2 Determined leading and trailing edge

FIGURE 3 Trajectory path at meridional plan

FIGURE 4 Meridional plan

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FIGURE 5 Leading and trailing edges and conformal mapping

FIGURE 6 The horizontal plan of a streamline

FIGURE 7 3-D image of runner in an isometric view

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 NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FRANCIS TURBINE
The flow field in Francis Turbine is very complicated, due to its three dimensional nature and the rapidly
changing curvature on the passages in rotating runner. In addition Francis turbine exhibits as a result of the
interaction between rotating and stationary parts. The results of such analyses indicate what part of the geometry of
the machine must be modified in order to improve its performance. Further such analysis also gives a quantification
of the performance. Of course experimental validation is always required, but a numerical analysis to enables
reduces required number of experiments by parametric approach.
The computational domain consists of the Spiral Casing, Stay Vane, Guide Vane, Runner and Draft Tube. The
corresponding model is shown in Fig. 8. Total of more than 20 sets of numerical steady state simulations were
carried out to get the performance data of Francis turbine. The flow in the runner was computed in the rotating frame
of reference, while the flow in the stationary components was calculated in the stationary frame of reference. A
quasi steady approximation with mixing plane interface was used, where core span wise profile was preserved across
the span. The geometry of Francis runner with specific speed of the order 220 was using gambit. All stationary
components were made using Pro-Eng. The corresponding assembly of component is as shown in Fig. 9. The grids
are generated using Gambit for spiral casing, guide vane, runner and draft tube. The simulations were carried out
over a four different guide vane opening. Total mass flow in the stationary frame was specified at the spiral casing
inlet while static pressure was defined at the outlet boundary. After a short study we are obtained a characteristic of
simulation test of the turbine was represented in figure 10 bellow the performance of power output and efficiency of
turbine with variable of guide vane opening.
The power output of entire Turbine is 300 kW and the efficiency total is 88%. This is the first model runner
designing by this method, to get the best result we should be conducted many another design and simulation to take
account the region of the hill efficiency before we conducted the optimization. After get the best result on simulation,
will then be processed to obtain a 3 D file, forming the basis for the construction design. The construction of hub and
shroud show no major difficulties, the fabrication of the blades bear some peculiarities. After completion of the
manufacturing process of all components, the precise positioning of the blades on the shroud and hub, should have
the support to check the dimension as shown at figure 11.

FIGURE 8 Francis runner design

FIGURE 9 Horizontal Francis turbine assembly

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 FIGURE 10 Performance of turbine simulation at head 40m, 42m and 45m.

FIGURE 11 Blades positioning of the guard on shroud and hub

ANALYSIS RESULT
The duty point result of analysis has been presented in the form of contour, vectors, streamlines and graphs. The
variation of pressure and velocity in casing component is plotted in a plane which is passing trough center of spiral
casing and across the axis of rotation as shown in Fig.11. To minimize the losses in equipment pressure reduction
from inlet to outlet should be gradual and uniformly distributed that we can observe in this Fig.12, 13. Velocity
vectors are fairly uniform and not shown pattern of secondary flow. Due to the change in direction of flow after bend
secondary flow produce which leads to reduction draft tube efficiency. Fig 11 shows the static pressure is gradually
reducing in entire span. No abrupt change has been found.
Fig 12 shows the velocity vector in stay vane and guide vane at different span location, velocity vector location
coming out without any recirculation but at exit the guide vane the acceleration flow found. This is due to deviation
of flow angle from guide vane. Fig.10 shows streamlines plot in system. Flow is coming out from spiral inlet to draft
tube outlet. Flow is streamlined up to runner outlet and recirculation has been started in draft tube. This is due to the
change in direction of flow in draft tube.
Cavitations are another important design aspect for turbine. Turbine should be free from cavitations effect. To
know whether our turbine design is free from cavitations effect, we should know pressure distribution on two sides
of blades. This can be done by plotting pressure static of runner at different span location. Fig.13 shows the static
pressure entire turbine and we found the low pressures are in the zone after the runner at the turbine nose. The head
drop has been found out in each individual component and the summary of head in individual component is shown
in table 2.
The runner CFD analysis has been done at various guide vane opening with constant speed n=1000 rpm. Table 3
shows the performance characteristic at 15 degree angle of guide vane. The total efficiency is 82.01% and the runner
efficiency is 88.48 %. The significant loss is in the spiral case with the pressure loss about 3 m, the draft tube loss is
0.8 m. The runner efficiency is accordance with experimental data in table 1.

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 FIGURE 12 Streamline configuration in turbine

FIGURE 13 Variation of pressure plot in volute components

FIGURE 14 The distribution of velocity vector in stay vane, guide vane and runner

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FIGURE 15 Variation of pressure in turbine

TABLE 2 Turbine component performance

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 CONCLUSION
Numerical analysis is very useful for predicting turbine performance at various mass-flow rates. For the designer,
prediction of operating characteristic curve is most importance. All theoretical methods for prediction of
performance merely give a value, one can find the root cause for poor performance by using numerical analysis of
equipment. The CAD use to optimize runner design is very flexible. So it permit the optimal choosing of the leading
and trailing edge, the rectification of the flow velocities. At the inlet in the runner to match the guide vane and by the
outlet of the runner for the swirl. The computing time obtaining an optimal variant of radial axial hydraulic turbine,
Francis type, is smaller in comparison with the necessary time for a classic design.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The present work has been supported by the research center of Indonesian Electricity Company LITBANG PT.
PLN Persero.

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