Stability Criterion for Mass Oscillation in the Surge Tank of a Hydropower Station Considering Velocity Head and Throttle Loss

Wei Huang, Jiming Ma, Xinlei Guo, Huokun Li, Jiazhen Li and Gang Wang
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Wei Huang: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China
Jiming Ma: State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Xinlei Guo: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Huokun Li: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China
Jiazhen Li: State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China
Gang Wang: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 17, 1-19

Abstract: Surge tanks (STs) are important facilities for ensuring the safety of hydropower stations. Reducing the ST size under the premise of ensuring stable mass oscillations within the ST is the main issue. First, according to the basic equations of the mass oscillation for a hydropower station with an ST, a novel expression of the critical stability section of an ST is deduced considering the velocity head and throttle loss. Then, the sensitivity of each influencing factor of the proposed stability criterion is analyzed. Ultimately, through the simulation of small oscillation transients in two case studies, the water level oscillations (WLOs) in an ST based on three stability criteria are compared. The results show that a 20% smaller ST in a hydropower station may result in 10.4% larger oscillations and a 60% smaller ST in a pumped storage power station may result in 14.3% larger oscillations. Compared with the Thoma criterion and the Chinese specification criterion, the stability criterion proposed in this paper can safely reduce the size of the ST since it considers the influence of the velocity head and throttle loss. The proposed stability criterion can provide an important reference for the optimal design of the STs.

Keywords: surge tank; small oscillation stability; sensitivity analysis; velocity head; throttled orifice (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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