A Case Study: Sediment Erosion in Francis Turbines Operated at the San Francisco Hydropower Plant in Ecuador

Cristian Cruzatty, Darwin Jimenez, Esteban Valencia, Ivan Zambrano, Christian Mora, Xianwu Luo and Edgar Cando
Additional contact information
Cristian Cruzatty: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170517, Ecuador
Darwin Jimenez: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170517, Ecuador
Esteban Valencia: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170517, Ecuador
Ivan Zambrano: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170517, Ecuador
Christian Mora: Centro de Investigación y Recuperación de Turbinas Hidráulicas y Partes Industriales, CELEC EP, Baños de Agua Santa 180254, Ecuador
Xianwu Luo: Department of Energy and Power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Edgar Cando: Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica, Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito 170517, Ecuador

Energies, 2021, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: The operation of various types of turbomachines is importantly affected by sediment erosion. Francis turbines used for power generation typically suffer said effects due to the fact that they are used in sediment-laden rivers and are usually operated disregarding the long-term effect of the erosion on turbine performance. This investigation seeks to study the erosion rate for the main components of the turbines located at San Francisco hydropower plant in Pastaza, Ecuador. A sediment characterization study was performed in order to determine the properties of the particles present in Pastaza River and accurately predict their effect on the turbine flow passages. A numerical approach combining liquid–solid two-phase flow simulation and an erosion model was used to analyze the erosion rates at different operating conditions and determine wear patterns in the components. As expected, the results indicated that an increase in the erosion rate was obtained for higher intake flows. However, a dramatic increase in the erosion rate was observed when the turbine was operated at near-full-load conditions, specifically when guide vane opening exceeded a 90% aperture.

Keywords: Francis turbine; sediment erosion; CFD; DPM (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
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/8/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/1/8/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2021:i:1:p:8-:d:707462

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().