Experimental Francis Turbine Cavitation Performances of a Hydro-Energy Plant

Wen-Tao Su, Wei Zhao, Maxime Binama, Yue Zhao, Jian-Ying Huang and Xue-Ren Chen
Additional contact information
Wen-Tao Su: College of Petroleum Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun 113001, China
Wei Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Power Equipment, Harbin Institute of Large Electric Machinery, Harbin 150040, China
Maxime Binama: College of Petroleum Engineering, Liaoning Shihua University, Fushun 113001, China
Yue Zhao: State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Power Equipment, Harbin Institute of Large Electric Machinery, Harbin 150040, China
Jian-Ying Huang: Fujian Shuikou Power Generation Group Co., Ltd., Fuzhou 350004, China
Xue-Ren Chen: Fujian Shuikou Power Generation Group Co., Ltd., Fuzhou 350004, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: An investigation is conducted on the Francis turbine’s cavitation characteristics and its influence on system hydraulic stability using two experimental methods, namely the flow visualization and acoustic emission methods. The investigated turbine is of Francis type with a 15-blade runner and has a specific speed of 202 rpm and a rated head of 30 m. Having tested the machine under a wide range of cavitation conditions, the gap cavitation is the earliest to develop as the cavitation coefficient gradually decreases and has no obvious effect on the machine’s external performance characteristics. The airfoil cavitation follows and causes the increase and decrease in machine flow rate and head, respectively, showing its drag reduction effect, where, at the same time, the pressure pulsation amplitude gets to its peak value. There is also the formation of constant cavitation zones and the involvement of an unsteady surge close to the wall of the draft tube’s cone. Pushing the cavitation coefficient to even lower values, there is the formation of an annular cavitation zone, accompanied by a sharp drop in cone pressure pulsation amplitudes while the former drag reduction effect disappears. The trend of noise is basically the same as that of pressure fluctuation, which confirms its trustworthiness when it comes to cavitation occurrence detection within Francis turbines.

Keywords: Francis turbine; cavitation; high speed visualization; acoustic performance; hydraulic stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3263/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/6/3263/ (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:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:6:p:3263-:d:768516

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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