Home

Search

Collections

Journals

About

Contact us

My IOPscience

Experimental investigation of draft tube flow instability

This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2010 IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. 12 012044 (http://iopscience.iop.org/1755-1315/12/1/012044) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more

Download details: IP Address: 14.139.241.84 The article was downloaded on 29/05/2013 at 09:32

Please note that terms and conditions apply.

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

Experimental investigation of draft tube flow instability

S Tridon1, S Barre1, G D Ciocan2, P Leroy2 and C Sgoufin2
1 2

LEGI-CNRS-GIT Grenoble, BP53, Grenoble, 38041, France ALSTOM HYDRO France, 82 av. Lon Blum, Grenoble, 38000, France

E-mail: sylvain.tridon@legi.grenoble-inp.fr
Abstract. The draft tube of a hydraulic turbine is the component where the flow exiting the runner is decelerated, thereby converting the excess of kinetic energy into static pressure. However, in some refurbishment cases, the installation of an upgraded runner with an old drafttube leads to an undesirable efficiency drop as the discharge is increased above the best efficiency point value. It is found to be related to a corresponding sudden variation in the draft tube pressure recovery coefficient at the same discharge. The model of a recent refurbishment which presents this instability is installed in the CREMHyG test rig. Steady and unsteady measurements of velocity and pressure fields of the complex and highly turbulent swirling flow exiting the runner have been carried out at CREMHyG (Grenoble). They included the three components of the velocity. The flow in the draft tube is rich in secondary flows and possible flow separation due to the elbow as well as to the divergent shape of this geometry. Pressure and velocity field measurements in the draft-tube have been performed. They let us identify some phenomena that may explain the origin of the unusual behavior of the draft tube. Finally, the same model, with a modified draft tube geometry that was designed to reduce the efficiency drop phenomenon has been installed. Velocity measurements were made to validate the benefit of such geometry modification.

1. Introduction
The draft tube is an important component of a reaction turbine (i.e. Francis or Kaplan type turbine). It is located just downstream of the runner and allows to decelerate the flow exiting the runner, thereby converting the excess of kinetic energy into static pressure. As a consequence, it increases the global efficiency of the turbine. The classical shape of a draft tube can be decomposed into three elementary components: the conical diffuser, an elbow and a straight divergent diffuser usually with one or more piers for structural reasons see Fig. 1. Due to the inherent complexity of the swirling flow exiting the runner it is difficult to perform an accurate numerical simulation of such flow and for theses operating conditions see [1]. This difficulty leads to a lack of information on the precise nature of such flows. Particularly the exact structure of the velocity field is not well documented by experiments in the elbow and liner regions

left channel cone pier right channel

Fig. 1 Geometry of the studied draft-tube This lack of reliable experimental data could be a critical issue in some refurbishment configurations where a new runner is installed on an old facility while keeping in place all the stationary components . In some cases a recovery accident occurs near the best operating point (BEP) leading to a sudden efficiency drop. This accident is difficult to reproduce via a RANS numerical simulation currently used by industrial turbine designers. Therefore, a research program was launch at the EPFL (FLINDT program) in order to describe

elbow

c 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

experimentally and numerically this phenomenon. This program led to a lot of experimental and numerical results concerning a similar refurbishment case and allowed to make hypothesis concerning the nature of the accident itself and the physics of the flow - see [2, 3, 4]. To further study such kind of phenomena, a very low head case was proposed for experiments as well as for simulation. This project is supported by ADEME, CREMHyG, LEGI and ALSTOM. The major part of the experimental results is presented by Tridon et al. in [5, 6, 7]. This work was also the opportunity to develop a synergy between the experimental and numerical simulations activities. For this purpose LES method was adapted and used for the present flow configuration. The corresponding works were published by Duprat et al. in [8, 9, 10]. The main idea was to use LES simulations to obtain an accurate description of the accident flow and vice versa the experimental data are used to both initialize and validate LES simulations. Once validated, LES simulations will give an important amount of data making it possible a better physical analysis of the flow structure which may lead us to a more precise understanding of its complex dynamics. To complete the study, a modified draft-tube geometry was tested. This paper will present the obtained results on the modified geometry.

2. Francis turbine model presentation

2.1. Original configuration The configuration considered in the present paper is the one investigated experimentally by Tridon et al. [5, 6]. The investigated case corresponds to the scaled model of a Francis turbine of high specific speed, n = 0.55. The scaled model supplied by ALSTOM HYDRO FRANCE is installed on the test rig of the CREMHyG and the tests are carried out according to the IEC 60193 International Standards [11]. The turbine model has a spiral casing with a stay ring of 24 stay vanes, a distributor made of 24 guide vanes, a 19 blades runner of 365mm outlet diameter, and a symetric elbow draft tube with one pier. This one is located downstream the hydraulic turbine runner. As shown in Fig. 1, its cross-sectional shape changes slowly from circular, at the inlet, to rectangular at the outlet. For structural issue, one pier has been added dividing the outlet into two rectangular bays. In the experiments, the draft tube is composed of three different parts, the cone in Plexiglas, the elbow in fiberglass and the straight diffuser in sheet steel - see Fig. 3. The Reynolds number under the runner for the considered operating points is about 6.6 million. It is calculated with the runner peripheral velocity and the runner outlet diameter and the tests are carried out in velocity similarity according to the IEC 60193 International Standards [11]. Flow behavior for high Reynolds number is asymptotical. Despite, the scale effect due to a Reynolds number influence on hydraulic efficiency must be taken into account for a correct scalability from the model to the prototype. The efficiency scale-up for a reaction turbine is clearly defined in the IEC 60193 International Standards [11]. The uncertainty on efficiency and pressure recovery coefficient are calculated from the individual and independent uncertainties of the considered parameters according to the IEC 60193 International Standards [11]. Therefore, for the efficiency, the total error is the quadratic sum of errors on H, Q, T and N, / = 29.5 10-4. And, for the pressure recovery coefficient, the total error is the quadratic sum of errors on P and Q, / = 28.4 10-4. The global efficiency of the global machine and the pressure recovery coefficient of the draft-tube alone have been discussed by Tridon et al. [7]. Both present a characteristic drop accident near the best operating point due to an expected bad behavior of the draft-tube. 2.2. Modified configuration (new performance data) To overcome the efficiency drop, it was decided to test a modified shape of the draft tube with the same model. At first, performances test have been carried out and confirmed that the modified geometry leads to the suppression of the efficiency drop near the best operating point. Figure 2 shows the evolution of the relative efficiency (by reference to the BEP efficiency for the original configuration) with the discharge coefficient for the global machine and the pressure recovery coefficient for the draft-tube alone. The original accident do not persist with the modified design.

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

OP3

OP3

Fig. 2 Global machine efficiency and draft-tube pressure recovery coefficient

3. Experimental setup for velocity field measurements

3.1. Laser Doppler velocimetry instrumentation The 2D velocity profile survey is performed by the LDV measurement method near the draft tube outlet to estimate the discharge repartition in each side of the draft tube. The experimental data used in this paper were obtained with a two-component probe Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA), using back-scattered light and transmission by optical fibber, with a 5 W argon-ion laser source. The main characteristics of the optical system for the measurement under the runner and in the draft tube are detailed in Table 1. Table 1 Main characteristics of the LDV optical system Optical Characteristics Wave lengths [nm] Focal length [mm] Probe diameter [mm] Beam spacing probe [mm] Fringe spacing [m] Beam half-angle [] Measuring volume dx,dy [mm] Measuring volume dz [mm] Beam Expander [] Draft Tube Channels 488/514.5 600 60 38.34 4.07 3.624 0.090 1.4 1.95

Spherical silver-coated glass particles are introduced in the test rig flow. These particles are hollowed in order to match the water density and are able to follow flow fluctuations frequency up to 5 kHz. The mean diameter of these particles is 10 m. One rectangular glass optical windows with plane and parallel faces is placed on the side of each channel alternatively. The geometrical reference position of the measurements is obtained by positioning the laser beams on the windows faces with accuracy better than 0.05 mm. Both horizontal and vertical components of the velocity are measured. The uncertainties of the velocity measurements are estimated to be 2% of the measured value - see Ciocan et al. [12]. 3.2. Particle image velocimetry instrumentation The mean velocity field in the whole draft-tube is investigated with a LA VISION 2D-3C PIV system, which consists of a double-pulsed laser, two double-frame cameras Pro+ with a resolution of 16001200 pixels, and a processor unit for the acquisition synchronization and the vectors detection by cross correlation. The illuminating system is composed of two Nd-YAG laser units, each delivering a short impulse of 10 ns and 200 mJ energy at 20 Hz frequency.

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

co-flowing left
LDV left channel

co-flowing centered

LDV right channel co-flowing right

Fig. 3 Measurement in co-flowing planes in the elbow 3.3. Measurements in co-flowing planes For the present investigation, it has been decided to explore the flow in the inside part of the elbow at three different lateral positions. One aligned with the pier and the two others in the left and right side of the elbow plane. The idea is to obtain data about the separated flow zones which may exist in the inside part of the elbow due to the centrifugal pressure gradient. For the optical access, the elbow is equipped with three windows directing to the elbow - see Fig. 3. These windows are manufactured in a 1.493 refractive index material. One special double faces calibration plate (2525 cm) is designed for the measurements with the elbow curvature. One trumpets window is dismantled for calibration plate positioning. After calibration process the window is then reassembled and the test rig filled with water. The cameras are installed on each elbow sides and focused on the laser-sheet see Fig. 3.

Laser sheet

Cameras with sheimpflung Fig. 4 Measurements set-up in a vertical plane near the elbow wall

4. Velocity fields
The results corresponding both for the original configuration and the modified draft-tube geometry are presented. It was decided to only present the results for the operating point (OP3) situated in the efficiency drop zone. This operating point corresponds to a discharge coefficient =0.38 and is the most representative of the accident phenomenon (see Fig. 2). Throughout this paper the velocity is made dimensionless by the runner outlet velocity (runner angular speed multiplied by runner outlet radius, Rref), and lengths are made dimensionless with respect to the runner outlet radius Rref 4.1. Measurements in channels Horizontal velocity repartition in each draft-tube channels is presented in the Fig. 5 for both the original and the modified configuration. The 60 points measuring grid of 5 cm 4 cm grid spacing in horizontal and vertical

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

direction respectively is marked with + on the figure. It permits us to calculate by simple integration the discharge repartition in each channel of the draft tube which appears to be non homogeneous. Indeed, for the operating point OP3 corresponding to the accident, the major part of the discharge passes through the right channel. because the turbine is counter-clockwise rotating. ORIGINAL CONFIGURATION

Fig. 5 Horizon velocity repartition in each draft-tube channels for original configuration The modified configuration permits to correct this flow rate unbalance. The large low speed zone in the left channel has disappear for the modified configuration see Fig. 6. MODIFIED CONFIGURATION

Fig. 6 Horizon velocity repartition in each draft-tube channels for modified configuration The discharge repartition for the OP3 is given in the Table 2, also for both the original and the modified configuration. Table 2 Discharge Repartition for original and modified configuration - OP3 Discharge repartition in % Original configuration Modified configuration 38 . 38 . Left Channel 28 50 Right Channel 72 50

The high unbalance between draft tube channels is characteristic to the accident. After an equilibrium of 5050% before the accident, a repartition as 28-72% or 35-65% see Iliescu and al. [14], occurs for the accidented situation. For the accidented situation, the higher flow rate in the right channel induce higher local velocities and losses. In the left channel the main vortex and the vertical vortices, can be considered like secondary flows and it can not be converted in pressure energy. The turbulence level confirm the increase of the losses and unsteadiness of the flow with the secondary flow existence. This losses produce the accident in the efficiency characteristic. For the modified configuration, the flow is again balanced between the channels, as well as the flow unsteadiness.

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

4.2. Measurements co-flowing planes These measurements are presented in the Fig. 7, 8 and 9 respectively for the left plane, the centered plane and the right plane and respectively on the left side for the original geometry and on the right side for the modified one. ORIGINAL MODIFIED

Fig. 7 Plane velocity contours near the elbow wall - Vertical plane on the left side - OP3 The quiver represents the plane velocity with the module in colored contours. It is clear that there is no recirculation zone in these planes except for the centered plane just front of the pier,. For both the original configuration and the modified, a quite important low speed zone is observed for the left side of the elbow inside wall but with completely different shapes see Fig. 7. This area is surrounded by high velocities leading to a strong shear near the wall and thus creating a highly non-uniform flow in the left draft-tube channel entry section.

Fig. 8 Plane velocity contours near the elbow wall - Vertical plane aligned with the pier - OP3 In the center part of the flow, in front of the pier, the flow exhibits a large acceleration zone, higher in the original case, which is mainly due to the fact that the major part of the flow originally directing in the left channel is deviating in the right channel. This acceleration creates a low pressure zone which has to deal with a large positive pressure gradient in the inner section of the left draft-tube channel. This effect appears clearly in Fig. 8 where this high speed flow is strongly decelerated in front of the pier conducted to a stronger velocity gradient in the original case than in the modified. As a hypothesis, it could create a large streamwise positive pressure gradient and a strong heterogeneity of the flow initial conditions for the draft-tube outlet. The average velocity is much less than in the original configuration. As a consequence, the longitudinal pressure gradient due to the pier is strongly reduced.

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

Fig. 9 Plane velocity contours near the elbow wall - Vertical plane on the right side - OP3 Concerning the right side of the flow Fig. 9, it is clear that in this region, the observed velocities are quite higher in the original version compared to the modified. However, the flow is almost homogeneous. It is clear that the centrifugal transversal pressure gradient created by the elbow in the cases of "non-accidented" operating points makes it possible to keep an homogeneous fast flow for the right draft-tube outlet. This effect, combined with the original swirl rate of the runner exit flow, leads to a strong flow rate asymmetry for the "accidented" configuration - see figure 4. In conclusion, for the modified configuration the flow appears to be more spatially homogeneous. By this way, the transversal pressure gradient between these three zones is probably close to zero. Thanks to this more homogeneous initial conditions, the flow in the draft-tube channels is much less distorted leading to a weaker adverse pressure gradient, less shear rate and at the end, less head losses in the draft-tube itself.

5. Conclusion
The draft-tube instability leading to an "accidented" situation has been investigated experimentally by means of 2D-3C PIV and LDV techniques. Experimental data show that the draft tube modification improved behavior is linked to a better balance of discharge between the two channels and has no influence on the velocity profile under the runner. This asymmetric flow rate repartition between the two outlets leads to an increase in head losses (due to the unsteady detached zone in the left outlet) leading to a lower efficiency in term of draft-tube pressure recovery ratio which we called the accident. Following these experimental data, a new draft-tube design has been tested in order to suppress or even strongly reduce the "accident" amplitude on the efficiency characteristics of the system. Present results shows that the accident amplitude has been widely reduced leading to more homogeneous initials conditions for the draft-tube outlets. The modified elbow geometry permits to change the pressure gradient in the critical zone and to eliminate the accident situation.

Nomenclature
Discharge coefficient Energy coefficient Pressure recovery coefficient Efficiency

Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from ADEME, Alstom Hydro France and DGR (French Government).

25th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 12 (2010) 012044

IOP Publishing doi:10.1088/1755-1315/12/1/012044

References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] Paik J, Sotiropoulos F and Sale M J June 2005 Numerical Simulation of Swirling Flow in Complex Hydroturbine Draft Tube Using Unsteady Statistical Turbulence Models J. of Hydr. Eng. 441-56 Susan-resiga R, Ciocan G D, Anton I and Avellan F January 2006 Analysis of the swirling flow downstream a Francis turbine runner J. of Fluids Eng. 128(1) 177-89 Mauri S, Kueny J L and Avellan F November 2004 Werl-Legendre Separation in a Hydraulic Machine Draft Tube J. of Fluids Eng.126(11) 976-80 Iliescu M S, Ciocan G D and Avellan F 2002 3D PIV and LDV Measurements at the Outlet of a Francis Turbine Draft Tube Joint U.S. ASME - European Fluids Eni. Summer Conf. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) Tridon S, Ciocan G D, Barre S and Tomas L 3D Time-Resolved Piv Measurement in a Francis Turbine Draft Tube Proc. of the 24th Symp. on Hydr. Mach. and Syst. (Foz do Iguassu, Brazil, October 2008) Tridon, S, Barre S, Ciocan G D and Tomas L Experimental Description of Swirling Flow Downstream a Francis Turbine Runner and Initialization of Numerical Simulations Proc. of the 25th Symp. on Hydr.Mach. and Syst. (Brno, Czech Republic, October 2009) Tridon S, Barre S, Ciocan G D and Tomas L Experimental Analysis of the Swirling Flow in a Francis Turbine Draft Tube: Focus on Radial Velocity Component Determination European J. of Mechanics B/Fluids 29 321-35 Duprat C, Tridon S, Balarac G, Barre S, Metais O, Ciocan G D, Laverne T and Tomas L Large-Eddy Simulation of Draft Tube Flow and Validation from Experimental Measurements Proc. of 25th Symp.on Hydr. Mach. and Syst. (Brno, Czech Republic, October 2009) Duprat C, Balarac G, Mtais O and Laverne T Simulation des Grandes Echelles dun Aspirateur de Centrale Hydraulique Mcanique & Industrie 10 2009 211-15 Duprat C, Balarac G, Mtais O and Laverne T Efficient Generation of Inflow-Conditions for Large-Eddy Simulation Calculation from Experimental Measurement Proc. of 25th Symp. on Hydr. Mach. and Syst. (Brno, Czech Republic, October 2009) International Electrotechnical Commision 1999 Hydraulic Turbines, Storage Pumps and PumpTurbinesModel Acceptance Tests 2nd ed. International Standard IEC 60193 Ciocan G D, Avellan F and Kueny J L 2000 Optical Measurement Techniques for Experimental Analysis of Hydraulic Turbines Rotor-Stator Interaction Proc. of the ASME 2000 Fluids Eng. Division Summer Meeting (Boston, MA) Duprat C Simulation numrique instationnaire des coulements turbulents dans les diffuseurs des turbines hydrauliques en vue de lamlioration des performances Thse INPG Iliescu M, Ciocan G D and Avellan F 3D PIV and LDV Measurements at the Outlet of a Francis Turbine Draft Tube Proc. of the FEDSM02, The 2002 Joint US ASME European Fluid Eng. Summer Conf. (Montreal, Canada)