Experimental validation of a low-head turbine intake designed by CFD following Fisher and Franke guidelines

Abstract

Model acceptance tests evaluate the response of the turbines at different operating conditions. Model tests are mounted so that the velocity profile at the inlet section is uniform, a condition which is not often met in practice. In fact, divergences might render inaccurate model results, obtaining at prototype scale an efficiency drop, structural vibrations and even component failures, in extreme cases. This concern becomes all the more relevant for low-head turbines, as the intake is closer to the turbine runner. With the aim of best estimating the actual flow conditions at the turbine inlet section as a function of the intake design, Voith designers, Fisher and Franke recommended performing scale model tests of the intake structure and listed a series of requirements that a good intake design should meet. These guidelines have not yet been applied on numerical modeling design but rather on more expensive and time-consuming scale model tests. This work presents the results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) design of a low-head turbine intake taking into account an upgraded version of Fisher and Franke recommendations. The optimization process was aimed at obtaining the design that best matches the ideal flow conditions at the inlet section. The physical model was built in a scale of 1:40 and involves the complete turbine intake geometry. Different designs were tested on the basis of the evaluation of their corresponding velocity field distributions at a reference section and the best design was measured with an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (Vectrino). The results show that intake design guidelines are very useful tools that allow hydraulic designers to test their proposals with CFD more quickly, objectively and with enough degree of sensitivity to optimize the intake geometry.