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A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine

Article in Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology · November 2009

DOI: 10.5916/jkosme.2009.33.7.1052

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Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, pp. 1052～1059, 2009(ISSN 1226-9549)

A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine

1
Jin-ho Ha ⋅Chul-Ho Kim†
(Received August 25, 2009 ; Revised October 21, 2009 ; Accepted November 10, 2009)

Abstract：The effects of varying the inlet flow angle on the output power of a Francis
hydraulic turbine were studied numerically and the result was compared to the
experimental results conducted at Korea Institute of Energy Research to determine the
brake power of the turbine for each set of operating conditions. The loss of mechanical
power of the model turbine was determined by comparing the numerical and experimental
results, and thus the turbine efficiency or energy conversion efficiency of the model
turbine could be estimated. From the result, it was found that the maximum brake
efficiency of the turbine is approximately 46% at an induced angle of 35 degrees. The
maximum indicated mechanical efficiency of the turbine is approximately 93% at an
induced angle of 25~30 degrees.
Key words ：Francis hydraulic turbine, Indicated mechanical efficiency, CFD, Brake
power

1. Introduction very useful tool for obtaining detailed

Francis hydraulic turbine is classified information about flow characteristics,
as an impulse-type turbine because it which makes it possible to develop an optimum
uses the static pressure and kinetic design algorithm for hydraulic turbines.
energy of flowing water to generate power. When the mass flow-rate of water at
Impulse-type turbines are useful in the inlet of the turbine changes, the
situations in which the hydraulic head is induced angle should be adjusted so as to
low but the mass flow-rate is high[1]. maintain a smooth flow of water in the
This study is a preliminary step in the flow path, otherwise turbulent flow is
development of a design algorithm for generated in the blade-to-blade path of
Francis hydraulic turbines. In order to the turbine and the flow separation arises
optimize the design of the turbine, a on the vane surface. These complicated
detailed understanding of the flow flow phenomena convert useful energy to
phenomena of a blade-to-blade path and entropy in the flow field. Therefore a
in the volute of the turbine is very variable inlet guide vane system is used
important. An experimental approach to to adjust the flow induced angle according
these phenomena can only return very to changes in the mass flow rate in the
limited information about the control turbine system. In this study, numerical
volume. Thus, numerical simulation is a simulations were conducted to determine

†Corresponding Author(Seoul National University of Technology E-mail : [email protected],

Tel: 02-970-6347)
1 Seoul National University of Technology, Graduate School of New Energy Engineering

1052 / Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11
 A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine 73

the effects of varying the induced angle on In this process, if the water does not
the output power performance of a model smoothly drain into the diffuser because
Francis hydraulic turbine. These results the flow in the flow path of the impeller is
were compared with experimental results unstable, such as due to flow separation
obtained at the Korean Institute of on the vane surface and casing wall (see
Energy Research (KIER)[2] in order to Figure 1), the efficiency of the turbine is
estimate the energy conversion efficiency, degraded and the life cycle of the system
the mechanical efficiency, and the might be reduced by mechanical stress on
mechanical loss power of the model the impeller. Figure 2 shows the physical
turbine designed at KIER. The optimum and numerical domains of the model
operating condition for the designed model turbine that were used in this numerical
turbine was also estimated.
and experimental study.

2. Flow field characteristics and geometry

of the model turbine
Francis turbine system comprises two
main components: the inlet guide vane
and the rotor with volute. The inlet guide
vane directs the inlet water into the rotor
at a velocity with a tangential component.
The water inlet angle is varied by the (physical domain) (numerical domain)
guide vanes and should be adjusted to the Figure 2: Physical and numerical domains of the
operating conditions, i.e., the flow rate model Francis hydraulic turbine
and head characteristics, to produce the
optimum performance of the hydraulic 3. Numerical Methods and Boundary
turbine. As water flows into the turbine Conditions
rotor in the radial direction, the flow soon In this study, the numerical simulation
changes its direction to axial and exits of the three-dimensional flow field was
into a diffuser, which acts to convert the conducted using a FVM code named
kinetic energy of the water into a useable PHOENICS (ver. 3.1)[3]. The control
form. volume of the model turbine is reasonably
defined as;

- Quasi-3D flow - Turbulent flow

- Incompressible flow - Steady state flow

3-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations[4]

were solved with the standard (k-e)
turbulence model[5]. The process was
Figure 1: Schematic diagrams of a turbine with
guide vanes and flow separation on the surface side assumed to be steady state and adiabatic,
of a runner vane and thus the energy equation was not

Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11 / 1053
74 Jin-ho Ha⋅Chul-Ho Kim

required in these numerical calculations.

The turbulent no-slip condition near the

   

          ,
  

   


solid boundary was modelled with the (    ,     ,     ,

logarithmic law. Fully implicit backward    ,    )
time differencing was used and the
advection terms were hybrid differenced. 3.2 The boundary and initial conditions

Conjugate gradient techniques for pressure In this numerical study, Body Fitted

corrections in the transport equations Coordinates (BFC) grid generation

were incorporated and the 'SIMPLE' method[6] was used in conjunction with
algorithm[5] was employed for the velocity non-orthogonal grids allowing irregular
and pressure coupling. geometries to generate the numerical grid
of the model turbine and the optimized
3.1 Governing Equations grid size of the 3-D model was decided to
The basic equations describing the fluid 52x64x12 through the grid test. Figure 3
dynamics in the control volume are based shows a perspective view of the
on the Navier-Stokes equations, which are three-dimensional numerical domain for
comprised of equations for the conservation the blade-to-blade path of the rotor that
of mass and momentum. was used in this numerical study.

1) Continuity equation

  

     (1)
  

2) Momentum equation

   
          (2)
    Figure 3: Perspective view of the 3-D numerical

 
   
  

  



   

domain for the blade-to-blade path of the rotor (52x64x12)

3) Turbulent kinetic equation The boundary and initial conditions of

the calculations were as follows:



   
 
 
  
  
       
    (3)
(1) Inlet : velocity boundary condition
4) Energy dissipation equation (2) Outlet : Pressure boundary condition
with an assumption of fully



   
 
 
  
   
    
             (4) developed flow field
(3) No-Slip boundary condition on surface
of the model impeller
Where
(4) Symmetric boundary conditions on
 the surface of the control volume
  
  
 

1054 / Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11
 A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine 75

3.3 Major Parameters and Their Ranges Table 1: Variations of the experimental results
with induced angle
In general the output power of the
Induced Rotatin Flow
Model Head Torque
hydraulic turbine is controlled by the Angle g Speed rate
No. (mAq) (N·m)
(degree) (rpm) (㎥/s)
mass flow-rate of water and its head in a
Model-25 11.3 617.5 6.5 0.052 13.58
volute. The induced angle at the inlet of
Model-40 18.0 637.0 6.5 0.065 22.85
the turbine is a critical design parameter
of turbine systems. In this study, the Model-55 24.8 655.0 5.5 0.089 30.46

induced angle was controlled in six steps Model-70 31.5 669.9 5.0 0.107 34.15

with inlet guide vanes from fully closed Model-85 40.5 706.3 5.0 0.126 38.91
position to a position opened up partly to Model-100 45.0 716.1 5.0 0.140 38.89
an angle of 45 degrees to determine the
effects on the power performance of the
4. Performance analysis of the model
turbine system.
turbine
The indicated power generated by the
model turbine can be estimated from the
results of the simulation. The static
pressure distribution on the surface of the
model impeller is the energy source for
the torque generated on the turbine shaft.
The static pressure force can be calculated
from the equations given below.[7]

① Hydrostatic pressure force on the

Figure 4: Top view of the model turbine and its impeller vane
induced angle

Figure 4 shows a top view of the model

  

(5)

turbine assembly. If the induced angle of ② Indicated torque (τi) generated on the
the guide vanes is low, the mass flow-rate turbine shaft
is reduced because the inlet area is
  ∆ × (6)
reduced and the rotational speed of the
turbine is also affected. Where ∆        
Table 1 shows the variation of the
experimental results such as the variation ③ Indicated power (Pi) produced on the

of the mass flow-rate and the rotational model turbine

speed of the turbine, with the induced

   ×  (7)
angle. These results were incorporated as
boundary conditions in the numerical where ω is the rotational speed of the
study. turbine.

Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11 / 1055
76 Jin-ho Ha⋅Chul-Ho Kim

④ Turbine efficiency determined by comparing to the indicated

power to the experimental brake power.
 
    × ,     × (8)

 


where   is the turbine indicated efficiency.

  is the turbine brake efficiency

⑤ Mechanical efficiency of the model

turbine
Figure 5: Velocity and pressure distributions at the
 entrance of the impeller; induced angle = 11.3
   × (9)
 degree

where Pb is the experimental brake Figure 5 shows the velocity and

power pressure distributions at the entrance of
the impeller at 11.3 degrees of the
⑥ Mechanical power loss of the model induced angle of the guide vane. In the
turbine case of the velocity distribution, water
accelerates at the lower side of the
     (10)
entrance because the flow direction of the
fluid turns downwards abruptly by 90
5. Results and Discussion degrees at the entrance. This flow
The indicated power of the model Francis phenomenon could be a critical reason of
turbine was estimated numerically and the cavitation in the flow path of the
compared to the brake power acquisitioned turbine impeller. The static pressure on
from the experiment by KIER to have an the lower left comer of the entrance is the
understanding of the general performance lowest in the area and as the value
of the model Francis hydraulic turbine reaches to below the vapor pressure
such as the indicated and brake efficiency, definitely forms air-bubbles in the region.
the mechanical efficiency and the The static pressure on the pressure side
mechanical power loss of the designed of the vane is much higher than on the
model turbine. The mechanical efficiency suction side. The pressure difference
of the turbine was calculated by between two sides of the vane is the
comparing the input power to the brake energy source of the torque rotating the
and indicated output power of the turbine. turbine impeller.
The efficiency of the turbine is very Figure 6 shows the static pressure
important performance parameter for distributions on the pressure and suction
estimating the energy conversion efficiency sides of the vane. The pressure on the
of the designed system. The mechanical pressure side of the vane is higher than
power loss of the model turbine was on the suction side. This information is

1056 / Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11
 A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine 77

very important for the estimation of the the induced angle. As shown in this
indicated power of the designed impeller. figure, the mechanical efficiency of the
turbine is maximized in the middle range
of the induced angle. In general, it is
known that the mechanical efficiency of
Francis hydraulic turbine is approximately
85~90%. It is estimated that the optimum
conditions of operation of this model
turbine arise for an induced angle of
25~30 degrees, resulting in an optimum
efficiency of approx. 93%. The mean value
Figure 6: Distributions of the hydrostatic pressure on
of the mechanical efficiency of this turbine
the pressure and suction surfaces of a vane of the
model turbine at an induced angle of 31.5 degree model is approx. 79% at the rated
operating conditions
Figure 7 shows the variations of the
power input and output of the model
turbine. The rotational speed of the
turbine is directly related to the mass
flow-rate of the inlet water and the
induced angle. As shown in the figure, all
the powers are continuously increasing
along with the impeller speed and the
induced angle. In particular, the
difference between the output brake and
indicated powers is minimized in the
Figure 8: Variation of the mechanical efficiency of
middle speed range, which means that the the model turbine with the induced angle
mechanical energy loss of the impeller is
minimized in this range. The brake and indicated efficiencies of
the model turbine are shown in Figure 9.

Figure 7: Variations of the power input and output

with the rotational speed and induced angle

Figure 8 shows the variation in the

Figure 9: Variations of the brake and indicated
mechanical efficiency of the turbine with
efficiencies with the induced angle

Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11 / 1057
78 Jin-ho Ha⋅Chul-Ho Kim

range of the induced angle, which means

that the optimum operating range of the
model turbine arises for an induced angle
of 25~35degrees. The lowest loss rate of
the turbine is approximately 2.9% in this
rated range.

6. Conclusion
In this study, numerical simulations
were conducted to determine the effects of
varying the induced angle on the output
power performance of a model Francis
hydraulic turbine designed at KIER and
the results were compared with
experimental results in order to estimate
the energy conversion efficiency, the
mechanical efficiency, and the mechanical
power loss of the model turbine. The
optimum operating conditions for the
designed model turbine were also
estimated.
Figure 10: Variations of the mechanical power
loss(A) and its loss rate with induced angle(B) From the study, it was found that
induced angle at the inlet of a Francis

The indicated efficiency is minimized in hydraulic turbine controlled by an inlet

the middle range of the induced angle; guide vane system significantly affects the

however, the opposite trend is found for output power generated by the hydraulic

the brake efficiency. The indicated turbine; that is; the induced angle is a

efficiency is strongly affected by the flow very important parameter for the design

phenomena in the flow path of the of hydraulic turbines.

turbine, which means that the flow is In the case of this model Francis

quite stable at lower and higher indicated hydraulic turbine, the induced angle

angles. The brake efficiency is related to should be adjusted to 25 to 30 degrees at

the mechanical loss of the turbine. As a given hydraulic head (5.5~6.5m), mass

shown in Figure 9, mechanical loss is flow-rate (0.065~0.089m3/s)and rotational

minimized in the middle range of the speed (655~670rpm) to obtain its

induced angle. optimum performance.

Figure 10 shows the variation of the

mechanical power loss and its rate of the References
model turbine with the induced angle. The [1] W.W.Peng, Fundamentals of Turbo
power loss is minimized in the middle -Machinery, John Wileys & Sons Inc.,

1058 / Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11
 A Study on the Performance Analysis of Francis Hydraulic Turbine 79

pp. 275-293, 2008.

Author Profile
[2] C.H.Lee and W.S.Park, Technaical
Report, Korea Institute of Energy
Chul-Ho Kim
Research, Vol.1, (2004).
He received his B.E., M.E. degree from
[3] PHOENICS PIL Manual, Version 3.1,
Inha University (Korea) in 1980 and
CHAM Ltd., (2002). 1982 and Ph.D degree from The Univ.
[4] Y.A. Cengel and J.M.Cimbala, Fluid of New South Wales, Australia in 1995.
He is currently a professor at the
Mechnaics (Fundamentals and Applications), department of automotive engineering in
McGraw-Hill International, 1stedition, pp. Seoul National University of Technology.
His research interests are Power Train Design of an
472-476, 2006.
Electric Vehicle, Turbo-machine Design and Performance
[5] S. V. Patankar, Numerical Heat Analysis, Automotive Aerodynamics and CFD Applications
Transfer and Fluid Flow, Hemisphere
Publishing Corp., 1980.
Jin-Ho Ha
[6] R. L. Thompson, Body Fitted Coordinate, He received his B.E. degree from
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991. Seoul National University of Technology
in 1998 and M.S. degree from Korea
[7] M. Potter and D. Wiggert, Mechanics University in 2002. He is currently a
of Fluids, Brooks/Cole, 3rd edition, Ph.D candidate at the Graduate School
of New Energy Engineering in Seoul
2002, pp. 1-60, 2002.
National University of Technology.
His research topic for his Ph.D degree is "A Study on the
Optimum Design of CPT(Cross- flow Power Turbine)
system for the Electric Power Generation on a Running
Vehicle."

Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Engineering, Vol. 33, No. 7, 2009. 11 / 1059

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