Projekt

Loads on a Kaplan runner during steady and transient operations

Uppdaterad 2023-09-21 Publicerad 2019-07-30

Hydraulic turbines are subject to an increasing number of start/stop and load variations mainly due to the introduction of wind power and the deregulation of the electricity market. Therefore, the stresses casued by these events should be given more attention as they cause heavy cyclic stresses and high cycle fatigue on the turbines.

One start-stop may reduce the service period of a runner by about 15 hours as well as putting additional cost of break-down to the power plant owner. There is a need to better understand such operation conditions to minimize failure and decrease wear of the machines but also predict upcoming trends for design purpose. The development of accurate and cost-effective measuring techniques is an essential element in this context as well as the implementation and analysis of full-scale measurements.

Several measurements are performed during transient and steady operations on the runner and shaft. This data will now be evaluated and analysis carried out on the coupling between runner and shaft. If successful, the analysis may allow determination of expected runner life, exclusively from measurements on the shaft. Such measurements may thereby allow operation optimization of the turbine, reducing cost of operation and maintenance.
Today, measurements on the runner are necessary to assess its life. Such measurements are expensive and difficult to perform. This project is expected to give guidelines on the implementation of measuring techniques that allows for simpler measurements to assess the expected life of a runner.
The following measurements performed on the Porjus U9 prototype will be further analysed: 
  • Stresses on the blade.
  • Pressure on the blade.
  • Acceleration of the runner in 3 axes.
  • Torsion, bending and axial load on the shaft

Om projektet

Projektledare

Michel Cervantes, LTU

Doktorand

Arash Soltani LTU

Projektdeltagare

Fredrik Engström, LTU/Vattenfall

Publiceringar

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, F. Engström, J.-O. Aidanpää, and M. Cervantes, ‘An Indirect Measurement Methodology to Identify Load Fluctuations on Axial Turbine Runner Blades’, Sensors, vol. 20, no. 24, 2020.

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, F. Engström, J.-O. Aidanpää, and M. Cervantes, ‘Experimental Investigation of a 10 MW Prototype Axial Turbine Runner : Vortex Rope Formation and Mitigation’, Journal of Fluids Engineering, vol. 142, no. 10, 2020.

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, F. Engström, J.-O. Aidanpää, and M. Cervantes, ‘Experimental Investigation of a 10 MW Prototype Kaplan Turbine during Start-Up Operation’, Energies, vol. 12, no. 23, 2019.

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, J.-O. Aidanpää, F. Engström, and M. Cervantes, ‘A Review of Available Methods for the Assessment of Fluid Added Mass, Damping, and Stiffness With an Emphasis on Hydraulic Turbines’, Applied Mechanics Review, vol. 70, no. 5, 2018.

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, J.-O. Aidanpää, F. Engström, and M. Cervantes, ‘Fluid added polar inertia and damping for the torsional vibration of a Kaplan turbine model runner considering multiple perturbations’, in IOP Conference Series : Earth and Environmental Science, 2019, vol. 240.

M. Cervantes and A. Soltani Dehkharqani, ‘Prototype Kaplan turbine measurements : Instrumentation overview’, presented at the 2nd IAHR-Asia Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems, Busan, Korea, September 24-25, 2019, 2019.

A. Soltani Dehkharqani, ‘An Experimental Investigation of a Prototype Kaplan Turbine and Numerical Analysis of Fluid Added Parameters on the Corresponding Model Turbine Runner’, PhD dissertation, Luleå tekniska universitet, Luleå, 2020.

Soltani Dehkharqani and M. Cervantes, ‘Experimental investigation of a prototype Kaplan turbine runner’, presented at the 15th Asian International Conference on Fluid Machinery (25th - 27th September 2019, Busan, Korea), 2019.

Tid

februari 2019 - december 2020