Vibration and fatigue caused by pressure pulsations originating in the vaneless space for a Kaplan turbine with high head

Abstract

Purpose

Hydraulic instabilities are one of the most important reasons causing vibrations and fatigues in hydraulic turbines. The present paper aims to find the relationship between pressure pulsations and fatigues of key parts of a Kaplan turbine.

Design/methodology/approach

3D unsteady numerical simulations were preformed for a number of operating conditions at high heads for a prototype Kaplan turbine, with the numerical results verified by online monitoring data. The contact method and the weak fluid‐structure interaction method were used to calculate the stresses in the multi‐body mechanism of the Kaplan turbine runner body based on the unsteady flow simulation result.

Findings

The results show that vortices in the vaneless space between the guide vanes and blades cause large pressure pulsations and vibrations for high heads with small guide vane openings. The dynamic stresses in the runner body parts are small for high heads with large guide vane openings, but are large for high heads with small guide vane openings.

Originality/value

A comprehensive numerical method including computational fluid dynamics analyses, finite element analyses and the contact method for multi‐body dynamics has been used to identity the sources of unit vibrations and key part failures.

Citation

Luo, Y., Wang, Z., Zhang, J., Zeng, J., Lin, J. and Wang, G. (2013), "Vibration and fatigue caused by pressure pulsations originating in the vaneless space for a Kaplan turbine with high head", Engineering Computations, Vol. 30 No. 3, pp. 448-463. https://doi.org/10.1108/02644401311314376