Experimental and numerical analysis of pressure pulses characteristics in a Francis turbine with partial load

This study experimentally and numerically investigates the pressure pulses characteristics and unsteady flow behavior in a Francis turbine with partial load. Unsteady wall pressure measurements with partial load condition are performs to investigate thoroughly pressure fields in the spiral case, runner head cover and straight draft tube dynamically. The unsteady Reynolds- averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the k- Delta *wbased SST turbulence model were used to model the unsteady flow within the entire flow passage of the Francis turbine. The dominate frequency of the predicted pressure pulses at runner inlet agree with the experimental results in the head cover. The influence of the blade passing frequency causes the simulated peak-to-peak amplitudes in the runner inlet to be larger than in the head cover. The measured and predicted pressure pulses at different positions along the runner are comparable. The predicted pressure fluctuations in the draft tube agree well with the experimental results. However the peak-to-peak amplitudes in the spiral case are not as well predicted so the calculation domain and the inlet boundary conditions need to be improved. At the most unstable operating condition, the pulse in the flow passage are due to the rotor-stator interference (RSI) between the runner and the guide vanes, the blade channel vortex in the runner blade passage and the vortex rope in the draft tube. The unsteady flow patterns in the turbine, including the blade channel vortex in the runner and the helical vortex rope in the draft tube, are classified numerically.