On the part load vortex in draft tubes of hydro electric power plants

E. Gde, A. Ruprecht, and F. Lippold

University of Stuttgart, Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machinery, Pfaffenwaldring 10, D-70550 Stuttgart, Germany goede@ihs.uni-stuttgart.de

Summary. For a given draft tube geometry numerical ow simulations have been carried out. Equivalent to part load operation of a Turbine with xed runner blades such as Francis- or Propellerturbines a set of different inlet boundary conditions have been specied to simulate the draft tube vortex. The intention was to nd out some correlation between inlet condition and the draft tube vortex structure. The results can be essential for design purposes in turbine engineering.

1 Introduction
The draft tube vortex is one of the most fascinating ow phenomena in a hydraulic turbine, but sometimes with considerable consequences on the operation of the power plant. For turbine runners with xed runner blades, which are installed in Francis- as well as in Propellerturbines, the uid leaves the runner with more or less swirl depending on the operating condition, if the rotational speed is constant. From kinematics it turns out that, the more the operating point is far away from best condition the higher the swirl is. Well known is the cork screw rolled up part load vortex (gure 1), that rotates with a fraction of the runner speed. Typically the vortex rotates at a speed between 30 and 50% of the runner speed. Accordingly, the pressure eld rotates, and since the pressure is neither constant along the circumference nor constant in time there is permanently an excitation to vibration. The pressure uctuations can lead to severe operational problems at critical operating conditions. In recent years great progress has been achieved in order to numerically simulate slender vortices in turbulent ows and the draft tube vortex respectively [1, 2, 3]. Contributions necessary for this achievement have been made especially in the eld of turbulence modelling taking into account the anisotropic character of turbulence in the ow around a slender vortex. In addition, multi scale numerical approaches have been introduced (e. g. VLES: very large eddy simulation).

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Fig. 1. Part load vortex, experiment and simulation (Francisturbine)

Fig. 2. Turbine hill chart and part load operating point (sketched)

Now it seems to be possible to answer questions such as which kinematic parameters are of major inuence on the development of the draft tube vortex. In fact, it would be a great progress to nd out by simulation to what extent and through which measure the vortex and the corresponding unsteady ow eld can be changed. In this paper the approach to simulate the draft tube ow is as follows: For a given operating point corresponding to a part load turbine operation (gure 2) a set of different boundary conditions at draft tube inlet have been specied. Since the operating point of the machine is xed, the discharge as well as the swirl at runner outlet are given for a given head. Therefore, the different boundary conditions are in fact different distributions over the radius for the through ow as well as for the swirl.

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2 Inuence of runner design

For a given operating point of the turbine depending on the actual head as well as on the discharge the ow at draft tube inlet is specied by the ow eld at runner outlet. Since the runner rotates (normally) with constant speed according to the frequency of the electric grid, the ow angles 2 relative to the runner blades are nearly independent from the actual discharge, see gure 3.

Fig. 3. Velocity triangles at runner outlet for three different turbine operating conditions (runner blade cascade in conformal mapping)

As a consequence, the velocity c2 in the absolute frame is very sensitive on changes in discharge. Figure 3 shows for increasing discharge the turning of the ow vector c2 , when the turbine operation is moved from part load (dark grey) to full load (green). In terms of circumferential component of the absolute velocity (cu2 ), the ow down stream of the runner rotates at part load in the same direction as the runner. At best condition, the ow has roughly no swirl (cu2 = 0, black colour), and at full load the ow rotates in the opposite direction as the runner (light grey colour). As indicated in gure 3, the relative ow angle down stream of the runner is similar to the blade angle at runner trailing edge. However, the two angles are not identical but somewhat different, which denes one of the major problems in the process of the runner design. In addition, the discharge at runner outlet is a priori not constant over the outlet area but depends on the local turning of the ow inside the runner blade cascade. This is why even if the power of the turbine is the same, the ow eld at runner outlet can be

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Fig. 4. Francis runner design, blade proles at band

different in terms of through ow as well as swirl over the radius from hub to band. In gure 4 an example is given to demonstrate how complex the shape of the runner blades in a Francis turbine can be. A great number of design parameters such as number of blades, blade length, prole thickness distribution, blade curvature, blade angles at leading and trailing edge and so on have inuence on the ow through the runner. It is obvious that for different bladings the resulting ow eld is different. However, for a required turbine power the necessary runner torque is given. This torque must be produced no matter which pressure distribution acts locally on the blade surface and no matter which through ow and swirl distribution at runner outlet is achieved. Finally, the runner wake can roughly be divided into two regions: the inner tail water region down stream of the hub and the outer through ow region down stream of the blade trailing edges. The shape of the hub has an inuence on the tail water region, and the shape of the blades has an inuence on the through ow as well as the swirl distribution from hub to band. To take into account the different strategies to design a turbine runner for the same operating condition, a set of possible boundary conditions at draft tube inlet have been specied.

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3 Computational modelling
3.1 Numerical algorithms The calculations are carried out using the program FENFLOSS which has been developed at the institute for more than a decade [4, 5]. The partial differential equations are solved by a Galerkin Finite Element Method. The spatial discretization of the domain is performed by 8-node hexahedral elements. For the velocity components and the turbulence quantities a tri-linear approximation is applied. The pressure is assumed to be constant within the element. For advection dominated ow a Petrov-Galerkin formulation with skewed upwind orientated weighting functions is applied. The time discretization is done by a three-level fully implicit nite difference approximation of 2nd order. For the solution of the momentum and continuity equation a segregated solution algorithm is applied. Each momentum equation is solved independently. The momentum equations are linearized by a Picard iteration. The linear systems of equations are solved by the BICGSTAB2 algorithm of van der Vorst [6] with an incomplete LU decomposition (ILU) for preconditioning. The pressure is treated by a modied Uzawa type pressure correction scheme [5, 7]. The pressure correction is carried out in a local iteration loop without reassembling the system matrices until the continuity error is reduced by a given order (usually 6-10 iterations needed). After the solution of the momentum and continuity equations the turbulence quantities are calculated and a new turbulence viscosity is obtained. The turbulence equations (e. g. k- and -equations) are also linearized by successive substitution and the linear systems are also solved by the BICGSTAB2 algorithm with ILU preconditioning. The whole procedure is carried out in a global iteration until convergence is obtained. For unsteady simulations the global iteration has to be carried out in each time step. The parallelization of the code is introduced by domain decomposition using overlapping grids. The linear equation solver BICGSTAB2 is carried out in parallel and the data exchange between the domains is organized on the level of the matrix-vector multiplication in the BICGSTAB2 solver. The preconditioning is carried out locally on each domain. The data exchange is organized using MPI (Message Passing Interface) on machines with distributed memory. On shared-memory-computers the code is also parallel by applying OpenMP. 3.2 Turbulence modelling The simulation of unsteady vortex motion needs quite sophisticated turbulence models. When applying the wrong models the vortices are severely damped and motions are unpredictable. A better approach compared to

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the usually applied Reynolds-averaged Navies-Stokes simulations is a Very Large Eddy Simulation (VLES). Large Eddy Simulation (LES) from the turbulence research point of view requires an enormous computational effort since all anisotropic turbulence scales have to be resolved in the computation and only the inuence of the smallest isotropic eddies are treated by a turbulence model. Consequently this method can not be applied for industrial problems today, it requires a much to high computational effort.

Fig. 5. Modelling approach for RANS and LES

Todays calculations of ows of practical relevance (characterized by complex geometry and very high Reynolds number) are usually based on the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. This means that the inuence of the complete turbulence behaviour is expressed by means of an appropriate turbulence model. To nd a turbulence model, which is able to capture a wide range of complex ow effects quite accurate is impossible. Especially for unsteady ow behaviour this approach often leads to rather poor results. The RANS and LES approach is schematically shown in gure 5, where a typical turbulent spectrum and its division in resolved and modeled parts is presented. The recently new established approach of Very Large Eddy Simulation leads to quite promising results, especially for unsteady vortex motion. In contrary to unsteady RANS the very large turbulent eddies are captured by the unsteady simulation, consequently there is a requirement to the applied turbulence model, that it can distinguish between resolved unsteady motion and not resolved turbulent motion which must be included in the model. It is

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Fig. 6. Turbulence treatment in VLES

similar to LES, but only a minor part of the turbulence spectrum is resolved (schematically shown in gure 6), and therefore it is available for industrial ows today. For for details the reader is referred to [8, 9]. For comparison the vortex rope in a straight diffusor is shown for a modied k- model (Chen&Kim version [10]) and for VLES, gure 7. It can be observed that the damping of the vortices is reduced severely by the VLES approach and the results are in a better agreement with measurements and observations in the experiment.

Fig. 7. Vortex rope in a straight diffuser, k- Kim-Chen model vs. VLES

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4 Computational grid, boundary conditions and evaluation methods

In order to take advantage from experience with previous investigations and since detailed measurement data were available, the draft tube geometry described in Ruprecht [11] was used for further examinations. The new and important work to be done here is the denition of appropriate boundary conditions. Since the impact of the direction of the velocity vectors at the draft tube inlet has to be examined, the choice of these has to be made thoughtfully. Furthermore, the operational point xed by the measurements has to be maintained. The nal step in the preparation of the examination of the draft tube vortex is the denition of the evaluation method and the appraisal criteria. 4.1 Geometrical model and computational grid The geometry examined in the paper is an elbow draft tube. It consists of a straight intake region with a slightly opening cross section. In the elbow the ow is redirected and nally distributed into three outlet channels. For the numerical analysis the geometry is discretized, which leads to a computational grid consisting of about 190000 grid points and 175000 hexahedral elements, see gure 8. To carry out the computations the grid was distributed onto six processors of a PC-cluster. 4.2 Denition of the boundary condition sets In order to keep the conditions given by the chosen turbine operating point, there are certain constraints the inlet boundary conditions have to meet. The rst one is the conservation of the given discharge, which means that
R

Q=
0

cz 2 r dr

(1)

has to be constant. Furthermore, the integral swirl value must not differ from the original operational point. Therefore, the second condition the boundary conditions will satisfy is
R

m=
0

r cu cz 2 r dr = const.

(2)

To judge the quality of a chosen velocity distribution the relative error is used. These values are dened as follows

q = ( Qnew Qorig ) Qorig 100.0% = (mnew morig ) morig 100.0%.

(3)

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Fig. 8. Computational (surface grid), approx. 175000 elements

At the outlet boundaries a constant pressure of p = 0 Pa is prescribed. The reference inlet boundary conditions was obtained from a numerical ow computation in a Francis runner. As it was already shown in [11] a vortex is formed in this point of operation. Boundary condition set 1 (cu cz1 ) This rst generic boundary condition set models a high transport component cz on a small radius decreasing linearly with increasing radius. The backow region in the centre is equivalent to the original one. Assuming a rigidbody-like swirl distribution at the inner and a constant cu at the middle and outer part yields the r*cu distribution shown in gure 9. The relative errors are q = 0.001% and = 0.047%. Boundary condition set 2 (cu cz1 ) In order to obtain comparable results only one value of the boundary conditions should be changed at once. So, this set models the same swirl distribution described above (cu cz1 ), but, an increasing transport velocity component with increasing radius, see gure 10. The relative errors are q = 0.01% and = 0.023%.

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Fig. 9. Boundary condition set 1 (cu cz1 )

Fig. 10. Boundary condition set 2 (cu cz2 )

Boundary condition sets 3 & 4 These sets combine the cz -distributions of set 2 and 1 with a cu -curve decreasing from inner to outer radii. This yields the declining swirl curve shown below in gure 11. Relative errors are again considerably low q = 0.01% and = 0.049% and q = 0.001% and = 0.013%, respectively. 4.3 Appraisal factors Two main issues coming with the draft tube vortex are the pressure uctuations exciting the whole hydraulic system and the pressure amplitudes. To obtain comparable values for all test cases some characteristic numbers reecting the behaviour under the given conditions have to be dened. First, this is the frequency of the pressure pulsations in a certain point. Second, the intermediate pressure amplitude, which means the mean peak to peak value. The curves in gure 12 give an impression of how the amplitude, which is the distance between the two lines (p_max/min,mean), is obtained. The peak

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Fig. 11. Swirl distribution for sets 3 & 4

value curves (p_max/min) are integrated in the time domain and the mean value is then obtained from the integral value divided by the total time period. This is, admittedly, an estimation, but, it will show the right trend between the single cases.

Fig. 12. Determination of the mean pressure amplitude

5 Simulation results
5.1 Geometrical model and computational grid In order to demonstrate the accuracy of the numerical simulation, a comparison with measurement data is shown according to [11] for the original boundary condition. In gure 14 the measured and computed pressure uctuations are given for point no. 3 at the draft tube cone, gure 13. The FFTanalysis carried out for both measured and computed pressure signals veries a quite good coincidence in terms of frequency as well as the amplitude

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Fig. 13. Positions of pressure measurement probes

of the signals, gure 14. This is why the same set-up for the ow analysis was chosen here using the specied sets of swirl distribution. 5.2 Inuence of boundary condition In gure 15 two vortices are visualized by using a constant pressure surface. It can be seen that the rope produced with the cu cz1 -boundary condition (light) is shorter and more slender than the original one (dark). This is in contrast to the cu cz2 -case where the rope is thicker and longer than the original one. In the case of high discharge near the hub the rope has less room to be formed and vice versa, which is the reason for the phenomenon described above. A remarkable discovery made here is the correlation between frequency and amplitude. The values for point 3 (CH3) given in gure 16 show that the pressure uctuations increase with decreasing frequency and vice versa. Since the rope hits the wall next to point 4 (CH4) there is a higher amplitude than at the upper point 3. Both frequencies are identical. Another aspect is that there seems to be no major inuence of the swirl distribution on the values analyzed here. The results presented indicate that rst of all the transport velocity has an impact on frequency and amplitude of the pressure pulsations. Furthermore, it turns out that the time-averaged pressure recovery coefcient of the draft tube increases with increasing frequency, gure 17 vs. gure 16. Here the amplitude of the pressure uctuations comes into play. Since, the higher the discharge at the hub yields a longer and more slender rope the blocking of the cross section will decrease. Hence, the losses for these cases are less and the recovery coefcient is higher.

6 Further investigations and outlook

Since the effects found above are hard to explain in detail for this complex example further examinations on a simpler geometry could be useful. Several impacts on the ow have to be taken into account, for instance the velocity

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40000 30000 20000 10000 pressure [Pa] 0 -10000 -20000 -30000 -40000 -50000 -60000 0
0.8
ch3 simulation ch3 measurement

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ch3 simulation ch3 messurement

0.5

1.5 time [s]

2.5

0.7

0.6

relative pressure amplitude

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1
3

11

13

15

17

19

21

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29

Frequency [Hz]

Fig. 14. Measured and computed pressure signals (above), FFT-analysis (below)

distribution at draft tube inlet, second, the conical shape of the draft tube, third, the elbow itself, fourth the turbulence modelling. To understand the basic mechanism it would be useful to separate all these effects as far as possible and to start with simplied geometries, and then to increase the complexity of the problem successively. Moreover, the consistency of the boundary condition sets has to be studied more deeply, this can be accomplished by a theoretical approach of Resiga [12]. Finally, instead of using articial boundary conditions, an actual runner design should be used to determine more realistic boundary conditions for the draft tube inlet.

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Fig. 15. Iso pressure surfaces obtained by the simulation of the vortex rope for (above) original (dark) and modied (light) cu cz1 boundary condition and original (dark) and modied (light) cu cz2 boundary condition

Fig. 16. Rope frequencies and mean pressure amplitudes

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Fig. 17. Pressure recovery coefcients (time averaged) for all bc-sets [ cp = (pin pout )/(v2 in /2) ]

References
1. Ruprecht A, Helmrich Th, Aschenbrenner Th, Scherer Th (2001) Simulation of pressure surge in a hydro power plant caused by an elbow draft tube. In: Proc. of the IAHR WG 1 Symposium The Behaviour of Hydraulic Machinery under Steady Oscillatory Conditions, Trondheim. 2. Helmrich Th, Ruprecht A (2001) Simulation of unsteady vortex rope in turbine draft tubes. In: Proc. of the Hydroturbo 2001, Podbanske, Slovak Republic. 3. Ruprecht A, Helmrich Th, Aschenbrenner T, Scherer T (2002) Simulation of vortex rope in a turbine draft tube. In: Proc. of the 21th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems, Lausanne 4. Ruprecht A (1989) Finite Elemente zur Berechnung dreidimensionaler turbulenter Strmungen in komplexen Geometrien. Doctorate Thesis, University of Stuttgart. 5. Ruprecht A (2003) Numerische Strmungssimulation am Beispiel hydraulischer Strmungsmaschinen. Habilitationsschrift, Universitt Stuttgart 6. Van der Vorst HA (1994): Recent developments in hybrid CG methods. In: Proc. of the High Performance Computing & Networking, Mnchen. 7. Zienkiewicz OC, Vilotte JP, Toyoshima S, Nakazawa S (1985) Comp Meth Appl Mech Eng 51: 3-29 8. Ruprecht A, Helmrich Th, Buntic I (2003) Very large eddy simulation for the prediction of unsteady vortex motion. In: Proc. of the Conference on Modeling Fluid Flow, Budapest. 9. Helmrich Th, Buntic I, Ruprecht A (2002) Very Large Eddy Simulation for ow in hydraulic turbo machinery. In: Proc. of the Classics and Fashion in Fluid Mechanics, Belgrade. 10. Kim SW, Chen CP (1989) Numer Heat Transfer 16(B): 193-221 11. Ruprecht A (2002) Unsteady ow simulation in hydraulic machinery. In: IAHR, Task quarterly 6 No 1., 187-208. 12. Romeo S-R (2004) Swirling ow downstream a francis turbine runner. In: Proc. of the 6th international conference on Hydraulic Machinery and Hydrodynamics, Timisoara, Romania.