Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
LaunchPoint Technologies, Inc.,
Goleta, CA, USA
e-mail: jwu@launchpnt.com
Introduction flow characteristics and parameters are specified as inputs and the
corresponding blade geometry is computed and generated as out-
Commissioned in 1950s and 1960s, many of the earliest hydro-
put, is still not commonly performed 关6,7兴. Two primary factors
power stations in China contain very old Francis hydro turbine
have prevented the advancement and wide application of inverse
units. It is reported that the runners 共rotors兲 in these turbines have
design methods. One is that almost all the fundamental equations
suffered from serious cavitation damage. Frequent repairs of the involved in the inverse design methods developed so far 关6–10兴
cavitation damage destroyed regular flow passage, leading to dras- are based on the assumption of inviscid flow, which is far different
tic deterioration of turbine performance. As a result, these turbines from the actual complex turbulent flow conditions in most turbo-
do not generate their rated capacity. It is, therefore, strongly de- machinery. The other is that these inverse design equations require
sired to rehabilitate the turbines with new runners using modern the input of either pressure loading or angular momentum distri-
design methods to update the efficiency, raise the capacity and bution 共rV兲, which are heavily dependent on statistical and/or
improve the cavitation characteristics. Runner replacement empirical data. Inverse design methods also require a 3D viscous
projects of this kind present a great challenge for hydraulic design CFD code to provide flow solutions to evaluate the design, with
because of the geometrical constraints of the existing machines. feedback from output solutions to modify the input of pressure
The flow in a hydro-turbine runner is extremely complex, since loading or angular momentum distribution in an iterative optimi-
it is generally turbulent, unsteady and highly three-dimensional zation process. For all these reasons, conventional blade design
共3D兲 in nature with strong effects from rotation and curvature. approaches integrated with advanced CFD analysis have been re-
Recently, with the rapid development of computer technology and vived in engineering practice and have become powerful and ef-
advanced CFD, it has become routine to directly simulate internal fective tools for design optimization of turbomachinery 关11–13兴.
turbulent flow in individual or multiple components of a turboma- CFD-based design procedures of this type usually require several
chine 关1–3兴. Examples include sophisticated large eddy simula- iterations of hydrodynamic design and direct CFD evaluations to
tions 共LES兲 in a Francis turbine 关4兴 and in a centrifugal pump meet design specifications or target functions 关11,12兴.
impeller at design and off-design conditions 关5兴. However, a ro- Over a period of more than 2 decades, we have developed a
bust and fully 3D inverse design approach, by which the required CFD-based design optimization system that integrates internally
developed blade design tools, automatic mesh generators, param-
Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division of ASME for publication in the
eterized mathematical geometry models, and inviscid quasi-3D
JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING. Manuscript received August 11, 2005; final manu- 共Q3D兲 and 3D Euler codes with commercial 3D Navier–Stokes
script received July 6, 2006. Assoc. Editor: Akira Goto. code like STAR-CD 共CD-Adapco, London兲. Such a system per-
Journal of Fluids Engineering Copyright © 2007 by ASME FEBRUARY 2007, Vol. 129 / 159
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r 2 − V r
d = dm 共1兲
V mr 2
where is the wrap angle, and m denotes the meridional distance
along the camber-line. In Eq. 共1兲, as an approximation, the me-
ridional velocity along the meridional streamlines can be com-
puted by 1D or 2D potential flow theories; while the distribution
of the angular momentum 共rV兲 or its derivative can be specified
according to the pressure loading, as originally proposed by Jan-
sen 关10兴, and recently evolved by Zangeneh 关8兴 and Goto 关6兴.
Therefore, a 3D blade shape can be stacked together by integrat-
ing Eq. 共1兲 along each streamline, provided that the blade thick-
ness distribution is given. This method, under the assumption of
axis-symmetric flow, is a simplified form of the inverse design
method used in Refs. 关6,7兴.
Equation 共1兲 can be further simplified as
1
d = dm 共2兲
r tan 
According to Eq. 共2兲, if the blade angle  distribution along a
streamline is known, similarly the 3D blade geometry can be ob-
tained. Compared to Eq. 共1兲, the number of unknown variables in
Eq. 共2兲 for the blade is reduced to only one. According to the
authors’ experience, a blade design method by Eq. 共2兲 is usually
more flexible and efficient than by Eq. 共1兲.
Fig. 1 CFD-based design system An alternative method to that of Eq. 共2兲 is to directly and some-
what arbitrarily draw the camber-line in a conformal mapping
plane 共I-U兲, which is defined as
冕
m
dm
mits designers to interactively generate, modify, and visualize the I = rref 共3兲
r
geometric model of a design. It offers an inexpensive and rapid mo
冕
means for a designer to acquire detailed flow field information and
evaluate performance. The design process can be repeated until a
fully optimized model with satisfactory performance is obtained. L= rrefd 共4兲
It offers a much more efficient means of optimization than tradi- o
tional trial-and-error approaches. The basic concept of this CFD- Then, according to Eq. 共2兲, the local blade angles can be easily
based design system is outlined in the flow chart as shown in obtained by using
Fig. 1.
In this paper, the CFD-based design system is applied to the dI
tan  = 共5兲
optimization of a Francis turbine runner and tandem cascade for a dL
turbine rehabilitation project, which has a specific speed of
Although the three basic blade design methods as described
180 m kW with a 100 m class of head. A commercial Navier–
above are theoretically derived from the same equation or its de-
Stokes code 共STAR-CD兲 with standard - turbulence model, in- formation, it practically involves quite different techniques to
tegrated into our CFD-based design system, is employed for tur- adapt each into a flexible and robust design tool. The first method
bulent flow simulation of the existing and new turbines. Special requires statistical or empirical data or a designer’s experience in
attention has been paid to flow matching between different com-
prescribing the distribution of angular momentum 共rV兲, or the
ponents, particularly in regards to the effects between rotating and
distribution of its derivative. The second method requires the
stationary parts, by using the steady-state flow solver based on the
same in describing a blade angle distribution. The third method
multiple frames of reference 共MFR兲 with an implicit coupling
utilizes a designer’s experience or intuition in drawing a camber-
method. The results of homologous model tests, conducted at Har-
line in the conformal mapping plane. Each of these approaches, if
bin Institute of Large Electric Machinery 共China兲 for the verifica-
integrated with the advanced 3D viscous CFD codes, can become
tion of the characteristics of the new design, are also presented in
a very practical and powerful tool in the design and optimization
the paper.
of turbomachinery. All three blade design methods have been
adopted in our CFD-based design optimization system to allow a
designer options in achieving a rapid optimization for the runner
blades, guide vanes, and stay vanes of various types of hydro-
CFD-Based Design Optimization System turbines. The three blade design approaches have also been incor-
It is important to integrate a robust and flexible blade design porated into another CFD-based optimization system for the suc-
tool in a CFD-based design optimization system to allow auto- cessful design and optimization of blood pumps 关11兴. The
matic or an expert-interfaced generation and modification of the internally developed parameterized geometrical models based on
design geometry. In the turbomachinery industry, tremendous ad- B-spline curves and B-spline surfaces and other mathematical
vances have been made through the direct approach applying models 关14兴 are also integrated into the system for other compo-
Q3D, Euler 3D, and viscous 3D Navier–Stokes methods to solve nents such as spiral casing, draft tube, and meridional section as
the flow fields for a given blade geometry 关1–4兴. However, a well. In the present investigations, the aforementioned second
robust and cost-effective 3D inverse design approach is still not method is used for the design of runner blades, stay vanes, and
commonly available for the reasons as described above. The fun- guide vanes because it has been proven to be more flexible to use
damental equation commonly used in the inverse design for the than the first and third methods according to our experiences. The
blade mean camber-line can be written as leading and trailing edge blade angles are initially calculated by
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Table 1 Specifications of existing and new turbines
Existing New
Q 0.73 0.88
Q11opt = 共m3 / s兲
D21冑H
ND1 65 73.5
N11opt =
冑H 共rpm兲
Q 0.91 1.09
Q11rat = 2 共m1/2 / s兲
D1冑H
ND1 65 73.5
冑H 共m / s兲
1/2
N11rat =
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Fig. 4 Efficiency hill chart of existing turbine „Q11opt = 0.73,
N11opt = 65, and opt = 92%…
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Fig. 7 Optimized guide vane and stay vane profiles
Fig. 6 Pressure contours on central plane of existing tandem Fig. 8 Pressure contours on central plane of new tandem
cascade cascade
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Fig. 9 Velocity vectors near blade surfaces of the existing run- Fig. 10 Pressure contours on surface of existing runner
ner at cell centers of the first layer grids: „a… pressure side, „b… blade: „a… pressure side; „b… suction side
suction side
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Fig. 14 Pressure contours on surfaces of new runner blade
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Fig. 17 Efficiency hill chart of new optimization design
„Q11opt = 0.88, N11opt = 73.5, and opt = 95.3%…
Fig. 16 Configuration of new runner design though it gives a 94.2% level of peak efficiency, about 2.2%
higher than the existing model runner, it is still about 1% lower
than the requirement of the customers.
In the second phase, the optimized guide vanes and locally
zation process. This type of pressure distribution can assure a modified stay vanes in the trailing edge are installed with the new
higher efficiency over a wider range of operation conditions with model runner. The new performance test shows that the new de-
a significant improvement of cavitation performance compared to sign supplies approximately 100.0 MW of power, about a 23%
the existing runner, as was proven by the model test results de- upgrade from the existing runner at the rated condition, and even
scribed later. a 10% higher increase than guarantees. As anticipated, a peak
The pressure distribution along the blade profiles of both new prototype efficiency of 95.3% is gained with the new design, more
runner and guide vanes at crown, midspan, and band sections are than 3.3% higher than the original model. The peak efficiency for
shown in Fig. 15. Again, the uniform pressure distribution on the the prototype is transposed from that of model testing 共93.3%兲
new runner without a low pressure zone near the leading edge can based on the code IEC 995 for an efficiency setup with an esti-
be clearly observed. The uniformity of pressure on the blade sur- mated ⌬ = 2%. The efficiency hill chart for the new design is
face can lead to thoroughly improved leading edge cavitation be- demonstrated in Fig. 17. As expected, the optimum point is per-
havior as demonstrated by the model testing. Due to the optimi- fectly positioned at the target point. A detailed comparison of the
zation of the guide vane profiles, the outflow from the stay vanes measured turbine performance between the existing and new mod-
matches closely the inflow into the guide vanes. This leads to a
els at the minimal 共Hmin兲, rated 共Hr兲, and maximal 共Hmax兲 heads is
dominantly uniform pressure distribution along the complete
illustrated in Fig. 18. From this figure, it can be clearly seen that
guide vane surfaces along with the disappearance of the low pres-
the optimized model has a corresponding higher efficiency than
sure zone on the suction side of the vane leading edge.
the existing turbine at three different head values, especially at the
The turbulent flow simulation is also conducted for the new
minimum head operating range. A more detailed comparison at
runner at off design conditions. The obtained results at operating
other operating points can be made by referring to Figs. 4 and 17.
point 2⬘, Hmin operation, show that pressure is still uniformly
The predicted efficiencies at the target point 1⬘ for the new runner
present over most areas of the blade except for the pressure side
with the existing tandem cascade, and the entire new optimized
near the leading edge. Here a pressure drop, not as obvious as in
design as well, are compared with the experimental data in Fig.
the original runner, is found. A detailed computer 3D visualization
19. From this figure it can be found that the modified stay-vane
of the results 共not shown兲 indicates that no vortices occur at sec-
profile and the optimized guide vanes yield about a 1.1% increase
tions from crown to band. Therefore, the results obtained for the
new runner at the Hmin operating condition are omitted herein for
this paper.
It should be noted that the existing draft tube has not been
optimized due to the customer requirement that it must be retained
unaltered in order to save on replacement costs.
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been conducted for both the existing and new designs at the cor-
responding optimum and off design conditions. The coupled cal-
culations are very efficient in guaranteeing a good flow match
between different components. Numerical prediction, including
the evaluation of the local flow and the global variables, of the
turbine model at optimum and off design conditions is critical to
ensure the satisfaction of the desired performance specifications.
The performance of the new design has been verified by model
tests carried out in two stages. The highly successful combination
of the CFD-based design optimization with model testing has fi-
nally resulted in a new model which can provide about 23% in-
crease in power and over 3% upgrade in peak efficiency. In addi-
tion the model provides for a thoroughly improved cavitation
characteristic with extremely smooth performance over a much
wider range of operations compared to the existing design.
Acknowledgment
The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to Mr. Xing-
Fig. 19 Comparison between measured – Q curves and pre- ming Tao, Chunlin Guo, and Yijie Liu of Harbin Research Insti-
dicted efficiency at target operation point for the new runner
tute of Large Electric Machinery, China, for conducting the model
with existing tandem cascade, and the entire new optimized
design as well tests and providing us the experimental data.
Nomenclature
in peak efficiency. It can be further noted that the CFD predicted Cp ⫽ pressure coefficient 共p − pout兲 / 0.5V2in
efficiency generally agrees well with the experimental data but H ⫽ head, m
with a systematic overestimation, possibly due to the deficiency of I,L ⫽ conformal coordinates
the standard - model and the wall function for strong curvature Q ⫽ volumetric flow rate
and rotating flow. The model test results obtained in two phases Q11 ⫽ unit discharge
indicate that optimization of each component neighboring the run- N11 ⫽ unit speed
ner is important in assuring a high overall efficiency for a turbine r ⫽ radius
rehabilitation project. Figure 20 shows the measured model criti- Vr ⫽ absolute radial velocity component
cal cavitation coefficient , for both the existing and new models V ⫽ absolute angular velocity component
under rated head of 73 m. The cavitation coefficient for the new Vm ⫽ absolute meridional velocity component
model is lower than that of the existing model and the plant m ⫽ meridional coordinate
over the whole flow range, demonstrating that the new runner has  ⫽ blade angle
excellent cavitation characteristics, although the new model pro- ⫽ angular coordinate
vides an approximately 23% increase in power. ⫽ runner angular speed
N ⫽ rotational speed, rpm
Conclusions Ns ⫽ specific speed 共SI units兲, 3.13N冑Q / H3/4
A CFD-based design system, which integrates three blade de- p ⫽ static pressure
sign approaches, parameterized geometry models, automatic mesh c ⫽ critical or cavitation coefficient
generators, and CFD software, is presented in this paper. It allows
a quick and efficient improvement and optimization of turbine Subscripts
components. The system has been applied to the optimization of a ⫽ circumferential component
Francis turbine runner, guide vanes, and stay vanes for a turbine in ⫽ inlet of the spiral casing
replacement project. Extensive turbulent flow simulations have m ⫽ meridional component
opt ⫽ optimum point or best efficiency point
out ⫽ outlet of the computational domain
rat ⫽ rated
ref ⫽ reference
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