Good Afternoon!

KATHMANDU UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Project presentation
DEVELOPMENT OF HILL CHART DIAGRAM FOR FRANCIS TURBINE
OF JHIMRUK HYDROPOWER USING COMPUTATIONAL METHOD

Supervised by:
DR. HARI PRASAD NEOPANE
MR. KRISHNA PRASAD SHRESTHA
MR. RAVI KOIRALA
By Presented to
MAHESH KANDEL (42086) MR. PRATISTHIT LAL SHRESTHA
PRASHANT NEOPANE (42093) Project coordinator
SUMAN SAPKOTA (42108)
 Background: Operational Scenario
 overall efficiency of turbine increases with increasing discharge,
reaches maximum at design discharge and then starts decreasing
 in part and full load the efficiency drop significantly
 Maximum use of energy by minimum energy consumption
 Developing technologies advanced simulation technologies
 Performance testing prior to turbine manufacturing
Statement of Purpose
 Overall Performance (efficiency, discharge, etc.)
 Seasonal variation and load fluctuations
 A key benefit of CFD is that a great amount of
money can be saved concerning experiments.
 A single analyst equipped with a computer, can replace
experimental designing, material costs, measurement
equipment, laboratory personnel etc.
 So, CFD Analysis to predict optimized performance
Objectives
 Performance analysis of Francis turbine model of Jhimruk
Hydropower
 Hill Chart plot by Computational Method
Methodology
 Literature Review
 Development of theoretical foundations
 Computational Analysis
 Theory and Literature activity for understanding CFD
 Domain modelling, Meshing, Solving CFD problem,
Analysis of Results for performances curve
 Hill Chart Plot
 Through Matlab by extracting the points from MS
Excel
 Methodology: Research and
Development
Research and
S/No. Objectives Methods
Developmental Stage

To have vision to 1.1 Literature review

Development of
1. understand the 1.2 Discussion and Solving
theoretical foundations.
theory behind CFD. CFD problem

2.1 Theory and Literature

To predict the activity for understanding
Computer Aided
2. performance of the ANSYS
Simulations
turbine. 2.2 CFD Computer
simulation using ANSYS
 Methodology: Tools used
S/No. Research Tools Objectives Methods

Designing the Francis

1.1 Importing the
turbine’s domain (Stay
coordinates
1. CAD (Solidworks) vanes, Guide vanes,
1.2 Designing the
Runner Blades, Draft
components for the same.
tube).
CFD and CFX Performance analysis 2.1 By using tools and
2.
solver through simulation techniques in ANSYS 15.

Determination of 3.1 By plotting Graph

3. MS Excel
Performance curves. between the parameters.
Work Accomplished:
Literature Review
 Introduction: Francis Turbine

• Reaction turbine
• Operates in medium head
• Consists of Stay vanes, Guide
vanes , Spiral casing, runner
and draft tube
• Operating condition ranges
from 15 m to 700 m head
Introduction: Jhimruk Francis
Turbine Characteristics
 Introduction: CFD
 analytical tool to determine the flow behavior, heat transfer, mass
transfer, chemical reactions, etc
 Solves equations that governs these processes
 Uses numerical method
 Solves Navier Stokes equation at the vertex by changing the
governing equations into algebraic equations
 Governing equations:
 Equation of Continuity
 Conservation of Momentum
 Conservation of energy
Domain
 the area of analysis where the flow of fluid is discretized
and computed
 our study consists of stationary (Stay vanes, Guide vanes
and Draft tube) and rotating part (Runner).
Stay Vanes Guide Vanes
CAD modeling

Runner Draft Tube

Assembled Domain
ANSYS CFX
 Introduction: ANSYS CFX

 commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) program

 used to simulate fluid flow in a variety of applications.
 ANSYS CFX product allows engineers to test systems in virtual
environment. (gas turbine engine, aircraft aerodynamics, pumps,
fans, HVAC systems, mixing vessels, vacuum cleaners, and more.)
 the CFX solver uses a vertex-centered scheme.
 In a vertex centered scheme, the fluid variables are stored at the
cell vertex
 This means that the vertex of the mesh-element is the center of the
solver-element
Meshing: Runner (ANSYS MESH)
 Meshing, Boundary Conditions
& Solver Details
Mesh Size 8 mm
Advanced Size function Off
Meshing
Relevence Center Fine
Method Hex Dominant
Inlet Mass Flow rate
Boundary Conditions
Outlet 1 atm Pressure
Stay Vanes & Guide Vanes Frame Change = None
Interfaces (Pitch Ratio = 1) Guide Vanes & Runner Frame Change = Frozen rotor
Runner & Draft Tube Frame Change = Frozen rotor
Minimum iterations 1
Convergence Maximum iterations 2000
Tolerance e-4
Solution Parallel Processors 4
 Grid Independent Test
(Total nodes Selected 1082147)

280 279.9064 279.9469

279.8466
279.8

279.6
Head

279.4

279.2

279

278.8 278.6968 278.8048

278.6
0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000 2500000 3000000 3500000 4000000
Grid Number
Results
 Discharge factor VS Speed
factor
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.1
Qed

0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0 5 10 15 20
Ned
 Results: Efficiency VS Speed factor

100
90
80
70
Efficiency (in %)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 5 10 15 20
Ned
 100

C 90

o 80
4.96°
m 70 7.44°

p 60 9.92°
11.16°
u 50
n

12.54°
t 40 13.64°

a 30 14.88°

t 20
17.36°
18.6°
i 10
19.1°
o 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
n Ned
a 0.3
l
0.25
A 4.96°
7.44°
n 0.2 9.92°

a 11.16°

l 12.54°
Qed

0.15
13.64°
y 14.88°
s 0.1
17.36°

i 18.6°
19.1°
s 0.05

0
0 2 4 6 8 N10ed 12 14 16 18 20
3-D plot of Ned, Qed and Efficiency
Introduction: Hill Chart
 To predict the performance of
Turbines
 Two plots:
 Upper plot (𝑛𝐸𝐷 (Speed
Factor) versus η (Efficiency)
 𝑛𝐸𝐷 versus 𝑄𝐸𝐷 (Discharge
factor)
𝑄1
 𝑄𝑒𝑑 =
𝐷2 𝑔𝐻
𝑁𝐷
 𝑁𝑒𝑑 =
𝑔𝐻

 Guide vane variation

 upper plot project the
required efficiency points to
the lower graph
 Hill chart obtained
Hill Chart Plot
 Conclusion
 Literature review based on the design, analysis and theories of
Francis turbine, Hill Chart and CFD
 Modeling of the stationery and rotatory domain have been
completed.
 Meshing of the domains have been completed with hexahedral
mesh
 Grid convergence test defined the number of nodes and elements
of the domains
 Completed the simulations of the Francis turbine at Guide vane
angle 12.54° which has given the performance curve .
 10 sets of simulations were performed in order to obtain
performance curves at different guide vane angles.
 The best efficiency point was found in the full guide vane angle
19.1ᵒ with 93.496%.
 It has been advised to operate the turbine at 12.54ᵒ at flow rate
2.35 m3/s because it has a vast operating regime and an efficiency
of 92.7567% that is considerably high.
 REFERENCES
 Patel K., Desai J., Chauhan V. and Charnia S. (2011) “Development of Francis
Turbine using Computational Fluid Dynamics”, The 11th Asian International
Conference on Fluid Machinery and the 3rd Fluid Power Technology Exhibition,
November 21- 23, 2011, IIT Madras, Chennai, India.
 Jain S., Saini R. P. and Kumar A. (2010), CFD Approach for prediction Of
Efficiency Of Francis Turbine, IGHEM-2010, Oct 21- 23,2010, AHEC, IIT Roorkee,
India.
 Čarija Z., Mrša Z. and Fućak S. (2008), Validation of Francis water turbine CFD
simulations, Croatia.
 Vu C. Thi., Koller M., Gauthier M., Deschênes C. (2010), Flow simulation and
efficiency hill chart prediction for a Propeller turbine at various design and off-
design conditions, Switzerland.
 Laín S., García M., Quintero B., Orrego S. (2008), CFD Numerical simulations of
Francis turbines, Columbia.
 Neopane H. (2013), Lecture Slides on Hydraulic Turbines, Kathmandu University,
Nepal.
 Pudasaini S., Pathak A., Chaudhary B. (2013), Proposal on CFD Analysis of Pelton
Turbine, Kathmandu University, Nepal.
 Paulsen J., FSI-analysis of a Francis turbine, NTNU, Norway.
 Adhikari S., Report on Job Training at Waterpower Laboratory, NTNU, Nepal.
 Barstad L. (2012), CFD analysis of a Pelton turbine, NTNU, Norway.
 High Pressure Hydraulic Machinery (2009), Water Power Laboratory, NTNU,
Norway
 <Online retrieved> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_turbine, 2 October 2014
THANK YOU!