FLUID MECHANICS ASSIGNMENT

Anil Chejara Roll No. 09003022

SURGE TANK:
A surge tank (or surge chamber) is a device introduced within a hydropower water conveyance system having a rather long pressure conduit to absorb the excess pressure rise in case of a sudden valve closure. It also acts as a small storage from which water may be supplied in case of a sudden valve opening of the turbine. In case of a sudden opening of turbine valve, there are chances of penstock collapse due to a negative pressure generation. If there is no surge tank. 1. Simple Surge Tank: A simple surge tank is a shaft connected to pressure tunnel directly or by a short connection of cross-sectional area not less than the area of the head race tunnel

2. Restricted Orifice Surge Tank: A simple surge tank in which the inlet is throttled to improve damping of oscillations by offering greater resistance and connected to the head race tunnel with or without a connecting/communicating shaft

3. Differential Surge Tank: Differential Surge tank is a throttled surge tank with an addition of a riser pipe may be inside the main shaft, connected to main shaft by orifice or ports. The riser may also be arranged on one side of throttled shaft as shown in Figure. Port holes are generally at the bottom of the riser at the sides.

In an underground development of hydropower system, tail race surge tanks are usually provided to protect tail race tunnel from water hammer effect due to fluctuation in load. These are located downstream of turbines which discharge into long tail race tunnels under pressure. The necessity of tail race surge tank may be eliminated by ensuring free-flow conditions in the tunnel but in case of long tunnels this may become uneconomical than a surge tank.

The main functions of the surge tank are 1. When the load decreases, the water moves backwards and gets stored in it. 2. When the load increases, additional supply of water will be provided by surge tank.

CAVITATION:
The liquid enters hydraulic turbines at high pressure; this pressure is a combination of static and dynamic components. Dynamic pressure of the liquid is by the virtue of flow velocity and the other component, static pressure, is the actual fluid pressure which the fluid applies and which is acted upon it. Static pressure governs the process of vapour bubble formation or boiling. Thus, Cavitation can occur near the fast moving blades of the turbine where local dynamic head increases due to action of blades which causes static pressure to fall. Cavitation also occurs at the exit of the turbine as the liquid has lost major part of its pressure heads and any increase in dynamic head will lead to fall in static pressure causing Cavitation. The formation of vapour bubbles in cavitation is not a major problem in itself but the collapse of these bubbles generates pressure waves, which can be of very high frequencies, causing damage to the machinery. The bubbles collapsing near the machine surface are more damaging and cause erosion on the surfaces called as cavitation erosion. The collapses of smaller bubbles create higher frequency waves than larger bubbles. So, smaller bubbles are more detrimental to the hydraulic machines. Smaller bubbles may be more detrimental to the hydraulic machine body but they do not cause any significant reduction in the efficiency of the machine. With further decrease in static pressure more number of bubbles is formed and their size also increases. These bubbles coalesce with each other to form larger bubbles and eventually pockets of vapour. This disturbs the liquid flow and causes flow separation which reduces the machine performance

sharply. Cavitation is an important factor to be considered while designing Hydraulic Turbines. To avoid cavitation while operating Hydraulic Turbines parameters should be set such that at any point of flow static pressure may not fall below the vapour pressure of the liquid. These parameters to control cavitation are pressure head, flow rate and exit pressure of the liquid. The control parameters for cavitation free operation of hydraulic turbines can be obtained by conducting tests on model of the turbine under consideration. The parameters beyond which cavitation starts and turbine efficiency falls significantly should be avoided while operation of hydraulic turbines. Flow separation at the exit of the turbine in the draft tube causes vibrations which can damage the draft tube. To dampen the vibration and stabilize the flow air is injected in the draft tube. To totally avoid the flow separation and cavitation in the draft tube it is submerged below the level of the water in tailrace.

GOVERNING SYSTEMS FOR TURBINES:

The load on a turbine generating unit does not remain constant and can vary as per consumer requirement. The mismatch between load and generation results in the speed (or frequency) variation. When the load varies, the generation also has to vary to match it to keep the speed constant. This job is done by the governing system. Speed which is an indicator of the generation load mismatch is used to increase or decrease the generation. Basic scheme: Governing system controls the steam flow to the turbine in response to the control signals like speed error, power error. It can also be configured to respond to pressure error. It is a closed loop control system in which control action goes on till the power mismatch is reduced to zero. As shown in the basic scheme given in Fig. 1, the inlet steam flow is controlled by the control valve or the governor valve. It is a regulating valve. The stop valve shown in the figure ahead of control valve is used for protection. It is either closed or open. In emergencies steam flow is stopped by closing this valve by the protective devices. The governing process can be functionally expressed in the form of signal flow block diagram shown in Fig.2. The electronic part output is a voltage or current signal and is converted into a hydraulic pressure or a piston position signal by the electro- hydraulic converter (EHC). Some designs use high pressure servo valves. The control valves are finally operated by hydraulic control valve servo moto

Figure 1

Figure 2 The steam flow through the control valve is proportional to the valve opening in the operating range. So when valve position changes, turbine steam flow changes and turbine power output also changes proportionally. Thus governing system changes the turbine mechanical power output. In no load unsynchronized condition, all the power is used to accelerate the rotor only (after meeting rotational losses) and hence the speed changes. The rate of speed change is governed by the inertia of the entire rotor system. In the grid connected condition, only power pumped into the system changes when governing system changes the valve opening. When the turbine generator unit is being started, governing system controls the speed precisely by regulating the steam flow. Once the unit is synchronized to the power system grid, same control system is used to load the machine. As the connected system has very large inertia (infinite bus), one machine cannot change the frequency of the grid. But it can participate in the power system frequency regulation as part of a group of generators that are used for automatic load frequency control. (ALFC).

As shown in the block diagram, the valve opening changes either by changing the reference setting or by the change in speed (or frequency). This is called primary regulation. The reference setting can also be changed remotely by power system load frequency control. This is called secondary regulation. Only some generating units in a power system may be used for secondary regulation.