Flow behaviour analysis of reversible pump-turbine in "S" characteristic operating zone

Abstract

The pumped storage plant undertakes the task for peak regulation, frequency modulation, phase modulation and accident standby in the electric grid system. Since the design consideration of a pumped storage plant is different from the conventional hydropower plant, the "S" shaped characteristic of pump-turbine will appear in four quadrants characteristic curves, and this characteristic will lead to a series of instabilities while the pump-turbine start at low water head. This paper presents the CFD simulation results of a pump-turbine model with the full flow passage which are compared with model test results. Based on the comparison, the hydraulic reason of the "S" shaped characteristic is discussed and a new concept of partial reverse pump is put forward, i.e. the reverse flow at inlet of runner is the real hydraulic cause of "S" shaped characteristic of a pump-turbine when the unit discharge descends to a certain degree. With the decrease of unit discharge, the effect of partial reverse pump becomes more and more obvious, which leads to an increase of head and finally results the "S" shaped characteristic of a pump-turbine.