Modal analysis of Kaplan turbine in Haditha hydropower plant using ANSYS and SolidWorks

Abstract

In this study, numerical analysis is conducted to investigate the failure modes in Kaplan turbine. All necessary steps for Kaplan turbine failure analysis are presented in this work using the modal analysis computational approach. The modal behaver analysis is carried out on a model of an existing Kaplan turbine blade, which is based on the existing turbine used in Haditha hydropower plant in Iraq. This work investigates the modal behavior of the blade of interest, which aid in predicting structural damage initiation. The Kaplan turbine blade is designed using the commercial software ANSYS and SolidWorks. To simulate the blade in operation, the blade is fixed from one end, and all degrees of freedom are measured. Moreover, the turbine blade is moved and rotated to simulate multiple operational conditions. Both mode shapes and natural frequencies are predicted and analyzed using the two aforementioned commercial software and the numerical formula involving the arrest Lanczos method. It is clear from the results that the natural frequency of the specified mode shape does not match with the natural frequency of the runner blade. Hence, there is no failure due to resonance phenomenon in this specific Kaplan turbine. The future work must investigate other aspect of the failure modes in such turbine, such as unbalance dynamic loading. The Results obtained from this study will help study the different possibilities for detecting the failure of the Kaplan blade by examining the modal behavior of the blade.