Numerical study on effect of operating condition and solid concentration on hydro-abrasive erosion of high head Francis turbine

Abstract

The powerplants in the Himalayan region are generally subjected to hydro-abrasive erosion. The deterioration of components due to erosion causes reduction in performance, changes the fluid flow pattern and even the breakdown of the turbine. In the present work, the Bhilangana-III powerplant Francis turbine is considered a reference turbine for numerical investigation using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool. The study presented an evaluation of hydro-abrasive erosion of high head Francis turbine for the different operating conditions and sediment concentrations. The modified Grant and Tabakoff erosion model is used for the erosion rate calculation. To investigate the effect of various operating conditions, the study is conducted at part load, best efficiency point (BEP) and high load. Also, to examine the impact of suspended sediment on the erosion of turbine components, the solid concentration varies from 500, 1200, 2000, 3000 and 4000 ppm. The observed erosion pattern is similar at all operating conditions for the stay vane, guide vane and runner, but the density of erosion is different. The observed deterioration density due to erosion is higher for part and full load than in the BEP condition. The guide vanes and runner vanes are highly susceptible to erosion due to higher absolute velocity and relative velocity at guide vane and runner vane, respectively. The observed erosion rate variation is qualitatively in-line with the on-field turbine erosion condition. It is also found that the increase in erosion rate with the sediment concentration is almost linear but more than 90% and 79% higher for the runner than stay vane and guide vane, respectively.