Paper presented to the 10th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Florida, 14-16 July 2014.
A computational fluid dynamics based design system with
the integration of blade modeler, mesh generator and Navier-
Stokes based CFD codes makes the design optimization of
turbine components quick and efficient. This design system is
applied to a low head Francis turbine runner. The parameters of
turbine runner affect the hydraulic performance of turbines. Its
complex parameters cause direct effect on the global
parameters which change the efficiency and the output power.
The purpose of this study is the investigation of the effects of
theoretical turbine runner parameters on the design. To
determine the parameter effects on the turbine performance
theoretical calculations and analyses of turbine runner were
performed. A methodology was followed with the help of CFD
to reach the best efficiency operating point of turbine. Starting
from the preliminary design to the final design, theoretical
calculations were performed and evaluated using the results of
the CFD analyses. The CFD analyses were used to visualize the
flow characteristics on runner blades induced by runner
parameters. At the end, a new runner model is designed with a
higher efficiency.
