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Project 2324

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Jon Garcinuño Sesar
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8 views4 pages

Project 2324

Uploaded by

Jon Garcinuño Sesar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) for the design of energy systems

Project:

Optimization of the design of a draft tube for Bulb turbine


for hydroelectric power plant

I. Introduction: renewable energy and hydropower

Figure 1: Source of electricity generation in 2018 Figure 2: Evolution of electricity generation by renewable sources

Due to the global warming and the sustainability issues, it is


an important challenge to be able to generate electricity with
a limitation of CO2 emission, and a preservation of natural
resources, i.e. to be able to generate renewable (or
sustainable) energy. The main renewable energy sources are
hydropower, wind, and solar energy. Hydropower is the
dominant source for renewable electrical energy, with an
important growth in China.

Figure 3: The top five countries for hydroelectricity production


II. Bulb turbine

Figure 4: The main different hydraulic turbines Figure 5: Sketch of bulb turbine

Various hydraulic turbines exist. The “runner” depends


of the head, and the flow rate available on the natural
site. The main turbines are the Pelton turbine, the
Francis turbine, the Kaplan turbine and the Bulb turbine.

In this project, we will study the bulb turbines; which are


the turbine used for small head and large flow rate
(typically a river).

The main hydraulic components of a bulb turbine are:


• the distributor (driving the water through the
runner)
• the runner (allowing to converse water energy
in mechanical energy)
• the draft tube just after the turbine (driving the
Figure 6: Sketch of a complete bulb power plant
water though the tail water)
III. Hydraulic efficiency

It can be shown (see question 1) that a draft tube design will improve the hydraulic efficiency if
𝑆!"
Λ = 1 − " − 𝐾!"
𝑆"
is maximum (and positive).

It means that we want 𝑆" ≫ 𝑆! (divergent shape) and 𝐾!"


(the head losses in the draft tube) as small as possible.

This can be controlled by the opening angle of the divergent


draft tube, 𝛼.

The limit cases:


• If 𝛼 = 0°. The draft tube is just a pipe: 𝐾!" will be
small (only linear head losses), but 𝑆! = 𝑆" .
⟹ Λ(𝛼 = 0) ≈ 0
• If 𝛼 = 90°. The draft tube is a sudden expansion,
𝑆" ≫ 𝑆! , but we know that 𝐾!" ≈ 1.
⟹ Λ(𝛼 = 90) ≈ 0
Figure 7: Definition of the opening angle

IV. The project


The optimal angle will be studied by CFD by using Fluent-Ansys. A “workbench” project is given with the needed
information, and main step: geometry definition (designModeler), meshing (Meshing), simulation and
postprocessing (Fluent).

The studied draft tube is an academic axisymmetric draft tube case studied experimentally by Clausen et al. (1993)
(see clausen_1993.pdf paper). Note that the experiment used air (not water). The goal of the project is to study a
first preliminary case at low Reynolds number, and then the experimental case at real Reynolds number. The
objective of the first low Reynolds number case is to be able to study an (artificial) laminar case to avoid first to
deal with turbulence modeling. For these two cases, the goal of the project is first to assess the accuracy of the
numerical setup, and then to find the optimal angle in term of hydraulic efficiency.
In all the project:
• The geometry dimension (except the angle) will be unchanged (see “designModeler” step).
• The boundaries condition and, in particular, the inlet velocity definition will be unchanged.
• The gravity will be neglected. The head losses coefficient will be evaluated as:
𝑝! − 𝑝" 𝑣!" − 𝑣"" 𝑝! − 𝑝" 𝑣!" − 𝑣"" 𝑣!"
𝑔𝐻!→" = 𝑔(𝑧! − 𝑧" ) + + ≈ + = 𝐾!"
𝜌 2 𝜌 2 2

Questions:

1) Based on Bernoulli’s principle and considering the case of a bulb turbine without draft tube, show that
the draft tube will be efficient if Λ is maximum (and positive).

2) Perform simulations for a Reynolds number based on the inlet bulk velocity and diameter length equal
to 100, approximatively.

2.1) Discuss the verification of your numerical set-up (mesh and convergence)

2.2) Find the optimal angle to design the optimal draft tube in this case

2.3) Link the head loss coefficient (and then the Bernoulli’s principle) with the kinetic energy transport
equation integrated in all the draft tube (i.e. in all the volume). Discuss then the variation of the head loss
coefficient with the angle value from the local flow behavior. For this part, the paper of Wilhelm et al.
(2016) (see wilhelm_2016.pdf) can be used as starting point.

3) Turbulent case: Perform simulations for the real case (i.e. using air as fluid).

3.1) Discuss the verification and validation of your numerical set-up (models, mesh and convergence)

3.2) Find the optimal angle to design the optimal draft tube in this case

3.3) Link transport equation integrated in all the draft tube (i.e. in all the volume). Discuss then the variation
of the head loss coefficient with the angle value from the local flow behavior. Underline the major role
played by the turbulence model in the head loss coefficient prediction. For this part, the paper of Wilhelm
et al. (2016) (see wilhelm_2016.pdf) can be used as starting point.

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