The complex multiphase flow physics of spray-swirl interaction in both reacting and non-reacting environment is of fundamental and applied significance for a wide variety of applications ranging from gas turbine combustors to pharmaceutical drug nebulizers. Understanding the intricate dynamics between this two phase flow field is pivotal for enhancing mixing characteristics, reducing pollutant emissions and increasing the combustion efficiency in next generation combustors. The present work experimentally investigates the near and far-field break-up, dispersion and coalescence characteristics of a hollow cone spray in an unconfined, co¬annular isothermal swirling air jet environment. The experiments were conducted using an axial-flow hollow cone spray nozzle having a 0.5 mm orifice. Nozzle injection pressure (PN = 1 bar) corresponding to a Reynolds number at nozzle exit ReN = 7900 used as the test setting. At this setting, the operating Reynolds number of the co-annular swirling air stream number (Res) was varied in four distinct steps, i.e. Res = 1600, 3200, 4800 and 5600. Swirl was imparted to the co¬axial flow using a guided vane swirler with blade angle of Ф=45° (corresponding geometric swirl number SG = 0.8). Two types of laser diagnostic techniques were utilized: Particle / Droplet imaging analysis (PDIA) and shadowgraph to study the underlying physical mechanisms involved in the primary breakup, dispersion and coalescence dynamics of the spray. Measurements were made in the spray in both axial and radial directions and they indicate that Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) in radial direction is highly reliant on the intensity of swirl imparted to the spray. The spray is subdivided into two zones as function of swirl in axial and radial direction: (1) near field of the nozzle (ligament regime) where variation in SMD arises predominantly due to primary breakup of liquid films (2) far-field of the nozzle where dispersion and collision induced coalescence of droplets is dominant. Each regime has been analyzed meticulously, by computing probability of primary break-up, probability of coalescence and spatio-temporal distribution of droplets which gives probabilistic estimate of aforementioned governing phenomena. In addition to this, spray global length scale parameters such as spray cone angle, break-up length, wavelength of liquid film has been characterized by varying Res while maintaining constant ReN.

Global renewable energy requirements rapidly increase with the transition to a fossil-free society. As a result, intermittent energy resources, such as wind- and solar power, have become increasingly popular. However, their energy production varies over time, both in the short- and long term. Hydropower plants are therefore utilized as a regulating resource more frequently to maintain a balance between production and consumption on the electrical grid. This means that they must be operated away from the design point, also known as the best-efficiency-point (BEP), and often are operated at part-load (PL) with a lower power output. Moreover, some plants are expected to provide a spinning reserve, also referred to as speed-no-load (SNL), to respond rapidly to power shortages. During this operating condition, the turbine rotates without producing any power. During the above mentioned off-design operating conditions, the flow rate is restricted by the closure of the guide vanes. This changes the absolute velocity of the flow and increases the swirl, which is unfavorable. The flow field can be described as chaotic, with separated regions and recirculating fluid. Shear layer formation between stagnant- and rotating flow regions can be an origin for rotating flow structures. Examples are the rotating-vortex-rope (RVR) found during PL operation and the vortical flow structures in the vaneless space during SNL operation, which can cause the flow between the runner blades to stall, also referred to as rotating stall. The flow structures are associated with pressure pulsations throughout the turbine, which puts high stress on the runner and other critical parts and shortens the turbine's lifetime. Numerical models of hydraulic turbines are highly coveted to investigate the detrimental flow inside the hydraulic turbines' different sections at off-design operating conditions. They enable the detailed study of the flow and the origin of the instabilities. This knowledge eases the design and assessment of mitigation techniques that expand the turbines' operating range, ultimately enabling a wider implementation of intermittent energy resources on the electrical grid and a smoother transition to a fossil-free society. This thesis presents the numerical study of the Porjus U9 model, a scaled-down version of the 10 MW prototype Kaplan turbine located along the Luleå river in northern Sweden. The distributor contains 20 guide vanes, 18 stay vanes and the runner is 6-bladed. The numerical model is a geometrical representation of the model turbine located at Vattenfall Research and Development in Älvkarleby, Sweden. The commercial software ANSYS CFX 2020 R2 is used to perform the numerical simulations. Firstly, the draft tube cone section of the U9 model is numerically studied to investigate the sensitivity of a swirling flow to the GEKO (generalized kω) turbulence model. The GEKO model aims to consolidate different eddy viscosity turbulence models. Six free coefficients are changeable to tune the model to flow conditions and obtain results closer to an experimental reference without affecting the calibration of the turbulence model to basic flow test cases. Especially, the coefficients affecting wall-bounded flows are of interest. This study aims to analyze if the GEKO model can be used to obtain results closer to experimental measurements and better predict the swirling flow at PL operation compared to other eddy viscosity turbulence models. Results show that the near-wall- and separation coefficients predict a higher swirl and give results closer to experimentally obtained ones. Secondly, a simplified version of the U9 model is investigated at BEP and PL operating conditions and includes one distributor passage with periodic boundary conditions, the runner and the draft tube. The flow is assumed axisymmetric upstream of the runner, hence the single distributor passage. Previous studies of hydraulic turbines operating at PL show difficulties predicting the flow's tangential velocity component as it is often under predicted. Therefore, a parametric analysis is performed to investigate which parameters affect the prediction of the tangential velocity in the runner domain. Results show that the model predicts the flow relatively well at BEP but has problems at PL; the axial velocity is overpredicted while the tangential is underpredicted. Moreover, the torque is overpredicted. The root cause for the deviation is an underestimation of the head losses. Another contributing reason is that the runner extracts too much swirl from the flow, hence the low tangential velocity and the high torque. Sensitive parameters are the blade clearance, blade angle and mass flow. Finally, the full version of the U9 model is analyzed at SNL operation, including the spiral casing, full distributor, runner and draft tube. During this operating condition, the flow is not axisymmetric; vortical flow structures extend from the vaneless space to the draft tube and the flow stalls between the runner blades. A mitigation technique with independent control of each guide vane is presented and implemented in the model. The idea is to open some of the guidevanes to BEP angle while keeping the remaining ones closed. The aim is to reduce the swirl and prevent the vortical flow structures from developing. Results show that the flow structures are broken down upstream the runner and the rotating stall between the runner blades is reduced, which decreases the pressure- and velocity fluctuations. The flow down stream the runner remains mainly unchanged.