The introduction of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, to the power grid, demands some hydraulic turbines to operate at unfavorable operating conditions not initially designed for. Strong swirl develops at loads below the best efficiency point, (BEP) due to angle mismatch between the guide vanes and the fixed runner blades typical for Francis and Propeller turbines. A rotating vortex rope (RVR) is developed at part load (PL) operation as a consequence of the strong swirl exiting the runner for the aforementioned turbines. The RVR is associated with harmful pressure pulsations, decreasing turbine efficiency, and increasing maintenance time. Thus, it is of great interest to develop and investigate methods to mitigate the RVR. Methods to mitigate the adverse effect associated with the RVR at PL are studied in the presented research. An active mitigation method was numerically studied for a down-scaled propeller turbine, named "injection of pulsating momentum" (IPM). IPM aimed to locally disrupt the RVR by injecting pulsating momentum horizontally into a local part of the quasi-stagnant region in the draft tube. Numerical results indicate a significant reduction of the pressure pulsations associated with the RVR using approximately 5% of the runner flow. A passive mitigation method was also studied on a numerical model of the Porjus U9 Prototype using stationary rods radially protruded into the draft tube flow field. Solid rod protrusion aims to alter the mean flow properties in the draft tube cone, disrupting the formation of the RVR. Numerical results of stationary rod protruding to the RVR shear layer region indicates a complete reduction of the RVR plunging component and a significant reduction of the RVR rotating component due to an increased swirl at the draft tube center.

This report contains an investigation of fluid injection techniques used in the purpose of reducing deleterious flow effects occurring in the draft tube of Francis turbines when operating outside nominal load. There is a focus on implement ability at Jämtkrafts hydroelectric power plants and two power plants were investigated, located in series with each other named Lövhöjden and Ålviken. The only profitable scenario found with some degree of certainty was an increase in the operating range upwards to allow overload operation. Findings show that both air and water can be introduced in various locations to improve hydraulic efficiency around the turbine parts as well as reduce pressure pulsations in harmful operating regions. Investments in such systems have proven useful and profitable at several facilities with poorly adapted operating conditions. But due to losses in efficiency when operating injection systems, it turns out unprofitable in situations where it does not improve the operating range in a way that is resulting in increased annual or peak production.

Hydroelectricity plays an important role to balance the stability of grid network.  In order to improve the stability of presently high loaded grids, hydropower plants are being operated over a wide range of operations and experiencing frequent start-stop, load rejection, and load acceptance. The turbines need to sustain sudden change in their operating condition to balance the grid frequency. Francis turbines have been widely used because of their wider operating range and higher stability in operation during rapid load variation. This has resulted in severe damage to the turbines as they are not normally designed to operate under such transient conditions. Several low and high frequency pressure fluctuations prevail during transients operating conditions. Generally, wall pressure measurements are performed which may not provide sufficient information to investigate the flow instabilities related to these fluctuations. Thus, the main objective of the present work is to simplify and perform optical measurements in a turbine during transient operating conditions to investigate the flow field. The measurements have been performed at the Water Power Laboratory using a high head model Francis turbine. The turbine is a 1:5.1 scale down model of a prototype operating at the Tokke Power Plant, Norway. The model runner diameter, net head, and discharge at the best efficiency point (BEP) were 0.349 m, 12 m, and 0.2 m3 s-1, respectively. A total ten pressure sensors were mounted at different locations namely, turbine inlet, vaneless space, and draft tube. The data were acquired at a sampling rate of 5 kHz. The instruments and sensors have been calibrated according to guidelines available in IEC standards. The determined total uncertainty in the measurement of hydraulic efficiency was ±0.15% at BEP condition. The velocity measurements in the draft tube cone were performed using a 2D PIV system and the images were sampled at a rate of 40 Hz.      Steady state measurements were carried out considering the realistic design and off-design operating conditions of the prototype turbine. Therefore, the angular speed of the runner was maintained constant for all steady state conditions during the measurements. The maximum hydraulic efficiency (92.4%) was observed at nED = 0.18, QED = 0.15, and a = 9.8º, which is named BEP. It is observed that the turbine experiences significant pressure fluctuations at the vaneless space, runner, and the draft tube. The fluctuations due to rotor-stator interaction (RSI) were observed to be most dominating at high load condition, however, fluctuations due to the rotating vortex rope (RVR) at part load (PL) condition. Two different modes (synchronous and asynchronous) modes of vortex rope are observed at PL condition of the turbine. An asymmetry in the flow leaving the runner was detected at both design and off-design conditions, with a stronger effect during off-design operating condition. Numerical simulations of the model turbine were carried out at PL operating condition. The simulations were performed using two turbulence models, standard k-ε and SST k-ω, with high-resolution advection scheme. The numerical pressure values obtained with both standard k-ε model and SST k-ω showed a small difference with the experimental values. The amplitudes of numerical pressure values were higher (~2.8%) in the vaneless space and lower (~5.0%) in the draft tube than the experimental values. The frequencies of the RSI and RVR were well captured in the turbine but the amplitudes were overestimated.   During load rejection from BEP to PL, the plunging mode of the vortex rope was observed to appear first in the system than that of the rotating mode. Whereas during the load acceptance from PL to BEP, both the modes were observed to disappear simultaneously from the system. In the velocity data, the axial velocity only contributed to the development of the plunging mode and radial velocity to the rotating mode. The region of low velocity, stagnation point, flow separation, recirculation, oscillating flow and high axial velocity gradients were well captured in the system during the transients. The induced high-velocity gradients during the load acceptance from BEP to HL was observed to develop a vortex core in the draft tube. During startup and shutdown, the guide vanes angular position was moved from one to another steady state condition to achieve the minimum load condition of the turbine. At this condition, the generator of the turbine was magnetized at the synchronous speed during startup and shutdown, respectively. The frequency of wave propagation was observed to vary with the runner angular speed during startup and complete shutdown of the turbine. Comparatively high-pressure fluctuations in the draft tube were observed during the guide vane movement from the high discharge conditions. Some unsteady phenomena such as the formation of dead velocity zone, backward flow, and flow oscillations were observed during startup and shutdown of the turbine.   The current work has been also used to continue a series of workshops, i.e., Francis-99. The first workshop was held on December 2014 with the cooperation of LTU and NTNU. The measurements performed in this work were used for the second workshop which was held on December 2016. The investigations presented in this thesis will be further explored in the third workshop scheduled for December 2018.

This thesis deals with the formulation and application of reduced order models based on extraction of dominant structures from a system utilizing the method of proper orthogonal decomposition. Time evolution of computed modes is described by a system of ordinary differential equations, which is gained by means of Galerkin projection of these modes onto the Navier-Stokes equations. This methodology was applied on two test cases Kármán vortex street and vortex rope. In both cases, a CFD simulation of one refference point was carried out and by utilizing gained modes, the corresponding reduced order models were formulated. Their results were assessed by comparing to the refference simulation.

Hydraulic energy is one of the most important sources in the world for electricity production. Nowadays the trend is to limit the production of the electricity from fossil fuels and to protect the environment. The main idea is to use more renewable energy sources such as wind and solar energy. Unfortunately, these alternative sources are strongly dependent on current weather conditions, which causes the instability of the electrical grid. Luckily pumped storage and hydraulic power plants provide the solution. However, it requires an extension of the operating range of the hydraulic machines. For that reason, the water turbines now operate over and extended range of regimes, that can be quite far from the best efficiency point. Hence two types of unstable two-phase flows in the Francis turbine draft tube occur: part load overload. This diploma’s thesis is focused on the Francis turbine operating at the part load. During part load conditions the helical vortex rope is being developed in the draft tube, it causes pressure pulsation and it can lead to the hydro-acoustic resonance, which damages the elements of the power plant. The aim is to eliminate the pulsation by jet control of the swirling flow in the draft tube. In the diploma’s thesis, various approaches to jet control of the flow in conical diffuser are tested using the computational fluid dynamics.

This master's thesis deals with simulation of vortex structure which is created in the draft tube of Francis turbine, at part load flow conditions. The main objective is to get the most accurate results from the calculations, using the student license of Ansys Fluent 19.1. The results from the calculations are compared with the experiment under the Francis-99 project. Mainlly in terms of dynamic properties of vortex rope – aplitude and frequency of pressure pulsations. Additionaly the time-averaged velocity profiles are compared. I used the test-case provided by NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology under the Francis-99 workshop series.

This master’s thesis deals with CFD simulation of spiral vortex structure in the diffuser of swirl generator. The objective of the thesis is to evaluate influence of change in diffuser opening angle on frequency and amplitude of pressure pulsation. All results are compared in charts which shows courses of frequencies and amplitudes along the diffuser. Two different turbulence models and several types of mesh were tested

This master's thesis deals with CFD simulation of vortex rope in the elbow draft tube for overload operation of Francis turbine. The main objective of the thesis is to compare results of the CFD simulations of the original elbow draft tube with a derived straight cone draft tube considering volume and the shape of the cavitation region and dynamic flow characteristic. Results of the 3D simulations are also compared with axi-symmetric simulations, which reduce demands for computing time and power.

This work deals with study of swirling flows where the spiral vortical structure appears. The main relation is to flow seen in the draft tube cone of hydraulic turbines operated out of the design point (i.e. best efficiency point). In this cases large coherent vortex structure (vortex rope) appears and consequently high pressure pulsations are propagated to the whole machine system leading to possible restriction of turbine operation. This flow features are consequence of flow instability called vortex breakdown in case of Francis turbine operated at part load (flow rate lower than optimal one). The present study is carried out using simplified device of swirl generator in order to access similar flow conditions as can be found in real hydraulic turbines. Both the dynamic and dissipation effect of spiral vortex breakdown are investigated. The first part of thesis deals with spiral form of vortex breakdown. The experimentally measured velocity profiles (LDA) and wall static pressures are correlated with numerical simulations carried out using open-source CFD package OpenFOAM 2.2.2. The high speed camera recording of cavitating vortex core is used to obtain image ensemble for further post-processing. The dissipation effect of spiral vortex structure is in detail discussed based on computed flow fields. The second part of thesis is dedicated to the application of POD decomposition to the study of spatio-temporal features of spiral vortex dynamics. Firstly the POD is applied to the both the experimentally obtained image ensemble of cavitating vortex and numerically computed static pressure fields. Secondly the comprehensive analysis of spiral vortex mitigation effect by the axial water jet is analyzed. The collaborative study employing the swirl generator apparatus designed by the researchers from Politehnica University of Timisoara in Romania is performed and changes in spatio-temporal vortex dynamic are studied. In this study the numerical data (in a form of three-dimensional pressure and velocity fields) are obtained using commercial CFD software ANSYS Fluent R14.

Hydro power plants are an essential part of the infrastructure in Sweden as they stand for a large amount of the produced electricity and are used to regulate supply and demand on the electricity grid. Other renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, have become more popular as they contribute to a fossil free society. However, wind and solar power are intermittent energy sources causing the demand for regulating power on the grid to increase. Hydro power turbines are designed to operate at a certain design point with a specific flow rate. The plants are operated away from the design point when used to regulate the supply and demand of electricity. This can cause a specific flow phenomenon to arise in the draft tube at part load conditions called a Rotating Vortex Rope (RVR) which causes dangerous pressure fluctuation able to damage blades and bearings. A solution to mitigate a RVR is to inject pulsating momentum into the draft tube by using an actuator operating at a certain frequency. A literature study was conducted and three techniques were numerically simulated using ANSYS Workbench 19.0 R3; a fluidic oscillator, a piston actuator and a synthetic jet actuator. A dynamic mesh was used to simulate the movement of the piston actuator and diaphragm of the synthetic actuator whilst the mesh of the fluidic oscillator was stationary. The relative errors of the three numerical models were all below 3 %. All devices showed promising results and could potentially be used to mitigate a RVR because they all have the ability to produce high energy jets. The fluidic oscillator had an external supply of water, whereas the other two did not, which means that it could inject the largest mass flow. The piston actuator required a driving motor to move the piston. The diaphragm of the synthetic jet actuator was moved by a Piezoelectric element. Advantages of the fluidic oscillator are that it has no moving parts, in contrary to the two other devices, it can directly be connected to the penstock or draft tube to obtain the required water supply and it is easy to install. It will most likely also be smaller compared to the other two for the same mass flow rate. It does however not generate a pulsating jet, but rather an oscillating jet. The other two devices generate pulsating jets, but have problems with low pressure areas during the intake stroke which can cause cavitation problems. These areas cause the formation of vortex rings close to the outlet. Simulations showed that a coned piston together with a coned cylinder outlet could decrease losses by almost 16 % compared to a normal piston and cylinder. It also decreased the risk for cavitation and the required force to move the piston. Otherwise, a shorter stroke length for a constant cylinder diameter or a longer stroke length for a constant volume displacement also decreased the risk for cavitation and required force. The gasket between the piston and cylinder is a potential risk for leakage. A solution to avoid critical low pressure areas is to install an auxiliary fluid inlet or valve which opens at a certain pressure for the piston actuator as well as the synthetic jet actuator. This will also allow larger mass flow rates and a higher injected momentum. Both devices are more complicated to install and require likely more maintenance compared to the fluidic oscillator. However, there exist many possible design options for the piston actuator. The design of the synthetic jet is more limited because of the diaphragm. The amplitude of the diaphragm also has a direct effect on the pressure levels. The losses increased proportional to the mass flow to the power of three which suggests that it is better to install many small actuators instead of a few large ones.