Evaluation of the efficiency increment potential for francis turbines using CFD analysis

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Makina Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2016

Öğrenci: ARSLAN ÖMÜR ÖZCAN

Danışman: MEHMET HALUK AKSEL

Özet:

Francis turbine is a widely used hydraulic turbine in hydropower plants. This thesis analyzes a Francis turbine using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis and offers an improved design in case of energy production. First the initial performance of the turbine is analyzed using CFD analysis, possible cavitation regions are evaluated and design point of the turbine is found using hill chart method and compared with the on-site efficiency measurement results. Then an optimization study is held to improve overall efficiency and the cavitation free working range. Energy production performances of the existing and new designed turbine are compared for 2 different rehabilitation scenarios. Calculations show that 2.84 percent increment in overall energy production and 2.2 percent increment in maximum efficiency is possible. Finally the method for rehabilitation is offered.