Christophe Nicolet

One-Dimensional Analysis of Full Load Draft Tube Surge

One-dimensional stability analysis of a hydraulic system composed of a penstock, a runner and a draft tube was carried out to determine the cause of the full load draft tube surge. It is assumed that the cavity volume at the runner exit is a function of the pressure at the vortex core evaluated from the instantaneous local pressure at the runner exit and an additional pressure decrease due to the centrifugal force on the swirling flow. It was found that the diffuser effect of the draft tube has a destabilizing effect over all flow rates while the swirl effects stabilize/destabilize the system at larger/smaller flow rates than the swirl free flow rate. Explanations of the destabilizing mechanism are given for the diffuser and swirl flow effects. The effect of finiteness of sound velocity in the penstock is also discussed

Hydroacoustic Simulation of Rotor-Stator Interaction in Resonance Conditions in Francis Pump-Turbine

Combined effect of rotating pressure field related to runner blade and wakes of wicket gates leads to rotor stator interactions, RSI, in Francis pump-turbines. These interactions induce pressures waves propagating in the entire hydraulic machine. Superposition of those pressure waves may result in standing wave in the spiral casing and rotating diametrical mode in the guide vanes and can cause strong pressure fluctuations and vibrations. This paper presents the modeling, simulation and analysis of Rotor-Stator Interaction of a scale model of a Francis pump-turbine and related test rig using a one-dimensional approach. The hydroacoustic modeling of the Francis pump-turbine takes into account the spiral casing, the 20 guide vanes, the 9 rotating runner vanes. The connection between stationary and rotating parts is ensured by a valve network driven according to the unsteady flow distribution between guide vanes and runner vanes. Time domain simulations are performed for 2 different runner rotational speeds in turbine mode. The simulation results are analyzed in frequency domain and highlights hydroacoustic resonance between RSI excitations and the spiral case. Rotating diametrical mode in the vaneless gap and standing wave in the spiral case are identified. The influence of the resonance on phase and amplitude of pressure fluctuations obtained for both the spiral case and the vaneless gap is analyzed. The mode shape and frequencies are confirmed using eigenvalues analysis.

A fully modular tool for small-signal stability analysis of hydroelectric systems

In electrical systems, the small-signal stability analysis method is usually applied to synchronous machines by using the Park representation (d, q-components). This paper presents the generalization of a different approach for this method, based on a, b, c phase variables. This approach is essential to software systems using phase variables as state variables and its generalization yields a small-signal stability analysis tool which is fully modular. Two test cases are presented to showcase the application of this approach to elements such as synchronous machines, automatic voltage regulator (AVR), power system stabilizer of type IEEE PSS2B, penstock, Francis turbine and speed regulator.

Experimental investigation of the local wave speed in a draft tube with cavitation vortex rope

Hydraulic machines operating in a wider range are subjected to cavitation developments inducing undesirable pressure pulsations which could lead to potential instability of the power plant. The occurrence of pulsating cavitation volumes in the runner and the draft tube is considered as a mass source of the system and is depending on the cavitation compliance. This dynamic parameter represents the cavitation volume variation with the respect to a variation of pressure and defines implicitly the local wave speed in the draft tube. This parameter is also decisive for an accurate prediction of system eigen frequencies. Therefore, the local wave speed in the draft tube is intrinsically linked to the eigen frequencies of the hydraulic system. Thus, if the natural frequency of a hydraulic system can be determined experimentally, it also becomes possible to estimate a local wave speed in the draft tube with a numerical model. In the present study, the reduced scale model of a Francis turbine (v=0.29) was investigated at off-design conditions. In order to measure the first eigenmode of the hydraulic test rig, an additional discharge was injected at the inlet of the hydraulic turbine at a variable frequency and amplitude to excite the system. Thus, with different pressure sensors installed on the test rig, the first eigenmode was determined Then, a hydro-acoustic test rig model was developed with the In-house EPFL SIMSEN software and the local wave speed in the draft tube was adjusted to obtain the same first eigen frequency as that measured experimentally. Finally, this method was applied for different Thoma and Froude numbers at part load conditions.

Influence of the Francis Turbine location under vortex rope excitation on the Hydraulic System Stability

Hydroelectric power plants are known for their ability to cover variations of the consumption in electrical power networks. In order to follow this changing demand, hydraulic machines are subject to off-design operation. In that case, the swirling flow leaving the runner of a Francis turbine may act under given conditions as an excitation source for the whole hydraulic system. In high load operating conditions, vortex rope behaves as an internal energy source which leads to the self excitation of the system. The aim of this paper is to identify the influence of the full load excitation source location with respect to the eigenmodes shapes on the system stability. For this, a new eigenanalysis tool, based on eigenvalues and eigenvectors computation of the nonlinear set of differential equations in SIMSEN, has been developed. First the modal analysis method and linearization of the set of the nonlinear differential equations are fully described. Then, nonlinear hydro-acoustic models of hydraulic components based on electrical equivalent schemes are presented and linearized. Finally, a hydro-acoustic SIMSEN model of a simple hydraulic power plant, is used to apply the modal analysis and to show the influence of the turbine location on system stability. Through this case study, it brings out that modeling of the pipe viscoelastic damping is decisive to find out stability limits and unstable eigenfrequencies.

Virtual power plant with pumped storage power plant for renewable energy integration

Renewable energy sources such as wind and photovoltaic are highly volatile and their integration into the grid, goes more and more through combining them together with complementary and flexible sources, a concept known as Virtual Power Plant, VPP. Specific control of power plants in a VPP pool lead to a redefinition of their dynamic constraints. Interactions between them and the rest of the grid are complex. System level model and simulation of such grid featuring VPP is necessary and must be used for research as well as for the design phase. This paper illustrates by time domain simulations a situation with a VPP consisting of wind power (200MW), photovoltaic power (100MW) and pumped storage (+/- 250MW), integrated into an islanded grid with a thermal power plant for base load (1300MW). Different control strategies of the pumped storage power plant show how it can improve the overall power quality of the VPP.

Identification of Francis Turbine Helical Vortex Rope Excitation by CFD and Resonance Simulation With the Hydraulic System

Due to the growing development of new renewable energies, which production is difficult to foreseen, power grid is subjected to disturbances. Hydropower plants are one of the solution to restore the grid stability by allowing hydraulic machines, especially Francis turbines, to change quickly of operating points in a very large range of heads and power in order to cover the variation of the electrical demand. In part load conditions, the cavitating vortex rope is an excitation source for the whole hydraulic circuit. The frequency of the excitation may matches with one of the eigenfrequency of the system leading to resonance phenomena. The aim of this paper is to simulate this hydroacoustic resonance by identifying the excitation source with CFD numerical simulations of the cavitating vortex rope and simulating the response of the hydraulic system with a one dimensional compressible model. A one dimensional draft tube model including three key parameters is used: the excitation momentum source corresponding to the force induced by the vortex rope acting on the wall, the excitation mass source induced by the cavitation volume fluctuations and the thermodynamic damping modeling energy dissipation during the phase change between cavitation and liquid. These parameters are computed for the FLINDT reduced scale model with the help of unsteady CFD simulations considering both one phase and two phase simulations. Finally these parameters are injected in the one dimensional hydroacoustic model to simulate the resonance phenomenon. In out of resonance conditions, maximum of pressure fluctuations are found in the draft tube cone with an amplitude of 1% of the turbine head. However, when resonance occurs, maximum amplitude of pressure fluctuations reaches up to 6.8%.© 2011 ASME

Assessment of power swings in hydropower plants through high-order modelling and eigenanalysis

Power plants are subject to introduce disturbances in the power grid, resulting from interactions with the dynamical behavior of the energy source subsystem. In the case of hydropower plants when used to compensate for variations of power generation and consumption, instabilities or undesirable disturbances may arise. They may be caused by phenomena such as part load vortex rope pulsations in the draft tube of Francis turbines. This may affect the dynamical behavior of the power plant and lead to troublesome interactions with the grid. This paper presents a case study of an existing hydropower plant that illustrates the effects of pressure pulsations due to vortex rope precession on the draft tube of Francis turbines. It also showcases possible solutions to the mitigation of the effects of this disturbing hydraulic phenomenon over the operation of the generators and electrical system. The investigated system is a 1 GW hydropower plant (4 × 250 MW units). The assessment of the power swings is performed through modal analysis combined with frequency-domain and time-domain simulations, which are then compared with on-site measurements.

Simulation of water column separation in Francis pump-turbine draft tube

The paper presents the modelling, simulation and analysis of the transient behaviour of a 340 MW pump-turbine in case of emergency shutdown in turbine mode with focus on possible draft tube water column separation. The model of a pumped storage power plant with simplified layout is presented. This model includes a penstock feeding one 340MW pump-turbine with the related rotating inertia and a tailrace tunnel. The model of the tailrace tunnel allowing for water column separation simulation is introduced. The simulation results of the transient behaviour of the pump-turbine in case of emergency shutdown in generating mode, with and without downstream water column separation model are presented for different degree of severity triggered by the submergence and the tailrace tunnel length. The amplitudes of the pressure peaks induced by the cavity collapse are analysed with respect to the pressure drop magnitude and tailrace dimensions. The maximum and minimum pressure amplitudes obtained along the tailrace tunnel are analysed for different test case conditions.

Determination of Surge Tank Diaphragm Head Losses by CFD Simulations

At early stage of a hydroelectric project, 1D transient simulations are performed to determine the basic layout of power plant. In this phase, the design of surge tanks is decisive to achieve good dynamic performances of the power plant, with respect to water hammer and mass oscillations induced by the hydraulic machines for normal, exceptional, and accidental operation. As the head losses between the gallery and the surge tank have strong influence on the transient behavior of the hydraulic system, they are usually optimized by means of 1D transient simulation to avoid low pressure in gallery or surge tank overflow. An asymmetric diaphragm is often placed at the surge tank inlet to achieve the optimum inlet and outlet head losses. Thus, the design of such diaphragm is a challenging task usually performed through an iterative process on reduced-scale model. In this context, 3D CFD simulations can significantly improve the design process to select the appropriate geometry of the diaphragm. In this chapter, head losses coefficients of a surge tank scale model are derived from CFD simulations performed with ANSYS CFX. Results are compared with measurements on reduced-scale physical model and analytical approach. The good agreement of CFD computations with measurements demonstrates that a design optimization with 3D flow simulations can be performed preliminary to scale model tests in order to reduce the number of geometries to be tested to achieve the expected head losses.