Michel Cervantes

Computational fluid dynamics analysis of a journal bearing with surface texturing

An analysis of a lubricated conformal contact is carried out to study the effect of surface texture on bearing friction and load carrying capacity using computational fluid dynamics. The work focuses on a journal bearing with several dimples. Two- and three-dimensional bearing geometries are considered. The full Navier—Stokes equations are solved under steady-state conditions with a multi-phase flow cavitation model. The coefficient of friction can be reduced if a texture of suitable geometry is introduced. This can be achieved either in the region of maximum hydrodynamic pressure for a bearing with high eccentricity ratio or just downstream of the maximum film for a bearing with low eccentricity ratio. An additional pressure build-up produced as a result of the surface texture has been shown at low eccentricity ratios.

Experimental and Numerical Studies for a High Head Francis Turbine at Several Operating Points

Experimental and numerical studies on a high head model Francis turbine were carried out over the entire range of turbine operation. A complete Hill diagram was constructed and pressure-time measurements were performed at several operating conditions over the entire range of power generation by installing pressure sensors in the rotating and stationary domains of the turbine. Unsteady numerical simulations were performed at five operating conditions using two turbulent models, shear stress transport (SST) k-ω and standard k-e and two advection schemes, high resolution and second order upwind. There was a very small difference (0.85%) between the experimental and numerical hydraulic efficiencies at the best efficiency point (BEP); the maximum difference (14%) between the experimental and numerical efficiencies was found at lower discharge turbine operation. Investigation of both the numerical and experimental pressure-time signals showed that the complex interaction between the rotor and stator caused an output torque oscillation over a particular power generation range. The pressure oscillations that developed due to guide vanes and runner blades interaction propagate up to the trailing edge of the blades. Fourier analysis of the signals revealed the presence of a vortex rope in the draft tube during turbine operation away from the BEP.

Pressure buildup mechanism in a textured inlet of a hydrodynamic contact

A flow analysis is carried out for an inclined slider bearing with the aim of showing the governing mechanism at conditions where an optimum in load carrying capacity is achieved. The effects of surface texture on pressure buildup and load carrying capacity are explained for a textured slider bearing geometry. Numerical simulations are performed for laminar, steady, and isothermal flows. The energy transferred to the fluid from the moving wall is converted into pressure in the initial part of the converging contact and into losses in the second part. The convergence ratio can be increased, in order to get the greatest pressure gradient, until the limiting value where flow recirculation begins to occur. The texture appears to achieve its maximum efficiency when its depth is such that the velocity profile is stretched at its maximum extent without incurring incoming recirculating flow. The wall profile shape controlling the velocity profile can be optimized for many hydrodynamic contacts.

Transient Pressure Measurements on a High Head Model Francis Turbine During Emergency Shutdown, Total Load Rejection, and Runaway

The penetration of intermittent wind and solar power to the grid network above manageable limits disrupts electrical power grids. Consequently, hydraulic turbines synchronized to the grid experience total load rejection and are forced to shut down immediately. The turbine runner accelerates to runaway speeds in a few seconds, inducing high-amplitude, unsteady pressure loading on the blades. This sometimes results in a failure of the turbine components. Moreover, the unsteady pressure loading significantly affects the operating life of the turbine runner. Transient measurements were carried out on a scale model of a Francis turbine prototype (specific speed = 0.27) during an emergency shutdown with a transition into total load rejection. A detailed analysis of variables such as the head, discharge, pressure at different locations including the runner blades, shaft torque, and the guide vane angular movements are performed. The maximum amplitudes of the unsteady pressure fluctuations in the turbine were observed under a runaway condition. The amplitudes were 2.1 and 2.6 times that of the pressure loading at the best efficiency point in the vaneless space and runner, respectively. Such high-amplitude, unsteady pressure pulsations can affect the operating life of the turbine.

Pressure measurements on a high-head Francis turbine during load acceptance and rejection

Hydraulic turbines are frequently used to maintain electrical grid parameters. An angular movement of the guide vanes (GVs) during transients such as load acceptance and rejection within short time raised significant concerns for increased wear and instabilities. The present work focuses on the pressure variations in a high-head Francis turbine during the transients. Six transient conditions were investigated including time-domain rotor–stator interaction. The measurements in the vaneless space and runner indicated the presence of unsteady vortical flow during transients. The vortices travelled to the runner and affected the flow in the blade channels. The GVs angular movement increases the pressure difference between the pressure and suction sides of the blade. The largest pressure variation was observed during the partial load rejection at the trailing edge of the blade. Preliminary results indicated that an appropriate closure of the GVs may minimize large pressure fluctuations in the runner.

Experimental investigations of transient pressure variations in a high head model Francis turbine during start-up and shutdown

Penetration of the power generated using wind and solar energy to electrical grid network causing several incidents of the grid tripping, power outage, and frequency drooping. This has increased restart (star-stop) cycles of the hydroelectric turbines significantly since grid connected hydroelectric turbines are widely used to manage critical conditions of the grid. Each cycle induces significant stresses due to unsteady pressure loading on the runner blades. The presented work investigates the pressure loading to a high head (HP = 377 DP = 1.78 m) Francis turbine during start-stop. The measurements were carried out on a scaled model turbine (HM = 12.5 DM = 0.349 m). Total four operating points were considered. At each operating point, three schemes of guide vanes opening and three schemes of guide vanes closing were investigated. The results show that total head variation is up to 9% during start-stop of the turbine. On the runner blade, the maximum pressure amplitudes are about 14 kPa and 16 kPa from the instantaneous mean value of 121 kPa during rapid start-up and shutdown, respectively, which are about 1.5 times larger than that of the slow start-up and shutdown. Moreover, the maximum pressure fluctuations are given at the blade trailing edge.

Factorial Design Applied to CFD

Factorial design, a statistical method widely used for experiments, and its application to CFD are discussed. The aim is to propose a systematic, objective, and quantitative method for engineers to design a set of simulations in order to evaluate main and joint effects of input parameters on the numerical solution. The input parameters may be experimental uncertainty on boundary conditions, unknown boundary conditions, grid, differencing schemes, and turbulence models. The complex flow of the Turbine-99 test case, a hydropower draft tube flow, is used to illustrate the method, where four factors are chosen to perform a 2 4 factorial design

Inertia effects in textured hydrodynamic contacts

Abstract A flow analysis is carried out for a parallel textured slider to investigate the role of fluid inertia. Numerical simulations are performed for a laminar, two-dimensional, steady and isothermal flow. Stokes solutions are compared with Navier—Stokes solutions at the same Reynolds number. A range of texture depths is analysed. It is shown that there is an optimum value of texture depth that provides maximum load-carrying capacity. It is also shown that there is a critical depth value. Inertia has a negative effect on the load-carrying capacity for depths higher than the critical value, whereas it has a positive effect for lower depths. For a given texture depth, these effects are amplified as the Reynolds number increases. The global effect of inertia is positive when a realistic configuration of a parallel textured slider with a fore-region is considered.

Experimental Investigation of a High Head Francis Turbine During Spin-No-Load Operation

Water passes freely through a hydraulic turbine in the absence of power requirements or during maintenance of the transmission lines, spillways, or dam. Moreover, the turbine operates under no-load ...

Fully coupled FSI analysis of Francis turbines exposed to sediment erosion

Sediment erosion is one of the key challenges in hydraulic turbines from a design and maintenanceperspective in Himalayas and Andes. Past research works have shown that the optimization of theFrancis turbine runner blade shapes can decrease erosion by a signicant amount. This study conductedas a Masters Thesis has taken the proposed designs from past works and conducted a CFDanalysis on a single passage of a Francis runner blade to choose an optimized design in terms of erosionand eciency. Structural analyses have been performed on the selected design through one-way andtwo-way FSI to compare the structural integrity of the designs.Two types of cases have been considered in this thesis work to dene the boundary condition of thestructural model. In the rst case, a runner blade is considered to have no in uence of the joint andother stier components. In the second case, a sector of the whole runner has been modeled withnecessary boundary conditions. Both one-way and two-way FSI have been performed on the casesfor the designs. Mesh independent studies have been performed for the designs, but only for the rstcase, whereas in the second case, a ne mesh has been used to make the analysis appropriate.The loads have been imported into the structural domain from the uid on the interfaces for one-wayFSI. In the case of two-way FSI, the Multi-Field Solver (MFX) supported by ANSYS has been usedto solve the coupled eld analysis. A fully coupled FSI in ANSYS works by writing an input le inthe structural solver containing the information about the interfaces in the structural domain, whichis imported in the uid solver. The interaction between the two domains is dened in ANSYS-CFX,including the mesh deformation and solver setups. The results have been post-processed in CFX-Post,where the results from both the elds are included. It has been found that the structural integrity ofthe optimized design is better than the reference design in terms of the maximum stress induced inthe runner. The two-way FSI analysis has been found as an inevitable part of the numerical analysis.However, with the advancement of the computational capability in the future, there could be a greatscope in the research eld to carry out a fully-coupled transient simulation for the whole runner toget a more accurate solution.