Design of a high-specific speed turbine with non-uniform blade cascade

This paper presents the hydraulic design of Kaplan type turbine in fully axial configuration. The turbine model consists of a straight pipe intake, a rib which covers the shaft, five axial guide vanes, a six blade runner and a 10,6°-full angle draft tube. Due to the presence of non-uniform velocity field behind the rib and interaction between stator and rotor, the pressure pulsations occur and cause some excitation forces acting on the runner. To reduce these negative phenomena the six non-uniform blade runner has been designed using computational fluid dynamics modelling (CFD). The runner blades are placed in various axial distances from the guide vanes. This new design should reduce the pressure pulsations caused by interaction between the rib and the runner, which is the main negative effect by the current design. The forces and torque which are acting on the runner blades as well as the pressure inside the turbine are observed in time domain. The amplitudes and frequencies are analysed using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The frequencies are compared to the modal analysis results of the runner submerged in water. This hydraulic design is based on previous axial turbine, which was designed for small hydro power plant located at Lužnice River. The design point is defined by head H = 1,5 m, volumetric flow rate Q = 2,1 m3/s and RPM n = 260 min-1. This turbine was designed using six runner blades to reduce the pressure, force and torque pulsations caused mainly by wakes, which were observed behind the rib