Effect of intake vortex occurrence on the performance of an axial hydraulic turbine in Sihwa-lake tidal power plant, Korea

Abstract

Anumerical studyto investigatethe effect of intake vortex occurrenceon the performanceof an axial hydraulic turbine for generating tidal power energy in Sihwa-lake tidal power plant, Korea, isperformed. Numerical analysis of the flow through an axial hydraulic turbine iscarried out by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the shear stress transport turbulence model. In the real turbine operation, the vortex flowsareoccurredin both the side cornersaround the intake of an axial hydraulic turbinedue to the interaction between the inflow angle of water and intake structure. To analyze these vortex phenomena and to evaluate their impacts on the turbine performance, the internal flow fields of theaxial hydraulicturbines with the different inflow angles arecompared with their performances. As theresultsof numerical analysis,the vortex flowsdonot directly affect the turbine performance.