Study on the wearing law of the runner and guide vanes for a Francis turbine

Abstract

The steady Solid-Liquid two-phase flow of a Francis turbine was simulated under various work conditions with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology and the Euler-Lagrangian method (ELM). The wear of the turbine was also predicted using the Finnie Wear Prediction Model with the wearing law of the runner and guide vanes analyzed. The following conclusions can be drawn from the simulation results. The relative wear rates on the surfaces of runner and guide vanes increase as the sediment concentration increases. However, the relative wear rate on the runner blades firstly decreases then increases with the increase of flow rate, and the relative wear rate on the guide vanes is proportional with the cube of flow rate. By contrast, the relative wear rate of runner blades is obviously higher than that of the guide vanes. The Solid-liquid two-phase numerical method offers some reference value for the study on the wearing law of hydro turbine flow-parts in the heavy sediment-carrying rivers. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.