Unsteady flow simulations of Pelton turbine at different rotational speeds

Abstract

This article presents numerical simulations of a small Pelton turbine suitable for desalination system. A commercial flow solver was adopted to resolve difficulties in the numerical simulation for Pelton turbine such as the relative motion of the turbine runner to the injector and two-phase flow of water and air. To decrease the numerical diffusion of the water jet, a new topology with only hexagonal mesh was suggested for the computational mesh around the complex geometry of a bucket. The predicted flow coefficient, net head coefficient, and overall efficiency showed a good agreement with the experimental data. Based on the validation of the numerical results, the pattern of wet area on the bucket inner surface has been analyzed at different rotational speeds, and an attempt to find the connection between rotational speeds, torque, and efficiency has been made.