Cavitation Erosion Prediction on Francis Turbines-Part 1 Measurements on the Prototype

Abstract

In the process of developing tools for cavitation erosion prediction of prototypes from mode) tests, 4 on board aggressiveness evaluation methods were tested on a severely eroded blade of a 266 MW Francis turbine. These are pressure, pit counting, DECER electrochemical and vibration measurements. All methods provided coherent results on the blade mounted measurements. The test program provided understanding of the heterogeneous erosion distribution of the prototype blades and quantitative data for comparison in subsequent tests on the mode) of the machine.