Determination and generalization of the effects of design parameters on Francis turbine runner performance

The runner design is the most challenging part of the turbine design process. Several parameters determine the performance and cavitation characteristics of the runner: the metal angle (flow beta angle), the alpha angle, the blade beta angle, the runner inlet and outlet diameters, and the blade height. All of these geometrical parameters need to be optimized to ensure that the head, flow rate and power requirements of the system are met. A hydraulic designer has to allocate time to optimize these parameters and should be experienced in carrying out the iterative design process. In this article, the turbine runner parameters that affect the performance and cavitation characteristics of designed turbines are examined in detail. Furthermore, turbines are custom designed according to the properties of hydroelectric power plants; this makes the design process even more challenging, as the rotational speed, runner geometry, system head and flow rate vary for each turbine. The effects of the design parameters are examined for four different turbine runners specifically designed and used in actual power plants in order to obtain general results and generalizations applicable to turbine design aided by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The flow behavior, flow angles, head losses, pressure distribution, and cavitation characteristics are computed, analyzed, and compared. To assist hydraulic designers, the general influences of these parameters on the performance of turbines are summarized and empirical formulations are derived for runner performance characterization.