Current research in hydraulic turbines for handling sediments

Kathmandu University (KU) is one of the leading educational institutes in Nepal with a decade long experience with R&D of micro-hydro turbines. With a technical collaboration with Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), KU has also conducted several studies related to sediment erosion in hydro turbine. In the presented study a new program has been developed to create and optimize the design of Francis runners. The program is also featured to compare erosion in runner blades for different design cases. The final design can be exported to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) for further analysis. Parametric survey was carried out with this program to evaluate the relative effect of each design parameter on sediment erosion. Several optimized designs were developed and analyzed with CFD tools to fulfill the desired condition of minimum erosion and maximum efficiency. This paper summaries the problem of sediment erosion of hydro turbines in South Asia region. Some of the important achievements in R&D of hydro turbine and sediment erosion at KU are also presented. The findings of design optimization of Francis turbine for effective reduction in sediment erosion is discussed in details. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.