Numerical Analysis of the Turbine 99 Draft Tube Flow Field Provoked by Redesigned Inlet Velocity Profiles.

In recent years, several investigations on hydraulic turbine draft tube performance have shown that the hydrodynamic flow field at the runner outlet determines the diffuser efficiency affecting the overall performance of the turbine. This flow field, for which the principal characteristics are the flow rate and the inlet swirling flow intensity, is mostly developed on turbines designed for low head (high specific velocity) and operated away from their best efficiency point. To identify factors of the flow field responsible for loosing draft- tube efficiency, the correlations between the flow pattern along the diffuser and both swirl intensity and flow rate have been examined. An analytical representation of inlet flow field has been manipulated by a Multi Island Genetic Algorithm through the automatic coupling of multidisciplinary commercial software systems in order to obtain redesigned inlet velocity profiles. This loop allowed determining the profile for which the minimum energy loss factor was reached. With different flow field patterns obtained during the optimization process it was possible to undertake a qualitative and quantitative analysis which has helped to understand how to suppress or at least mitigate undesirable draft tube flow characteristics. The direct correlation between the runner blade design and the kinematics of the swirl at the draft tube inlet should suppose the perfect coupling at the runner-draft tube interface without compromising the overall flow stability of the machine.