Numerical analysis of the bucket surface roughness effects in Pelton turbine

The internal flow of a Pelton turbine is quite complex. It is difficult to analyse the unsteady free water sheet flow in the rotating bucket owing to the lack of a sound theory. Affected by manufacturing technique and silt abrasion during the operation, the bucket surface roughness of Pelton turbine may be too great, and thereby influence unit performance. To investigate the effect of bucket roughness on Pelton turbine performance, this paper presents the numerical simulation of the interaction between the jet and the bucket in a Pelton turbine. The unsteady three-dimensional numerical simulations were performed with CFX code by using the SST turbulence model coupling the two-phase flow volume of fluid method. Different magnitude orders of bucket surface roughness were analysed and compared. Unsteady numerical results of the free water sheet flow patterns on bucket surface, torque and unit performance for each bucket surface roughness were generated. The total pressure distribution on bucket surface is used to show the free water sheet flow pattern on bucket surface. By comparing the variation of water sheet flow patterns on bucket surface with different roughness, this paper qualitatively analyses how the bucket surface roughness magnitude influences the impeding effect on free water sheet flow. Comparison of the torque variation of different bucket surface roughness highlighted the effect of the bucket surface roughness on the Pelton turbine output capacity. To further investigate the effect of bucket surface roughness on Pelton turbine performance, the relation between the relative efficiency loss rate and bucket surface roughness magnitude is quantitatively analysed. The result can be used to predict and evaluate the Pelton turbine performance.