Hydrodynamic Optimization for Rehabilitation and/or Upgrading of Hydro Turbines Based on Performance Prediction

An optimization design methodology suitable for rehabilitation and upgrading projects is presented for an existing hydropower plant by means of digital design and performance assessment based on 3D viscous flow numerical simulation of the complete hydro turbine passage at multi-operating conditions.The proposed methodology takes into account the constraints and objectives specific to such a design issue in which most of the main dimensions of the existing turbine differ significantly from that of a new design.The use of multi-operating points performance estimation based on 3D viscous flow numerical simulations will lead the designers to optimize the components to be renovated and keep good match with the rest components in hydraulic performances for a wider operating range, thus reducing R & D cost for rehabilitation and upgrading projects compared with traditional hydraulic laboratory testing.The validation of the methodology is verified by the rehabilitation project for YINXIUWAN hydro power plant.The results attained show that the performances of the retrofitted hydro turbine can be reliably predicted based on numerical tests, and the numerical tests proposed can substitute for the traditional model tests in the retrofit of a hydro turbine, and the presented optimization design procedure can be used as a target oriented and cost effective development approach for the rehabilitation and/or upgrading hydro turbines of an existing hydro power plant.