International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems 

About: International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems is an academic journal published by Korean Society for Fluid machinery. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Impeller & Turbine. It has an ISSN identifier of 1882-9554. Over the lifetime, 519 publications have been published receiving 3589 citations.

Vibration Behavior and Dynamic Stress of Runners of Very High Head Reversible Pump-turbines

Abstract: In the development of very high head pumped storage projects, one of the critical problems is the strength of pumpturbine runners. Data obtained by stress measurements of high head pump-turbine runners indicated that dynamic stress due to the vibration of runner might be detrimental, possibly to cause fatigue failure, if the runner were designed without proper consideration on its dynamic behaviour. Numerous field stress measurements of runners and model tests conducted with hydrodynamic similarity revealed that the hydraulic excitation force developed by the interference of rotating runner blades with guide vane wakes sometimes would induce such heavy vibration of runner. Theoretical and experimental investigations on both the hydraulic excitation force and the natural frequencies of runner have been conducted to explore this forced vibration problem.

An Outlook on the Draft-Tube-Surge Study

Abstract: If large pressure fluctuation is observed in the draft tube of a Francis turbine at part-load operation, we have generally called it draft-tube-surge. As occurrence of this phenomenon seriously affects the limit of turbine operating range, extensive studies on the surge have been made since proposal of surge-frequency criterion given by Rheingans. According to the literature survey of related topics in recent IAHR symposiums on hydraulic machinery and systems, in which state-of-the-art contributions were mainly presented, a certain review of them may be desirable for an outlook on the future studies in this research field. Thus, in this review paper, the authors' previous attempts for the last three decades to challenge the following topics: a rational method for component test of a draft tube, nature of spiral vortex rope and its behavior in a draft tube and cavitation characteristics of pressure fluctuations, are introduced together with other related contributions, expecting that more useful and significant studies will be accomplished in the future.

Surrogate Based Optimization Techniques for Aerodynamic Design of Turbomachinery

Abstract: Recent development of high speed computers and use of optimization techniques have given a big momentum of turbomachinery design replacing expensive experimental cost as well as trial and error approaches. The surrogate based optimization techniques being used for aerodynamic turbomachinery designs coupled with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations analysis involve single- and multi-objective optimization methods. The objectives commonly tried to improve were adiabatic efficiency, pressure ratio, weight etc. Presently coupling the fluid flow and structural analysis is being tried to find better design in terms of weight, flutter and vibration, and turbine life. The present article reviews the surrogate based optimization techniques used recently in turbomachinery shape optimizations.

Dynamic Analysis of Francis Runners - Experiment and Numerical Simulation

Abstract: The present paper shows the results of numerical and experimental modal analyses of Francis runners, which were executed in air and in still water. In its first part this paper is focused on the numerical prediction of the model parameters by means of FEM and the validation of the FEM method. Influences of different geometries on modal parameters and frequency reduction ratio (FRR), which is the ratio of the natural frequencies in water and the corresponding natural frequencies in air, are investigated for two different runners, one prototype and one model runner. The results of the analyses indicate very good agreement between experiment and simulation. Particularly the frequency reduction ratios derived from simulation are found to agree very well with the values derived from experiment. In order to identify sensitivity of the structural properties several parameters such as material properties, different model scale and different hub geometries are numerically investigated. In its second part, a harmonic response analysis is shown for a Francis runner by applying the time dependent pressure distribution resulting from an unsteady CFD simulation to the mechanical structure. Thus, the data gained by modern CFD simulation are being fully utilized for the structural design based on life time analysis. With this new approach a more precise prediction of turbine loading and its effect on turbine life cycle is possible allowing better turbine designs to be developed.

Cause of Cavitation Instabilities in Three Dimensional Inducer

Abstract: Alternate blade cavitation, rotating cavitation and cavitation surge in rocket turbopump inducers were simulated by a three dimensional commercial CFD code. In order to clarify the cause of cavitation instabilities, the velocity disturbance caused by cavitation was obtained by subtracting the velocity vector under non-cavitating condition from that under cavitating condition. It was found that there exists a disturbance flow towards the trailing edge of the tip cavity. This flow has an axial flow component towards downstream which reduces the incidence angle to the next blade. It was found that all of the cavitation instabilities start to occur when this flow starts to interact with the leading edge of the next blade. The existence of the disturbance flow was validated by experiments.