Investigation of the Erosion Characteristics in the Distribution Parts of Pelton Turbine

Pelton turbine, as its working principle, can perform in the high head condition especially in the southwest mountainous region in China. When the flow contains silt, it will induce the erosion in the bucket and needle structure which affects the efficiency and furthermore the service life. This paper performs unsteady air-liquid-solid three-phases simulation focusing on the distribution tube and needle parts. Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is used for capturing the free surface flow, at the same time, silt particle is simplified as the sphere particle and simulated through the Discrete Particle Model (DPM). Furthermore, flow detail and erosion information are obtained by conjugating both the former methodologies. Finally, particle size is analyzed in order to investigate the effect of erosion characteristic to the flow passage of Pelton turbine which aims to improve the turbine efficiency.

Keywords:

Three-phase flow , VOF method , Euler-Lagrange methodology , DPM model