No abstract

The Francis turbine is a kind of reaction turbines, which means that the potential energy of water converted to rotational kinetic energy. In this study, the flow characteristics have been investigated numerically in a Francis turbine on the 15 MW hydropower generation with various blade profiles (NACA 65 and NACA 16 series) and discharge angles (14°, 15°, 17°, and 18°), using the commercial code, ANSYS CFX. The k-ω SST turbulence model is employed in the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The computing domain includes the spiral casing, guide vanes, and draft tube, which are discretized with a full three-dimensional mesh system of unstructured tetrahedral shapes. The results showed that the change of blade profiles and discharge angles significantly influenced the performance of the Francis turbine.