Study of the state a Francis turbine

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to evaluate the technical state of a Francis turbine by shaft rotor dynamic simulation. There are several rotor dynamic criteria that define the technical state of a turbo-machine. To feed the shaft rotor dynamic model this delivers the required information to accomplish the technical assessment. The numerical rotor dynamic model uses as input, the field forces obtained by the fluid-solid interaction analysis undertaken over the blades of the runner. The rotor dynamic numerical simulations allow to determinate the record-in-time of the displacements of any point along the shaft. This information is relevant for diagnosis tasks, because it is possible to decompose it spectrally and to estimate the severity of the vibrations. Comparing the results of the numerical model against those obtained from machines that operates under normal conditions, it is possible to determinate the technical state of the turbo-machine. This allows studying the stability of the turbine working on several operation ranges. A Francis turbine is a very complex machine that involves many physical phenomena of different nature. In this way, the hydraulic input forces needed by the rotor dynamic model should not be assumed but calculated directly from the fluid interaction over the turbine structure.