Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This research project, in partnership with Andritz Hydro Canada Inc., aims to tackle the prediction of four off-design flow related phenomena encountered in the operation of hydraulic turbines, through the development of state of the art computational approaches. The four flow phenomena studied in this project are: 1) the sudden drop in the draft-tube recovery factor at loads just above the best efficiency point, 2) cavitation induced draft-tube pressure fluctuations, 3) dissolved oxygen enhancement through aeration, and 4) hydrodynamic damping and stiffness in fluid-structure interaction. These four phenomena will each provide the application context to support state-of-the-art research on simulation method development and validation, using experimental data provided by Andritz Hydro. The contributions of this project are therefore expected to encompass significant developments in flow simulation methods leading to better phenomenological insight into off-design flow conditions in turbines. The project will specifically address the development and validation of advanced turbulence modeling for single-phase flow simulations, multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and coupled fluid-structure interaction simulation methodologies.The goal of the project consists in developing advanced simulation approaches to assist engineers in their evaluation of designs for the complex operating conditions in which hydraulic turbomachinery is now operated. Through the project, five graduate students (3 Ph.Ds. and 2 Masters) will be trained in state-of-the-art flow simulation methodologies through concrete industrial applications, thereby providing each of them with deep scientific knowledge and highly sought engineering expertise.