The aim of this study is to develop a reliable numerical model that provides additional information to experimental measurements and contributes to a better exploitation of hydraulic turbines during transient operation. The paper presents a numerical analysis of the flow inside a Kaplan turbine model operated at a fixed runner blade angle during load variation from the best efficiency point (BEP) to part load (PL) operation. A mesh displacement is defined in order to model the closure of the guide vanes. Two different types of inlet boundary conditions are tested for the transient numerical simulations: linear flow rate variation (InletFlow) and constant total pressure (InletTotalPressure). A time step analysis is performed and the influence of the time discretization over the fluctuating quantities is discussed. Velocity measurements at the corresponding operating points are available to validate the simulation. Spectrogram plots of the pressure signals show the times of appearance of the plunging and rotating modes of the rotating vortex rope (RVR) and the stagnation region developed around the centerline of the draft tube is captured.

The paper presents a new method for in site discharge estimation in pressured pipes. The method consists in using the water hammer equations solved with the method of characteristics with an unsteady friction factor model. The differential pressure head variation measured during a complete valve closure is used to derive the initial flow rate, similarly to the pressure-time (Gibson) method. The method is validated with a numerical experiment, and tested with experimental laboratory measurements. The results show that the proposed method can reduce the discharge estimation error by 0.6% compared to the standard pressure-time (Gibson) method for the flow rate investigation.

The role of hydropower has become increasingly essential following the introduction of intermittent renewable energies. Quickly regulating power is needed, and the transient operations of hydropower plants have consequently become more frequent. Large pressure fluctuations occur during transient operations, leading to the premature fatigue and wear of hydraulic turbines. Investigations of the transient flow phenomena developed in small-scale turbine models are useful and accessible but limited. On the other hand, experimental and numerical studies of full-scale large turbines are challenging due to production losses, large scales, high Reynolds numbers, and computational demands. In the present work, the operation of a 10 MW Kaplan prototype turbine was modelled for two operating points on a propeller curve corresponding to the best efficiency point and part-load conditions. First, an analysis of the possible means of reducing the model complexity is presented. The influence of the boundary conditions, runner blade clearance, blade geometry and mesh size on the numerical results is discussed. Secondly, the results of the numerical simulations are presented and compared to experimental measurements performed on the prototype in order to validate the numerical model. The mean torque and pressure values were reasonably predicted at both operating points with the simplified model. An analysis of the pressure fluctuations at part load demonstrated that the numerical simulation captured the rotating vortex rope developed in the draft tube. The frequencies of the rotating and plunging components of the rotating vortex were accurately captured, but the amplitudes were underestimated compared to the experimental data.

The present study proposes a chlorination schedule calibrated for the Drinking Water Distribution Network (DWDN) of Buzau  a medium sized city, in South-Eastern Romania. The numerical model of Buzau's DWDN was set up in EPANET, considering the main pipes of the network that interconnect 4 pumping stations and 45 booster stations (viewed here as end-users). The calibration of the numerical model was based on real-time recordings available for January and July 2014. The chlorination scheduling was simulated at each reservoir supplying a pumping station, by a variable injection pattern added to the EPANET DWDN model. The injected amount of chlorine was determined by values of the chlorine concentration obtained at 4 key monitoring points, spread over the network. The simulations were performed over an extended time period of 72 hours. The system behaviour has been analysed for two cases: with all pumping stations in operation, and with the biggest pumping station shutdown. For each case, the proposed schedule corresponds to the injection in the network of less chlorine than the corresponding recorded values for January and July 2014, and yet obtaining at the 4 key points a chlorine concentration variation similar to the recorded one, while the chlorine concentration at the end users was within the admissible range, across the whole DWDN.

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