Cavitation is one of the major challenges in the Himalayan rivers of Nepal that cause damage and degradation of the performance of hydraulic turbine components. Numerical analysis has been performed to investigate the cavitation effect in the Francis turbine. For detection of cavitation, the SST turbulence model using Rayleigh plesset equation has been used in ANSYS-CFX. The turbine is investigated for three different operating conditions i.e. part load, BEP and full load under cavitation and without cavitation. The results are shown based on efficiency, pressure fluctuation, vortex rope and vapor volume fraction. It has been observed that changes in efficiency and pressure distribution are found to be minimal between cavitation and without cavitation conditions at rated discharge and head. Under part load condition, turbine efficiency loss and vapor bubbles formation at the leading edge of the runner blade is found to be maximum.
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