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Department of Energy and
Process Engineering
Spring 2017
Design and Operation
of a Francis Turbine
with Variable Speed
Capabilities
Supervisor:
Pål-Tore Selbo Storli
Else Høeg Sundfør
Background and objective
The purpose of this master thesis is to optimize
the design of a runner intended for variable
speed operation at a specific hydropower plant.
In addition, simulations will be performed to
determine the hill chart of this runner. The
simulated hill chart will be compared to the
hill chart of an existing runner, to investigate
possible efficiency gain.
Variable speed hydro turbines can increase
the flexibility of hydropower by allowing the
turbines to operate more efficiently outside
the design point. More flexible hydropower
could significantly help the green transition by
allowing for more intermittent energies like
wind and solar to be included in the grid.
MASTER THESIS
This graph shows an average hourly
power production for one generator at
Tokke power plant.
This picture shows a hill chart for the
Tokke model in the Waterpower laboratory
This picture shows the flow patterns of
water through a Francis turbine solved in
ANSYS CFX