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Background
The blades of high head Francis turbines are
exposed to high frequency fatigue loads due
to Rotor-Stator interactions. Modern runner
blades are made to be thin, increasing the
efficiency, but making the runner suseptible to
vibration.
The aim of this thesis is to better understand
how the runner blades behave when subject to
vibration, and how it affects the runner’s lifetime.
The thesis will also investigate how the dynamic
properties of a simplified runner blade change
with changing water velocity.
PHD THESIS
Department of Energy and
Process Engineering
2014-2018
Dynamic Response of
Francis Turbine Blades
Supervisor:
Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug
Carl Bergan
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