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Background
Varying demand for power requires turbines to be operated at part load more frequently,
and turbines are subject to more frequent load variations than have been seen before. These
conditions induce phenomena that can be difficult to simulate using CFD, due to lacking
experimental data available.
The aim of this thesis is to experimentally investigate the phenomena occuring at off-design
operation of a high head Francis turbine and during transient operation. The data produced
will be submitted to the Francis-99 workshops, a series of workshops aiming at establishing
the state-of-the-art for CFD simulation of Francis turbines. The results will also be used to
determine the correlation between the transient flows occuring in the runner, and the crack
porpagation in the runner caused by FSI.
PhD Thesis
Waterpower Laboratory
High Head Francis Turbines
By Carl Bergan
Supervisor: Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug