The Fluid Structure Interaction research group is actively engaged in conducting research at the Waterpower Laboratory. This group plays a pivotal role in advancing knowledge and fostering innovation through its involvement in a variety of research projects. Comprising experts from diverse disciplines, the group collaborates to address complex problems, develop novel technologies, and generate valuable insights. Their work typically encompasses the design and execution of experiments, the collection and analysis of data, and the dissemination of findings to the broader scientific community. By leveraging their collective expertise and resources, the research group is capable of undertaking ambitious projects that may exceed the capabilities of individual researchers, thereby driving progress and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration.
Over the years, the group has been awarded several research projects, predominantly in collaboration with academic and industrial partners within Norway and Europe. All research initiatives within the group are led by Chirag Trivedi. In addition to the dedicated researchers, students are actively involved in these projects, providing them with opportunities to learn about state-of-the-art technologies and the latest research developments. The majority of the research projects focus on hydraulic turbines, an area in which the group possesses core expertise. Followings are the on-going research projects within the group. Detailed information about the research projects is available on the corresponding websites.
RenewHydro RP1.2 | 2025 - 2032
RenewHydro is recently awarded project (research center), coordinated by the Department of Energy and Process Engineering (NTNU). This project is part of FME center, "FME RenewHydro - Norwegian Research Centre for Renewal of Hydropower Technology" financed by the Research Council of Norway for eight years. RenewHydro is led by Liv Randi Hultgreen in NTNU. The center is located in the Waterpower laboratory. RenewHydro aims to develop knowledge and solutions that enable flexible hydropower to support the realization of energy transition and achieve national energy, climate, and environmental goals.
Fluid structure interaction research group is strongly involved in this research group, aiming to recruit two doctoral researchers during eight years period. Research program 1.2 is one of the largest research program among others. The research activities focus on a Francis turbine TRL 3 - 5 in the laboratory. The research objective of the work is "Design for intermittent operation and high ramping rates". We aim to develop technology that allow more flexibility and optimal solution for providing energy flexibility. The scientific focus will be on increasing the flexibility by allowing turbines to operate at the extreme load condition, including the no-load and runaway. Visit the official website to learn about research conducted under this project.
Store2hydro | 2024 - 2027
Store2hydro "Novel long-term electricity storage technologies for flexible hydropower" is recently awarded project to the research group. Store2hydro is financed by European Commission under HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-01-13) for four years from 01 January 2024. Total cost of the project is around 4.3 million Euro. The project collaborates with 11 partners across Europe. The primary objective is to optimize the electricity storage through the integration of reversible pump-turbine technology into current hydropower infrastructures. The project aims to conduct research and find technological solution at TRL 5. Overall activities are divided into eight work packages. The second work package is the largest work package and focuses on innovative storage solutions related to reversible pump turbine led by us.
Under this project, we aim to develop the technological solution for the reversible pump-turbine, enables more energy storage flexibility. Our focus is to address the limitations of the reversible pump-turbine to store energy at off-design load conditions. At off design load conditions, the reversible pump-turbine undergoes severe cavitation, which limits the operation in both turbine and pump mode. Furthermore, several hydropower plants in worldwide aim to refurbish and upgrade in near future, replacing the existing Francis turbine with the reversible pump-turbine. This will incur large CAPEX and OPEX as several components of a power plant require to change, including large changes in the civil engineering structures at the downstream side to accommodate the required net positive suction head. Under this project, we conduct research on reversible pump-turbine that allows minimum CAPEX and OPEX during upgrade. We aim to develop a technological solution, rim driven thruster integrated into the draft tube, for developing required pressure for the reversible pump-turbine in pump and turbine mode to minimize the cavitation and enable larger operating range. Visit the official website to lean about on-going activities under this project at the Waterpower laboratory.
BoundaryLayer | 2020 - 2025
BoundaryLayer is one of the flagship research projects awarded in this research group. The project is internally financed for ten years involving two doctoral researchers and four master thesis (as of 2024). The project is awarded to newly recruited faculty to establish research area and excel the quality research output. The project is headed by Chirag Trivedi.
Need for energy flexibility and interconnection with wind/solar energy have pushed hydro turbomachines to the limit. Turbines are subject to heavy resonance and forced excitation, which often results in ultimate (premature) failure. Then, the question is how to minimize the damage. Insofar, damping is determined a generic approach, engineering linear relation, based on damped natural frequency. However, boundary layer has essential role to create damping effect. For instance, when a structure reverberates, it dissipates kinetic energy to the fluid through boundary layer, i.e., fluid structure interface, and vice versa. This project aims to determine the damping effect that accounts boundary layer complexities. The project will carry out experimental and numerical investigations of boundary layer at a level of multi physics. Pressure, strain and velocity (PIV) measurements will be conducted on a turbine blade. The project aims to quantify the flow instability, mainly kinetic energy fluctuations, inside the boundary layer, and the role of fluid added damping. Three different test cases will be investigated: (1) circular blade cascade, (2) rotating disc and (3) planar flow on reverberating longitudinal plate.
The experiments will be conducted in a blade cascade, an improved version of previous work in the Waterpower Laboratory. The original work (2016 - 2019) focused on a single hydrofoil test case, studying hydrodynamic damping with respect to the flow Reynolds number. Later, the research extended to three hydrofoils arranged in parallel to examine the impact of nearby structures on hydrodynamic damping. This study observed a moderate impact on the added mass. However, in the linear arrangement, the acoustic waves are normal to the blade surface. In hydraulic turbines, the blades are arranged in a circular pattern, which differs from the linear arrangement of the hydrofoil. This work further extends to a circular arrangement of the hydrofoils to study the impact of the circular pattern during resonance conditions. More detail about the project and progress are presented on the official website.