Effect of Intake Vortex Occurrence on the Performance of an Axial Hydraulic Turbine in Sihwa-Lake Tidal Power Plant, Korea

Abstract

A numerical study to investigate the effect of intake vortex occurrence on the performance of an axial hydraulic turbine for generating tidal power energy in Sihwa-lake tidal power plant, Korea, is performed. Numerical analysis of the flow through an axial hydraulic turbine is carried out by solving three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the shear stress transport turbulence model. In the real turbine operation, the vortex flows are occurred in both the side corners around the intake of an axial hydraulic turbine due to the interaction between the inflow angle of water and intake structure. To analyze these vortex phenomena and to evaluate their impacts on the turbine performance, the internal flow fields of the axial hydraulic turbines with the different inflow angles are compared with their performances. As the results of numerical analysis, the vortex flows do not directly affect the turbine performance.