Water lubricated guide bearing was newly released and has been applied to actual hydro turbines with vertical shaft. As a result, they can have not only high bearing performance but environmental advantages in meeting the demand for reducing river pollution by oil leakage from oil lubricated guide bearing. The PTFE composite guide bearing was tested by experimental equipment operated under conditions similar to those of actual hydro turbines. Circumferential and axial tilting bearing segments help to improve the bearing performance and efficiency due to low friction loss in the bearing system. Furthermore, bearing cooling systems could be eliminated and maintenance periods could be extended, thus the initial investment and operating costs of the hydroelectric power plant are reduced.

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Stall stagnations in the system of axial-flow compressors and ducts occur in transition from deep surge conditions to decayed or converged stall conditions. The present study is concerned with the boundaries between the deep surges and the stagnation stalls on the basis of analytical results by a code on surge transients analysis and simulation. The fundamental acoustical-geometrical stagnation boundaries were made clear from examinations of the results on a variety of duct configurations coupled with a nine-stage compressor and a single stage fan. The boundary was found to be formed by three parts, i.e., B- and A-boundaries, and an intermediate zone. The B-boundary occurs for the suction-duct having a length of about a quarter of the wave-length of the first resonance in the case of very short and fat plenum-type delivery duct. On the other hand, the A-boundary occurs for the long and narrow duct- type delivery flow-path having a length about a fifth of the wavelength and relatively small sectional area in the case of short and narrow suction ducts. In addition to this, the reduced surge-cycle frequencies with respect to the duct lengths are observed to have respective limiting values at the stagnation boundaries. The reduced frequency for the B-boundary is related with a limiting value of the Greitzer's B parameter. The tendency and the characteristic features of the related flow behaviors in the neighborhood of the boundaries were also made clearer.

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The effects of acoustic resonance and volute geometry on phase resonance are studied theoretically and experimentally using a centrifugal fan. One dimensional theoretical model is developed taking account of the reflection from the discharge pipe end. It was found that the phase resonance occurs, even with the effects of acoustic resonance, when the rotational speed of rotor-stator interaction pattern agrees with the sound velocity. This was confirmed by experiments with and without a silencer at the discharge pipe exit. The pressure wave measurements showed that there are certain effects of the cross-sectional area change of the volute which is neglected in the one dimensional model. To clarify the effects of area change, experiments were carried out by using a ring volute with a constant area. It was demonstrated that the phase resonance occurs for both interaction modes travelling towards/away from the volute. The amplitude of travelling wave grows towards the volute exit for the modes rotating towards the volute exit, in the same direction as the impeller. However, a standing wave is developed in the volute for the modes rotating away from the volute exit in the opposite direction as the impeller, as a result of the interaction of a growing wave while travelling towards the tongue and a reflected wave away from the tongue.

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In order to study the effect of the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) on the simulation results, the external characteristics and internal flow features of a diffuser pump were analyzed with a two-way flow solid coupling method. And the static and dynamic structure analysis of the blade was also caculated with the FEA method. The steady flow field is based on Reynolds Averaged N-S equations with standard k-ε turbulent model, the unsteady flow field is based on the large eddy simulation, and the structure response is based on elastic transient structural dynamic equation. The results showed that the effect of FSI on the head prediction based on CFD really exists. At the same radius, the van mises stress on the nodes closed shroud and hub was larger than other nodes. A large deformation region existed near inlet side at the middle of blades. The strength of impeller satisfied the strength requirement with static stress analysis based on the fourth strength theory. The dynamic stress varied periodically with the impeller rotating. It was also found that the fundamental frequency of the dynamic stress is the rotating frequency and its harmonic frequency. The frequency of maximum stress amplitude at node 1626 was 7 times of the rotating frequency. The frequency of maximum stress amplitude at node 2328 was 14 times of the rotating frequency. No matter strength failure or fatigue failure, the root of blades near shroud is the key region to analyse.

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This paper describes the design to increase the blade loading factor of a low speed axial flow fan from normal 0.42 to highly loaded 0.55. A three-dimensional viscous solver is used to model the flows in the highly-loaded and normal loaded stages over its operation range. At the design point operation the static pressure rise can be increased by 20 percent with a deficit of efficiency by 0.3 percent. In the highly loaded fan stage, the rotor hub flow stalls, and separation vortex extends over the rotor hub region. The backflow, which occurs along the stator hub-suction surface, changes the exit flow from the prescribed axial direction. Results in this paper confirm that the limitation of the two dimensional diffusion does not affect primarily on the fan's performance. Highly loaded fan may have actually better performance than its two dimensional design. Three dimensional designing approaches may lead to better highly loaded fan with controlled rotor hub stall.

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The application of contra-rotating rotors for higher specific speed pump has been proposed in our studies, which is in principle effective for reducing the rotational speed and/or the pump size under the same specification of conventional axial flow pump. In the previous experiments of our prototype, the cavitation inception at the tip region of the rear rotor rather than that of the front rotor and the strong potential interaction from the suction surface of the rear rotor blade to the pressure surface of the front one were observed, indicating the possibility to further improve the pump performance by optimizing rotational speed combination between the two rotors. The present research aims at the design of rear rotor with lower rotational speed. Considering the fact that the incoming flow velocity defects at the tip region of the rear rotor, an integrated inflow model of 'forced vortex' and 'free vortex' is employed. The variation of maximum camber location from hub to tip as well as other related considerations are also taken into account for further performance improvement. The ideas cited above are separately or comprehensively applied in the design of three types of rear rotor, which are subsequently simulated in ANSYS CFX to evaluate the related pump performance and therefore the whole low speed design idea. Finally, the experimental validation is carried out on one type to offer further proofs for the availability of the whole design method.

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