Análisis de la eficiencia de una turbina pelton D 40 MW de la Central Hidroeléctrica Pucará utilizando simulación CFD

Abstract

The electric sector in Ecuador depends on the energy production that comes from the hydroelectric plants. Pelton turbines are the most used across said plants. This work focuses in the collaboration with the “Centro de Investigación y Recuperación de Turbinas Hidráulicas” (CIRT) of the Business unit of Hidroagoyán CELEC – EP. To study the efficiency of a Pelton turbine of 40 MW belonging to unit 2 of the Hydroelectric Plant Pucará the simulation of computational fluids dynamic (CFD) was used. To carry this out it was necessary to get the information from the real operative data of unit N°2 since the new impeller repaired by the CIRT was installed. Once the data was collected the three dimensional projection of all the geometries that make the turbine was done from the available dimensional planes. In the case of the impeller, because of its hydraulic profile is made out by geometric complex structures it was necessary to apply some reverse engineering techniques for which a 3D scan was used. Once the assembly was finished the components that have direct interaction with the water the computational domain was available for the simulation and the model of turbulence k-epsilon was applied. In order to get good results in the simulation a structural mesh was generated with a refinement of the critical points in the injector and impeller. With this analysis the value of efficiency by simulation was determined and compared with real data registered in the operation of the plant. The error was below 3%, this generates a mathematical valid and available model for future projects of optimization.