Estudio numérico del comportamiento dinámico del flujo en los cangilones de una Turbina Pelton mediante OpenFoam.

Abstract

In the present work, a methodology was developed to study Pelton-type turbines using the free and open source CFD software OpenFOAM, from two analysis alternatives with the AMI and ACMI methods for a transient state. Some previous works were used to obtain a final 3D model based on the information extended by the “Illuchi N°2” Hydroelectric Power Plant. OpenFOAM offers an extensive range of CFD tools that are in continuous development that allow the study of turbomachinery. Finally, once the two case studies for AMI and ACMI were developed, some of the results were compared, such as meshes, velocity profiles, pressure, contours and finally the torque generated on one of the buckets. The simulation for both cases was developed with the interFOAM solver using the k-ω SST turbulence model and a file was added which allows us to calculate all the forces on the intermediate bucket. The results obtained for the simulation showed us that the torque generated for both studies is similar and the variation with the real data is 4 to 6%, which is an acceptable value, it is also clear that the simulation took less time for the ACMI case.