SCIENCE CHINA

Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy

Article

June 2014 Vol.57 No.6: 11191127

doi: 10.1007/s11433-013-5211-5

Investigation of the unstable flow phenomenon in a pump turbine

YIN JunLian1*, WANG DeZhong1, WALTERS D. Keith2 & WEI XianZhu3
1

School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China;

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, USA;
3
State Key Laboratory of Hydropower Equipment, Harbin 150040, China
Received July 4, 2012; accepted August 20, 2012; published online April 17, 2014

Instability of pump turbine with S-shaped curve is characterized by large fluctuations of rotational speed during the transient
processes. For investigating this phenomenon, a numerical model based on the dynamic sliding mesh method (DSSM) is presented and used to numerically solve the 3D transient flow which is characterized by the variable rotation speed of runner. The
method is validated by comparison with measured data for a load rejection process in a prototype pump turbine. The results
show that the calculated rotation speed agrees well with the experimental data. Based on the validated model, simulations were
performed for the runaway process using an artificially assumed operating condition under which the unstable rotation speed is
expected to appear. The results confirm that the instability of runner rotational speed can be effectively captured with the proposed method. Presented results include the time history profiles of unit flow rate and unit rotating speed. The internal flow
characteristics in a typical unstable period are discussed in detail and the mechanism of the unstable hydraulic phenomenon is
explained. Overall, the results suggest that the method presented here can be a viable alternative to predict the dynamic characteristics of pump turbines during transient processes.
pump turbine, transient process, dynamic sliding mesh, flow stability
PACS number(s): 02.60.Cb, 47.85.Dh, 47.85.Kn
Citation:

Yin J L, Wang D Z, Walters D K, et al. Investigation of the unstable flow phenomenon in a pump turbine. Sci China-Phys Mech Astron, 2014, 57:
11191127, doi: 10.1007/s11433-013-5211-5

Nomenclature
A1
A2
D
D*
E
F
H
J
M
Mf
Mz

Face area vector normal to the x directions [m2]

Face area vector normal to the y directions [m2]
Diffusive flux
Reference diameter of runner [m]
The strain rate tensor
Convective flux
Head [m]
Moment of inertial [kgm2]
Axial moment [NM]
Axial moment induced by frictional force [NM]
Axial moment induced by pressure [NM]

*Corresponding author (email: yinjunlian@sina.com)

Science China Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

n
n

Rotation speed [rpm]

Unit vector normal to surface

ns
n11
p
P
q
q11
Q
Su
t
T
u
ub
x, y

Specific speed n P H 1.25 [mkW]

Unit rotation speed
Pressure [Pa]
Power [kW]
Volume flow rate [l/s]
Unit flow rate
Conserved variable
Source term
Time [s]
One period
Absolute velocity vector [m/s]
Velocity vector of mesh motion [m/s]
Cartesian co-ordinates
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Angular velocity [rad/s]

1 Introduction
Due to hydraulic design defects, the four quadrant characteristic of a pump turbine can be S-shaped shown in Figure
1. The S-shaped characteristic induces instability of transient processes including start-up and load rejection processes
in turbine mode, leading to failure of synchronization [1].
These instabilities were studied in detail by Pejovic et al. [2],
Tanaka and Tsundoa [3], and Martin [4]. A typical example
is the Tianhuangping pump storage power station located in
China. The operators reported that it is necessary to use
multi-flow guide vanes (MGV) in order to overcome difficulties with synchronization and to obtain stable speeds
after load rejection [5]. A recent study shows that the instabilities induced by the S-shaped curve can be ascribed to the
flow phenomena such as stationary vortex formation and
rotating stall, which were validated numerically and experimentally by Widmer et al. [6]. However, almost all the
methodologies employed in the numerical studies are based
on the constant rotating speed, which is in accordance with
the model test conditions. Thus, no numerical tool is available to estimate whether one hydraulic design model is stable
or not in transient processes. Furthermore, the similarity
laws developed for transient process is not mature, so that
the four quadrants performance curves obtained by model
test fail to indicate the transient performances for prototype
machine. In this sense, it is necessary to develop one numerical method to deal with transient processes for pump
turbine.
Traditionally, numerical methods to predict the hydrodynamics of hydraulic systems in hydropower plants are
based on one-dimensional approach, such as the characteristic method proposed by Wylie and Streetor [7] or the impedance method proposed by Nicolet et al. [8]. In these

June (2014) Vol. 57 No. 6

methods, the effect of the turbine is represented by boundary conditions that must be interpolated from the four quadrant characteristics measured during model acceptance tests.
The drawback of this methodology is that no information is
available regarding what happens inside the turbine, and
therefore no valuable fluid dynamics information can be
provided to guide hydraulic design improvements. In this
sense, the flow field instability mechanisms should be studied using full 3D flow field information. At present, the
testing technology to measure the detailed flow field during
transient processes is still not available. Thus, 3D numerical
simulation methods now play a major role in analysis and
design of hydraulic systems. One difficulty encountered by
numerical simulations during transient processes is the
treatment of variable rotation speeds in the runner domain.
To address this difficulty, Li et al. [9] successfully simulated the runaway process in a Francis turbine by solving the
Reynolds-averaged governing flow equations expressed in
an accelerating rotating coordinate system, i.e. transforming
the unsteady flow observed in a coordinate system rotating
at constant speed to steady flow in a rotational reference
frame with non-zero angular acceleration. One drawback of
this approach is that the relative position between the runner
and other static components is fixed, which is not consistent
with the actual operation of the machine. Additionally, the
rotating speed must be determined and prescribed based on
separate solutions of the runaway process. However, global
quantities including head and flow rate were shown to be
accurately predicted by this method.
Thus, the objective of this work is to perform CFD simulations of the unstable rotation speed in a pump turbine,
which is induced by the S-shaped machine characteristic
and frequently appears during the runaway process. Because
the time varying rotation speed is not known a priori, it is
necessary to update the rotation speed dynamically during
the simulation. In order to realize this and take into consideration the variation of relative position between the runner
and other static components, a dynamic sliding mesh method is developed and implemented into the flow solver Fluent [10], which is used to examine the flow physics responsible for the rotation speed evolution in detail.

2 Problem description and numerical setup

2.1

Figure 1

The S-shaped curves of pump turbine.

Geometric model, mesh and boundary conditions

The pump turbine modeled in this study is the same as that

studied in ref. [11]. The configuration is shown in Figure 2,
and the primary dimensions, specifications, and operating
conditions for turbine mode operation are given in Table 1.
The geometrical model, computational meshed domain (including spiral casing, tandem, runner and draft tube), turbulence model and numerical discretization method are almost
identical with those in ref. [11], to which readers can refer

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for details. Simulations were performed using the commercial CFD solver-Ansys FLUENT. The two differences in
the current work are the unsteady boundary conditions
which are discussed in detail below, and the pressurevelocity coupling method. Because the simulations in the
current study are transient, the PISO scheme, which is designed for unsteady simulations, is used instead of the
SIMPLE scheme.
The mesh contained 10000k cells, based on grid independence tests run in ref. [11]. The mesh was refined in the
vicinity of blade and tandem walls to guarantee that the y+
value of the first cell centroid was located in the range
30<y+<300, and standard wall functions were applied. The
numerical scheme employed the 2nd-order upwind (linear
reconstruction) approach with slope limiting for all convective terms, PRESTO! discretization for pressure terms, 2ndorder central differences for diffusion terms, and 2nd-order
backward differences for the unsteady terms. The SST k-
model was used for turbulence closure.
2.2 Description of dynamic sliding mesh method
(DSMM)
According to current CFD practice, three methods are
commonly used to simulate flow through domains with one
or more regions in relative motion. The first is the multiple
reference frame method (MRF), which is applicable when
the flow at the interface between adjacent moving/stationary
zones is nearly uniform. It should be noted that the MRF
approach does not account for the relative motion of the
runner zone with respect to adjacent static zones. The MRF
is often referred to as the frozen rotor approach because it

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cannot be applied to model the motion of the runner during

the runaway process of a pump turbine. The second method
is the mixing plane method, which can be a cost-effective
alternative to obtain the steady-state solution for flow problems with non-uniform flow structure in the vicinity of interfaces. However, similar to MRF, it does not accurately
resolve relative unsteady motion and is therefore not applicable to the current study. The third method is the sliding
mesh method (SMM), which resolves all unsteady interactions and also accounts for the relative motion of stationary
and rotating components. Because of these advantages,
SMM was chosen for the current case. However, one limitation of this method in FLUENT is that, as implemented, it
can only be directly applied in cases in which the rotational
speed is constant.
With regards to the variable rotating speed countered
here, a new approach, DSMM, which is well validated in
the start-up process for centrifugal pump [12] is adopted.
The governing equations of DSMM are described as follows. Under the frame of finite volume method (FVM), for
an arbitrary control volume V bounded by a control surface
S, the conservation equation is
d
QdV F dS DdS Su dV ,
S
S
V
dt V

(1)

where Q is the vector of conserved variables, F is the convective flux, D is the diffusive flux, Su is a source term. The
expressions for the integrands are

ub n
1

Q , F u ub n ,

u
u u ub n

(2)

0
0

0
D
, Su 0 ,
n u
p

Figure 2
study.

(Color online) Configuration of pump turbine simulated in this

Table 1 Characteristics of the tested pump turbine (turbine mode)

Parameters
Value
Runner dia. At inlet (mm)
422
Runner dia. At outlet (mm)
300
Runner blade number
9
Guide vane number
20
Stay vane number
20
Specific speed (m kW)
189
Guide vane opening
20

where is the density of the fluid, u is the absolute velocity

vector, ub is the local mesh velocity which can be constant
(SMM in Fluent) or variable and counts on the accelerations
or decelerations of the runner. is the dynamic viscosity, p
is the pressure, and n is the local outward-pointing unit
surface normal vector. To extend this model to the runaway
process of a pump turbine, ub must be defined as a timedependent variable. Hence, the model as used herein can be
accurately described as a DSMM. For implementation in
FLUENT, the dynamic aspect is realized by implementing a
user defined function (UDF) which computes and applies
the change of rotation speed during the simulation. Figure 3
provides an illustration of the different zones as they are
defined for the DSMM approach for the current test case.
The key aspect of the dynamic sliding mesh method is
the calculation of the mesh rotation velocity at each time

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Figure 3 (Color online) Dynamic sliding plane model specification

showing dynamic and stationary zones and the sliding interface.

step. During the turbine runaway process, the rotor is only

acted on by hydrodynamic forces. The relevant parameter
that determines the angular acceleration of the runner is the
axial moment M:
d z
,
dt

(3)

M pz p( xA2 yA1 )dA,

(4)

M fz 2 ( xE2i Ai yE1i Ai )dA.

(5)

M M pz M fz J
S

In these equations, Mpz is the z-direction moment contribution due to pressure acting on the surface of the runner
blade, Mfz is the contribution due to surface shear stress, and
M is the total moment. The moment of inertia for the rotating system is J. In the expressions for Mpz and Mfz, x and y
denote the components of the position vector at each point
on the runner surface, and A1 and A2 denote components of
the face area vector normal to the x and y directions, respectively. In eq. (5), E denotes the strain rate tensor at each
point on the runner surface.
The flow chart diagram in Figure 4 gives a summary of
the steps for simulating the load rejection process using the
DSMM approach. First, the initial flow field is obtained
from the steady simulation. After the unsteady calculation is
activated, the rotating speed is computed from the integrated axial moment over runner surfaces. The flow field is then
solved at the next time step and the rotating speed of mesh
motion is updated. The process is repeated until the specified number of time steps has been reached.

Figure 4 Flow chart illustrating the steps involved for simulating the
runaway process using DSMM.

ing the DSMM approach, we used the method first simulate

the load rejection process in a prototype pump turbine. Different from the runaway process in which the guide vane
opening is fixed, the guide vane is closing in load rejection
process.
First, the experimental test was carried out. The focused
parameters include pressures both at the upstream and
downstream of pump turbine which are measured by pressure transducers and rotation speed of runner that is measured by a phonic wheel provided with 240 teeth and mounted to the shaft. The locations for measurement are shown in
Figure 5, in which A-A denotes locations for spiral casing
and B-B denotes locations for draft tube.
The boundary conditions for the validation test case were
time varying and somewhat complex and therefore need to
be specified clearly. First, the rotating speed of the runner

Validation test case

To validate the numerical method described above, includ-

Figure 5
tions).

Monitor points of the experimental test (pressure sensor loca-

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was changing with time, and was modeled by the DSMM

described in the previous section. Second, the guide vanes
were closing under the control of the servo-motor, which
induced a prescribed deformation of the fluid domain. Distinct from the boundary condition motion for the runner
domain, the mesh deformation caused by the guide vane
motion was accomplished by a combination of spring-based
smoothing and local remeshing method [10] and the variation of displacement was specified according to the measured linear closing profile. Boundaries connecting the upstream and downstream pipes were specified as known
time-varying pressure conditions which were measured at
the locations illustrated in Figure 5. For example, the spiral
casing inlet connected to the upstream penstock pipe was
defined as a pressure inlet, with the total pressure prescribed
based on the measured temporal evolution of total pressure.
Because measurements of flow rate in the prototype machine were unavailable, the total pressure was assumed to
be approximately equal to the static pressure shown in Figure 6, i.e. assuming that the dynamic pressure was negligible. Similarly, the draft tube outlet was specified as a pressure outlet, with a prescribed static pressure equal to the
measured time history profile shown in Figure 6.
An important factor in unsteady simulations is the time

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step size, which must be small enough to ensure that all

relevant flow time scales are resolved. A time step independence study for this flow configuration was carried out
in a previous study [9]. It was found in that study that
0.0005 s is a suitable choice, and this value was used here.
The total physical time for the simulations was 20 s, which
was deemed to be sufficiently long to validate the performance of the DSSM simulation. For an overall view of numerical setup, Table 2 lists the details of the computation.
The initial flow field was obtained using a steady-state approach with the multiple rotating frame method (MRF)
available in FLUENT. Once the initial solution was converged, the unsteady DSSM simulation was started.
The objective of the validation test case was to confirm
that the DSSM is able to successfully reproduce the timedependent behavior of the rotational speed. A comparison
of the predicted rotational speed with the experimental data
is shown in Figure 7. It can be seen that the calculated result
agrees well with the measured data at all times during the
simulation. It was therefore concluded that the numerical
model is well posed and results can be considered reliable
for prediction of the rotational speed response for a pump
turbine during the load rejection process.

Figure 7 Comparison of the calculated rotating speed with measured data

for the load rejection process.
Table 2

Numerical setup of the computation

Mesh
y+
Turbulence
model
Time step

Solving strategy

Spiral casing

Tandem

runner

Hexa

Hexa

Hexa

Hexa

1000k

4000k

4000k

1000k

200

60

60

80

SST k-
5104 s
Pressure-velocity
Coupling
Pressure terms

PRESTO!

Convective terms

2nd-order upwind

Diffusion terms

2nd-order central differences

2nd-order backward
differences
Pressure from measured data

Unsteady terms
Spiral casing inlet
Figure 6 Temporal evolution of the pressure measured at the spiral casing inlet and the outlet of draft tube.

Draft tube

PISO

Draft tube outlet

Pressure from measured data
Boundary Condition
Movement of guide vane
Dynamic mesh method
Runner domain

DSMM

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4 Simulation of unstable runaway process

4.1

Specification of boundary conditions

To study the unstable phenomenon induced by the S characteristic, the operating conditions of the prototype pump
turbine were modified artificially to be located in the S zone.
This change is illustrated in Figure 8. For convenience, the
operating conditions are plotted using unit parameters,
which for hydro-turbines are defined as follows. The unit
speed is
n11 nD*

H,

(6)

where n is the rotating speed in rpm, D* is a reference diameter (typically the discharge diameter for a turbine) and
H is the net head across the pump turbine. The unit flow
rate is
q11 q D*2 H ,

(7)

where q is the volume flow rate in L/s. Generally, the unstable phenomenon occurs at pump storage stations with
large head variations and low head operating conditions, i.e.
large values of n11 [13]. Hence, based on eq. (6), in the current simulations the operating head was decreased by an
amount equal to that which occurs when the opening of the
guide vane at idle speed is changed from 6 degrees (the real
condition) to 18 degrees (the artificial condition). Accordingly, the operating limit is transferred from line A to line B.
For consistency, an 18 degree opening of the guide vanes is
applied in the unstable simulation.
The initial operating condition before load rejection is n11
= 66.5 rpm, q11 = 600 L/s, which is denoted by the solid
circle in Figure 8. In terms of boundary conditions, the spiral casing inlet was set as a constant pressure inlet with Pin =
1.43106 Pa and the draft tube outlet is set as a constant
pressure outlet with Pout = 0 Pa. The initial rotating speed
was 225 rpm. As above, a steady-state simulation was performed in order to establish the initial conditions for the
unsteady case. The steady calculated flow rate q11 was equal
to 595 l/s, which was deemed to be accurate enough to be
taken as the initial condition for the transient simulations
[14]. In addition, for the sake of reducing the computation
cost, the rotational inertia was scaled to 10% of the real
value with J=1.85108 kg m2, which will accelerate the
evolution of the transient process and wont distort the
physical process.
All other aspects of the simulation were identical to the
validation simulation described in the previous section.
4.2

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and (7). Figure 9 shows the temporal evolution of unit flow

rate q11 and unit rotating speed n11. It can be seen that,
starting from the initial condition, the operating point first
changes gradually. Since there is no load, power extracted
from the flowing water drives the runner, resulting in a positive acceleration. Hence, the unit rotating speed increases
quickly. After a peak value of rotating speed is reached, a
regular oscillation develops for n11, with a small amount of
damping during the initial oscillation phase. The decay
eventually stops and a quasi-periodic limiting behavior is
observed. The evolution of the flow rate is similar to the
rotating speed. The oscillation frequencies for both quantities are equal. However there is a phase difference between
them which is discussed in the following section. Based on
the evolution of flow characteristics in the q11-n11 plane, a
picture of the entire load rejection process emerges. The
severity of the instability phenomenon can be judged by the
size of the final elliptical path that arises, which represents
the magnitude of fluctuation of both rotating speed and discharge.

Figure 8 (Color online) Schematic diagram of operating conditions of

the pump turbine model changed to be located in the S zone.

Analysis of macro-quantities

Global flow variables are used to characterize the evolution

of macro quantities including the flow rate, head and rotating speed. For convenience, all the parameters have been
transformed into unit quantities as defined above in eqs. (6)

Figure 9 (Color online) Temporal evolution of q11 and n11 during the
unstable runaway process.

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If the magnitude of fluctuation of rotation rate is too

large, then the runner speed cannot be synchronized with
the power grid. Figure 10 shows the profile of rotating
speed during the transient process, which is very similar to
that shown in Figure 11 monitored in the pump turbine in
Tianhuangping pumped storage power station [15] (China)
during start-up process in turbine mode. It can be concluded
that the developed numerical methodology is able to predict
the unstable rotation speed.
For this case, the peak-to-peak value, once the limiting
behavior has been reached, is larger than 10 rpm, which
obviously cannot satisfy the requirements of the power grid.
4.3

Analysis of internal flow field

To gain insight into the mechanism responsible needs to

analyze the internal flow field. To do this, four typical
points (t=0, t=T/4, t=T/2, t=3T/4) in a single oscillation period T, as illustrated in Figure 10, were chosen for analysis.
The evolution of unit flow rate and unit speed is depicted in
Figure 12. The phase difference between the flow rate and

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Figure 12
od.

1125

Temporal evolution of n11 and q11 in a typical oscillation peri-

the rotating speed is clear in the profile, which is a natural

property in the unsteady flow, because the flow rate response lags behind changes in pressure.
The fluctuation of rotating speed of runner can be directly related to irregular energy input. Regarding the runner,
the domain is enveloped by the interface between the runner
and guide vanes. To study the internal flow field, Figure 13
shows the relative velocity vectors projected in the direction
normal to the interface, from which it can be seen that severe reverse flow is occupied in the vane-less space. This is
consistent with the observations by Xu [16] and Staubli [17].
As a consequence of the reverse flow, the runner channels
are periodically blocked, which contributes to the time var-

Figure 10 Temporal evolution of the rotating speed during the unstable

load rejection process.

Figure 11 The fluctuation of rotating speed during the start-up process at

Tianhuangping pumped storage power station.

Figure 13 (Color online) Velocity vectors projected in the direction

normal to the interface between the runner and the guide vanes (Top) and
the zones with reverse flow(Bottom).

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ying force on the runner. To estimate how the reverse flow

is evolving, we calculated the ratio of area with reverse flow
(positive velocity component pointing outwards and indicating reverse flow) to the total area of the interface and the
values are listed in Figure 12.
It can be seen that the changing of reverse flow follows
the variation of the overall flow rate.
Based on the above analysis, it can be summarized that
the instability of a pump turbine in the S zone can be ascribed to the formation of reverse vortices located at the
inlet side of the runner domain [18]. When the operating
conditions are changed so that the machine is operating in
the S zone of the characteristic curve, the flow in the
vane-less space is reversed periodically, which leads to periodic fluctuation of flow rate and consequent fluctuation of
torque on the runners, which is shown in Figure 14. This in
turn leads to fluctuation of rotating speed, the magnitude of
which can be sufficiently high that synchronization with the
power grid is not possible. Therefore, how to eliminate the
reverse flow for pump turbine in turbine brake mode must
be taken as a necessary procedure in the hydraulic design.

5 Conclusion
This paper has proposed a numerical method to effectively
simulate the unsteady flow of a prototype pump turbine
during the runaway process. In the computations, the time
varying rotation rate of the runner domain, which is not
known a priori, is modeled by the DSMM method. This
method couples the movement of the runner to the fluid
forces acting on it via time integration of the angular acceleration equation. In addition, the moving boundaries of
closing guide vanes are treated by dynamic mesh motion
techniques and the boundary conditions are specified by the
test data. Comparison between numerical results and experimental data for a stable validation test case confirmed
that the developed methodology is able to accurately predict
the temporal evolution of rotating speed during the runaway

process. The methodology can also be extended to numerical simulations of other transient operating conditions, for
example start-up or stopping processes.
A second unsteady simulation was carried out to study
the unstable behavior of the pump turbine during runaway
due to S-shaped characteristics. Unstable operation was
induced computationally by modifying the operating conditions, specifically, reducing the operating head. The calculated time history of rotating speed shows that the unstable
phenomenon is well captured by the DSSM approach. A
macro analysis of the unit parameters (unit rotating speed
n11 and unit flow rate q11) was performed. It was shown that
the severity of the intability is well quantified by the magnitude of these fluctuating quantities once a quasi-periodic
limit cycle oscillation is obtained.
A detailed analysis of the flow field was also performed
in terms of the velocity distribution in the runner section. It
was concluded that, in a typical oscillating period, the instability of the pump turbine in the S zone is due to vortex
formation at the inlet section of the runner domain, which
leads to severe periodic blockage of passing flow in the
runner channels. The temporal and spatial variation of flow
blockage leads to flow rate fluctuations, which in turn induces torque fluctuations and rotational speed fluctuations.
Hence, the existence of dynamic vortex formation can be
identified as the fundamental fluid dynamical mechanism
responsible for the unstable phenomenon in a pump turbine.
From an engineering design standpoint, the critical question
for successful off-design operation is therefore how to avoid
the occurrence of vortex formation at the inlet of runner
domain. This important point should be considered in the
future design of pump turbines.
This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB724302) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51176168).
1

Figure 14
blades.

Temporal evolution of the axial moment acting on the runner

June (2014) Vol. 57 No. 6

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