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Sand erosion of Pelton turbine nozzles and buckets: A case study of Chilime
Hydropower Plant
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All content following this page was uploaded by Tri Ratna Bajracharya on 26 August 2018.
Received 3 March 2006; received in revised form 21 January 2007; accepted 21 February 2007
Available online 19 April 2007
Abstract
Erosion of hydro turbine components through sand laden river water is one of the biggest problems in the Himalayan region. This problem
exists for all kinds of turbines. Apart from erosion of buckets, erosion was also observed in nozzle of the Pelton turbines due to sand particles and
such problem was observed in 22 MW Chilime Hydropower Plant in Nepal. Detailed studies were conducted and erosion analysis was carried out
in this case study. Sieve and mineral content analyses were systematically carried out and sediment load was calculated. By doing this, erosion
rate and efficiency reduction were established using already known methodology and scenario for similar hydropower plants. The flow analysis
through surface of needle was established by drawing flow net diagrams. This detrimental damage led to efficiency reduction of 1.21% consequently
resulting in loss of power generation. A wear rate of 3.4 mm/year was estimated for the needle and the bucket after a systematic analysis.
© 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
0043-1648/$ – see front matter © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.wear.2007.02.021
178 T.R. Bajracharya et al. / Wear 264 (2008) 177–184
Table 1
Classification of river sediment
Particle Clay Silt Sand Gravel Cobbles Boulders
Size (mm) Less than 0.002 0.002–0.06 0.06–2 2–60 60–250 Greater than 250
effects [3]. Fig. 1 shows quartz content in some of the rivers power canal through 45 m long gravel trap. An overflow spillway
of Nepal. is provided at the end of the gravel trap. Desilting basin is located
The particles causing erosion of turbine components in on the flat terrace field between Chilime River and the Bengdang
hydropower plants are the sediments contained in river water. River providing sufficient flushing head. Desilting basin is 315 m
These sediments are found in a form of clay, silt, sand and downstream from the gravel trap end. A cut and covered canal is
gravel with the specific gravity of approximately 2.6. In the provided in between the gravel trap and the desilting basin. An
river hydraulics, sediment particles are classified into bed-load inverted siphon is provided to flush Bengdang River. A cut and
and suspended-load based on transport mechanism of sediment. cover canal is provided in between siphon end and the peaking
Fraction of suspended load is settled down in the settling basins pondage has a capacity of 44,160 m3 which is sufficient for 4 h
or reservoirs and rest will pass through turbines causing wear of peaking time. Two 11 MW units of double jet Pelton turbines
different components. were installed in this plant. The river supplying water for this
plant is fed by snowmelt in Himalayas [4].
2. Chilime Hydro Electric Project (CHEP) The main source of fine sediments is from the process of sheet
and reel erosion. The glaciers produce some bed load sediments
There are 19 hydropower plants in Nepal with generating and are left as end moraines. Land slides and mass wasting are
capacity of 2 MW and more. Mostly these projects are Run- also the main sources of suspended and bed load sediments.
off-River (ROR) except Kulekhani Hydropower plant and are Those events produce very high sediments load and the bed-
affected by sand erosion. Such kind of erosion has become load materials are deposited along the bed and produce high
a part of the regular activities in most of the hydropower sediment concentration during the subsequent years.
projects. Under the present study, an analysis for sand par-
ticle led damages of Pelton needle has been carried out for 3. Methodology
Chilime Hydropower Plant (CHEP) having total plant capacity
of 22 MW. Secondary and primary data were collected by personal vis-
The CHEP is a ROR type project with 4 h peak load. It takes its of the CHEP plant site by the study team. Sample of sand
the water from the Chilime River which then flows from the and water, which were taken from the Chilime River, were
canal into the desilting basin where the sediments settles down. brought to the laboratory and sieve and mineral analyses were
Subsequently, the water flows through the siphon into the cut carried out. Staff members and technical personnel were inter-
and cover canal and then into the by-pass canal and into the viewed to find out the possible causes of erosion of needle and
fore bay. Then the water through the headrace channel flows seat rings. Data pertaining to erosion observation during main-
into the penstock and enters in to the nozzle of the turbine. The tenance and second maintenance were collected. Then eroded
turbine is coupled with the generator and thus the electricity is needle and seat rings were bought to the laboratory and wear and
produced. The water after striking the turbine flows through the surface texture were studied by measuring wear depth and sur-
tailrace channel back into the river. The head works consist of face roughness using stylus probe. Sediment load was calculated
11 m long simple weir, 4 m wide under sluice, and 4 m wide and using standard relation. By doing this wear rate and efficiency
1.6 m high two numbers of intake gates to divert the water to the reduction were established using already known method and
scenario for similar hydropower plants. Then analysis of flow
of water through surface of needle was carried out by drawing
flow net diagrams. Based on the observations, measurements
and analysis, conclusions were drawn.
4. Models of erosion
Generally, this expression is given as a function of velocity, where β is the turbine coefficient at eroded part, c the concen-
material hardness, particle size, and concentration. The most tration of suspended sediment and V is the relative velocity.
general relation for erosion purpose [3,6,7] is: The term a is average grain size coefficient on the basis of unit
value for grain size 0.05 mm. The terms k1 and k2 are the shape
W = Kmat Kenv cVn f (α) (3) and hardness coefficient of sand particles and k3 is the abrasion
resistant coefficient of material. The x, y and n are exponent val-
Here, W is the erosion rate (material removal) in mm/year, Kmat ues for concentration, size coefficient and velocity, respectively.
the material constant, Kenv a constant depending on environment, The value of x and y are close to the unity and any deviation
c the concentration of particles, f(α) a function of impingement of this linear proportionality is determined from plot of wear
angle α, V the velocity of particles and n is the exponent of versus parameter. The values of n are proposed for different
velocity. turbine components based on relation between relative velocity
The erosion models are basically developed for specific and erosion. Minimum value of n is proposed as 1.5 for Pelton
purpose or condition. Truscott [5] presented the equation of bucket and maximum value is 3 for Francis turbine runner. Sim-
Bergeron to predict the erosion rate of pump with simplified ilarly, for Francis turbine guide vanes and Pelton turbine needle,
assumptions such as pure sliding of spherical particles over the this value is proposed as 2.5. The equation similar to this for
surface. He presented equation for erosion as: the purpose of hydraulic turbines has been established in this
study.
V2
Erosion ∝ (ρp − ρ)d 3 pK (4)
D
5. Analysis
where V is the characteristic velocity of liquid, D the character-
istic dimension of the machine, ρp the density of particle, d the 5.1. Sediment analysis
diameter of particle, p the number of particles per unit surface
area, ρ the density of liquid and K is the experimental coeffi- The analysis of water samples collected on different days
cient depending upon nature of abrasive particles. This equation from the settling basin area showed a maximum sediment con-
is proportional to experimental coefficient, which is dependent centration of 2037 ppm with the sand break of 79% (which is
on abrasive nature of particles. 79% of total sediment is sand). The particle size distribution
Karelin et al. [8] established the equation for surface erosion analysis was done by sieve analysis method and visual accu-
based on impact effect of particles considering kinetic energy of mulation tube (VAT) method. The results of sieve analyses are
single particle. They have anticipated deviation on erosion esti- presented in Fig. 2.
mated by equation due to uncertainties like non-homogeneous It can be seen from Fig. 2 in VAT method that only 5% of the
particles, variable concentration, continuous alteration and pul- total sediment has the particle size less than 60 m and 99% of
sation of velocities and pressure, non-uniform flow distribution the sediment has the particle size less than 4500 m.
and so on. On the contrary to laboratory tests, Tsuguo [9] estab- Fig. 2 in sieve method shows that only 5% of the sediment
lished the relationship of factors concerning erosion of turbines sample has the size less than 62.5 m and the whole sedi-
based on 8 years erosion data of 18 hydropower plants. The ment samples have the size less than 1000 m. The settling
repair cycle of turbine is determined according to calculation of basin is designed to trap the sediment particle of size up to
turbine erosion from equation, which gives erosion rate in term 0.2 mm (200 m). From the particle size distribution analysis, it
of loss of thickness per unit time (W): was found that around 35–40% of the sediment has the par-
ticle size less than 200 m. This indicates that during flood
W = βcxayk1 k2 k3 Vn (5) condition, when the river carries large amount of sediment,
Table 2
Distribution of sediment samples
Minerals Percentages (%) by volume Mohr’s Hardness Scale Remarks
35–40% of sediment will reach up to the turbine, thus caus- (a) Khimti-1 Hydropower Plant
ing severe erosion of the turbine components. As mentioned The 5 × I2 MW Khimti-1 Hydropower Plant (KHP-1)
earlier, the maximum concentration recorded during the flood installed in 684 m gross head represents typical high head
condition to be 2037 ppm. A 35–40% of this value equals to power plants in Himalayan Rivers. The horizontal Pelton
713–815 ppm, which is very high as compared to the total con- turbines of KHP-I have two jets with discharge 2.15 m3 /s.
centration obtained for the samples taken in other normal flow Khimti River of KHP is also example of rivers with high
conditions. gradient, heavy monsoon flow and high sediment concen-
In year 2006, sediment deposition volume in the reservoir was tration of hard minerals. Less than 20% of Khimti Basin
estimated. On July 10, 2006, the estimated volume was 387 m3 , lies in High Himalayas, about 30% in Lesser Himalayas and
on August 14, 2006, it was 10018.81 m3 and on October 15, 50% in the region of middle mountains, which is formed as
2006, it was 2732.72 m3 . The maximum sediment was deposited a result of local tectonic movements, river down cutting and
in flood time. This is clearly indicated that only desilting basin sedimentation. Hence the risk of rock falls and landslides
cannot control sediments. are high and extensive deforestation has led to increased soil
erosion. The average concentration of suspended sediment
5.2. Mineral content analysis at Khimti River in 1994–1995 monsoon seasons varied from
13 to 1244 ppm and maximum-recorded concentration was
The mineral content analysis was carried out to determine the 8536 ppm [10]. The higher concentration is expected in the
percentage by volume of the minerals in the water being carried flood situation and hence 20,000 ppm suspended sediment
up to the turbine. It was found that the average quartz content is used as design value for sediment settling and flushing
is 76% and feldspar is 6%, amounting to a total of 82%. The capacity. Two parallel sediment settling basins which were
particles are angular to the sub rounded shape. This indicates optimized with respect to erosion of turbine are dimensioned
that the river water with sand has the high probability for the as 90 m × 12 m × 2 m to exclude 85% of all particles with
erosion of the turbine components. This is due to the very high a fall diameter of 0.13 mm and 95% of all particles with a
hardness of quartz and feldspar, which is 7 and 6, respectively, fall diameter 0.20 mm [11].
in Mohr’s Hardness Scale. The distribution of sediment samples Significant amount of erosion had appeared in turbine
is present in Table 2. bucket and needles in first year of operation (about 6000 h).
Even though the settling basin with Sediment Sluicing Ser-
5.3. Erosion observation pent System (S4) is performing according to design criteria,
large quantity of sediment (may be particles smaller than
In July 2004, the first maintenance of the power plant was design size) pass through turbines especially during mon-
undertaken. During this period, erosion between the nozzle tip
and the spur needle was observed. Table 3 and Fig. 3 provide
details of erosion and its location in the needle and nozzle tip.
It clearly shows the erosion thickness (gap) between the spur
needle and the nozzle tip. At the same time, it also depicts the
erosion at the tip of the spur needle.
The erosion of turbines due to sand content in water is com-
mon in Nepal and therefore some of them are presented below.
Table 3
Erosion on the needle tip
Region Unit 1 (mm) Unit 2 (mm)
Fig. 4. Erosion profiles of needle: (a) severely eroded surface and (b) uniformly eroded surface.
182 T.R. Bajracharya et al. / Wear 264 (2008) 177–184
Fig. 8. Variation of force and mean velocity along the surface of needle (full
opening condition).
(please see inset in Fig. 8). From the figure, it becomes clear that
because of the relatively low mean velocity, the erosion on the
needle surface at the beginning is low though the force on it is
Fig. 10. Severely eroded surface of turbine needle due to inception of cavitation.
relatively large. At the subsequent stage, because of the increase
in the flow velocity, erosion of the surface will be higher though
the force on the needle decreases. Since the dominant factor needle and the mean velocity of the flow continuously increases.
for the erosion is the velocity [Erosion ∝ (Velocity)3 ] and as Thus, the combined effect of the cavitations and the sediment
the cross-sectional area is gradually reduced, the increased flow erosion gives rise to the severe erosion of the needle surface.
velocity might cause the turbulence in the flow thus enhancing Fig. 10 shows highly eroded surface of needle due to cavitation.
the erosion of the surface. But at a latter stage, because of the The damage of the needle surface increases with turbine
very low force on the surface of the needle and the fact that the running time under partial flow conditions due mainly to the
jet flows freely under the atmospheric pressure, the erosion of occurrence of cavitation. In case of full opening condition, this
the surface near the tip of the needle due to the sediment is not is not observed.
so severe though the velocity of the flow is relatively very high.
As the needle is very sharp at the tip, even the small force at a 6. Conclusions
very high velocity can erode the tip easily.
As erosion caused by sand and or silt-laden flows for various
5.5.2. Flow net for half opening of needle components of hydro turbines is commonplace in Himalayan
The flow net for the half open condition of the needle and the region, the importance of sediment transport and natural pro-
nozzle has been drawn in the same way as it was done for the cesses should not be underestimated. Specifically for case of
full opening condition. Also force and the mean velocity of flow CHEP, following conclusions are drawn:
have been calculated in the similar manner. The result obtained
was quite different in this case. Fig. 9 presents force and mean • The quartz content of the Chilime River is relatively high. Dur-
velocity as a function of distance along surface of needle under ing the monsoon period, large amount of sediments reach the
half open condition (flow net is shown as an inset). The pressure turbine buckets and needle. High quartz content and increase
along the surface of the needle decreases as in the case of full sediment load during monsoon along with the small particle
opening. But at a later stage its value becomes negative indi- size are the major cause for the severe erosion of turbine parts,
cating the occurrence of cavitations possibility due to increased namely the nozzle and buckets.
turbulence in the flow. Both the force along the surface of the • The erosion rate of 3.4 mm/year for the needle and the bucket
resulting in efficiency reduction of 1.21% and as a conse-
quence loss in the power generation.
• The longer the needle is operated in partial (half) opening
condition the greater is the erosion of the needle due to the
additional effect of cavitations along with sand erosion. As a
result, high turbulence occurs in the flow, jet miss and thus the
bucket resulting ultimately affecting the turbine performance.
• Proposing diversion tunnels. [5] G.F. Truscott, Literature survey of abrasive wear in hydraulic machinery,
• Regular desilting (by dredging and or siphoning, reservoir Wear 20 (1972) 29–50.
flushing through bottom outlets, etc.) and maintenance of stor- [6] E. Bardal, Korrosjon og Korrosjonsvern, Tapir, Trondheim (in Norwegian),
1985.
age reservoir, etc. The decision however has to be taken after [7] B.K.S. Naidu, Silt erosion problem in hydropower stations and their pos-
fully evaluating the cost for the replacement of spares versus sible solutions, in: Proceedings of the Silt Damages to Equipment in
capital cost for extra structures. Hydropower Stations and Remedial Measures, New Delhi, 1996, pp. 1–53.
[8] V.Y. Karelin, et al., Fundamental of hydroabrasive erosion theory, in: C.G.
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