Hysteresis Characteristic in the Hump Region of a Pump-Turbine Model
The hump feature is one of the major instabilities in pump-turbines. When pump-turbines operate in the hump region, strong noise and serious fluctuations can be observed, which are harmful to their safe and stable operation and can even destroy the whole unit as well as water conveyance system. In this paper, a low specific speed ( n q = 36.1 min −1 ) pump-turbine model was experimentally investigated. Firstly, the hump characteristic was obtained under 19 mm guide vane opening conditions. More interestingly, when the hump characteristic was measured in two directions (increasing and decreasing the discharge), characteristic hysteresis was found in the hump region. The analysis of performance characteristics reveals that the hump instability is the result of Euler momentum and hydraulic losses, and different Euler momentum and hydraulic losses in the two development processes lead to the hysteresis phenomenon. Then, 12 pressure sensors were mounted in the different parts of the pump-turbine model to obtain the time and frequency characteristics. The analysis of the corresponding fast Fourier transform confirms that the hump characteristic is related to low-frequency (0.04–0.15 times rotational frequency) vortices. The occurrence and cessation of vortices depend on the operating condition and measurement direction, which contribute to the hysteresis feature. Finally, the type of the low-frequency vortices was analyzed through the cross power spectrum.
Determination of epsilon for Omega vortex identification method
In the present paper, epsilon (ε) in the Omega vortex identification criterion (Ω method) is defined as an explicit function in order to apply the Ω method to different cases and even different time steps for the unsteady cases. In our method, ε is defined as a function relating with the flow without any subjective adjustment on its coefficient. The newly proposed criteria for the determination of ε is tested in several typical flow cases and is proved to be effective in the current work. The test cases given in the present paper include boundary layer transition, shock wave and boundary layer interaction, and channel flow with different Reynolds numbers.
Experimental study on bubble dynamics subject to buoyancy
This paper is concerned with the dynamics of large bubbles subject to various strengths of buoyancy effects, which are associated with applications for underwater explosion. The bubble is produced by electric discharge in a low-pressure tank to enhance the buoyancy effects. Experiments are carried out for a bubble in an infinite field, below a free surface and above a rigid boundary. The effects of buoyancy are reflected by the dimensionless parameter ${\it\delta}=\sqrt{{\it\rho}gR_{m}/(p_{amb}-p_{v})}$ , where $R_{m}$ , $p_{amb}$ , $p_{v}$ , ${\it\rho}$ and $g$ are the maximum bubble radius, ambient pressure, saturated vapour pressure, density of water and the acceleration of gravity respectively. A systematic study of buoyancy effects is carried out for a wide range of ${\it\delta}$ from 0.034 to 0.95. A series of new phenomena and new features is observed. The bubbles recorded are transparent, and thus we are able to display and study the jet formation, development and impact on the opposite bubble surface as well as the subsequent collapsing and rebounding of the ring bubble. Qualitative analyses are carried out for the bubble migration, jet velocity and jet initiation time, etc. for different values of ${\it\delta}$ . When a bubble oscillates below a free surface or above a rigid boundary, the Bjerknes force due to the free surface (or rigid boundary) and the buoyancy are in opposite directions. Three situations are studied for each of the two configurations: (i) the Bjerknes force being dominant, (ii) the buoyancy force being dominant and (iii) the two forces being approximately balanced. For case (iii), we further consider two subcases, where both the balanced Bjerknes and buoyancy forces are weak or strong. When the Bjerknes and buoyancy forces are approximately balanced over the pulsation, some representative bubble behaviours are observed: the bubble near free surface is found to split into two parts jetting away from each other for small ${\it\delta}$ , or involutes from both top and bottom for large ${\it\delta}$ . A bubble above a rigid wall is found to be subject to contraction from the lateral part leading to bubble splitting. New criteria are established based on experimental results for neutral collapses where there is no dominant jetting along one direction, which correlate well with the criteria of Blake et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 170, 1986, pp. 479–497; J. Fluid Mech., vol. 181, 1987, pp. 197–212) but agree better with the experimental and computational results.