Hydraulic Turbine R and D Lab

Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory sponsored by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India has been commissioned in 2017 at HRED, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand.

Hydraulic Turbine R & D Laboratory

Hydraulic Turbine R & D Laboratory Brochure

Brochure

Hydraulic Turbine R & D Laboratory

Hydraulic Turbine R & D Laboratory Poster

Poster

Training Program

Training on Hydro-Turbine Model Testing, Cavitation, Silt and Abrasive Erosion Measurements by Independent Laboratory Hydraulic-Turbine R&D Laboratory during January 21-23, 2025 brochure

INTRODUCTION

Real turbines can be tested at site in real conditions for which it is designed, only after installation and that too with relatively high inaccuracy. Practically no improvement can be done once the machine has been installed. The tests are therefore conducted on scaled models, on scaled hydraulic conditions. Such model tests process is a time consuming job and it demands well calibrated precision instruments, which are costly and often tailor made. Larger turbine manufactures such as BHEL, Andritz, Voith, GE and Dongfang have their own test facilities. However, smaller developers and consultants concerned with hydro power cannot afford such a big investment. Consequently, several projects have faced surprises during their operation.

Hydraulic Turbine R and D Laboratory, HRED, IIT Roorkee

A fully automatic SCADA based Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory sponsored by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India has been commissioned in 2017 at HRED, IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand.

HRED is a center of excellence for small hydropower in the country, to validate the homologous hydro turbine models designed & fabricated by various turbine manufacturers. IIT Roorkee is one of the oldest technical institutes set up in 1847 and has played an important role in the development of Water resources in India, both through education of competent engineers as well as research work.

Hydraulic Turbine R and D Lab outside view

Objectives

The laboratory shall support the Indian small hydropower industry (government as well as independent) to grow and compete in the international market in various aspects of hydroelectric power development:

Spearheading research and development activity in the country for hydro turbine/reversible pump turbine.

Developing human resources for small hydropower in respect of entrepreneurs, engineers, plant operators and researchers.

Generating data and building expertise for solving site specific problems.

Providing affordable facilities to small hydro manufactures for design verification.

Validating designs of small hydro turbine and layouts using CFD technique.

Developing and validating flow-measuring techniques leading to optimum utilization and generation.

Providing flow calibration facility for measuring instruments used for both field-testing and power-plant operation.

Providing facilities for testing and certification of turbines.

The method used is simulating conditions similar to those around the runner of the turbine in a real hydro power plant. Two VFD driven large pumps are used for varying the water discharge, head and measuring various parameters such as power, discharge, head and speed in complete operating range.

High-Tech Facility

Both CFD and experimental tests are carried out to validate the forecast performance and output test results obtained by calculation methods. The experimental tests are conducted for Francis, Kaplan and Pelton turbine by using a scaled model of the turbine. This stage of the hydraulic testing process provides a unique opportunity to verify the complete turbine operating range, taking into account complex operating phenomena, which are not covered in the theoretical calculation and tests carried out in previous CFD stages. This high-tech scaled model test laboratory is designed to test model of Turbine/ Reversible Pump Turbine/Large Pumps. The test rig is capable of simulating Conditions identical to those in a real hydropower plant.

The guiding parameters in setting up this Lab are as follows:

Excellent overall accuracy in turbine efficiency measurement (target better than 0.25%)

Repeatability (target better than 0.15%).

Limiting the normal power consumption in the Laboratory to 300 kW level.

Meeting IEC60193:2019 and ISO/IEC 17025:2017 requirements.

Flexible rig to accommodate many types and designs of turbine models.

Test conditions and parameters to be stable.

The key parameters measured on this test-rig are Input hydraulic power i.e. head & discharge, output power i.e. runner speed and torque. This test-rig can measure mechanical power up to 132 kW, for speeds up to 1600 rpm, with maximum test heads of 60m with discharge 75 l/s and minimum test head of 10m with 907 l/s.

Tests on Scaled Model

Weighted average efficiency and turbine output/pump input

Cavitation’s performance

Pressure pulsation

Run-away speed

Besides the above, the following tests are also conducted:

Characteristic Curves for the Turbine Quadrant/four quadrant for reversible turbine

Hydraulic Thrust

Torque

The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art SCADA based automatic control system with electromagnetic flow meters, pressure transducers and sensors. The Laboratory has a flow measurement tank and calibration tank. There is a provision to calibrate flow meter by gravimetric method.

Salient Features of Test RIG

Max Head m	60 m with discharge 150 lt./s. (Both pump in series)
Max Discharge l/s	907 lt./s. at head of 15 m (Both Pump in parallel)
Max Speed	1600 RPM
Hydro Static Bearing	Voith, Germany Make
VFD	Siemens Make
Universal Frequency counter/timer	Agilent Make, 350 MHz, 12 digits, 100 PS
Weights	Calibrated F2-Class Standard weights
Flow Calibration	Gravimetric (Weighing)
Flow Measurement	ABB Make Electromagnetic Flow meter, Velocity Range 0-10m/s (max.)
Head Measurement	Yokogawa Make Differential Pressure Transmitter
Torque Measurement	By HBM Make T12 torque meter capacity of 2kNm and HBM Make Z6 Load cell capacity of 10kg
Speed Measurement	By HBM Make T12 torque meter
Measuring Tank and calibrator tank calibration with load cell	Measuring tank; 3 Nos., 22T capacity RTN Type, HBM Make load cell,
	Calibrator tank; 1No. 2T Capacity, S-type HBM Make load cell
Cavitation Coefficient Measurement	Yokogawa Make Diff. pressure transmitter for suction pressure
Typical Runner Size of Turbine Model	Francis Turbine 250 mm - 350 mm up to 385 mm
	Kaplan Turbine 250- 350 mm for Kaplan Turbine
	Pelton Turbine Bucket size 80 mm - 90 mm
	Reversible Turbine Inlet Diameter 250mm - 350 mm
Flow Calibration Loop	Can also be configured as calibration loop by bye-passing the rig through diverter unit in measuring tank/discharge tank.
Model Testing	Closed loop.
Reservoir size and capacity	12.1m X 8m X 4.45m, Volume 217.8m3
Sump size and capacity	12.1m X 7.1m X 4.45m, Volume 300.69m3
Transfer pumps motors-4 Nos.	WPIL Make, Water lubricated, Speed 1450 rpm,
	Cap 900 m3/hr, total head 3.0m
	Motor: ABB Make
Main pump-motor-2 Nos.	WPIL Make, Pump: Suction 400NS, Discharge 350NS,
	Speed 988rpm, Capacity 1440 m3/hr, total head 24m
	Motor: 160 kW,988 rpm, V415 V, Siemens Make
Dynamo-motor and Fourth quadrant VFD	Simens Make 132kW AC Drive and induction motor
Feed Pump-Motors-2 Nos.	Kirlosker Make, 415V, 50Hz, 0.85 pf, 11 kW, 1470 RPM
Side Channel Pump-1no.	Speck-Pumpen, Germany Make, 415V, 50Hz, 0.85 pf, 1.5 kW, 1440 RPM
Energy Dissipating Valve	Jash India Make, Dia-400mm in line valve with Auma Electric Actuator
Liquid Chiller	Drycool systems Make, 40TR, water temp. 31øC max.

Three-Dimensional View of Test RIG

High Accuracy Calibration System

Flowmeter Calibration System

Calibration tank 1.5-ton water and 1 No. 2.0 tons HBM make S40A load cell used, which is calibrated by the F2 class standard weights.

Measuring tank capacity of 45tons of water with 3x22 tons HBM make RTN load cell used, which is calibrated by the 2.0-ton calibration tank.

Flow Diverter unit is operated by a compressor air.

High accuracy precision timer used for actual time counter up-to-12 decimal in Flowmeter calibration.

Measurement and Calibration for Head

Head Measurement and Calibration SCADA Screen

Torque Measurement and Calibration System

Friction torque is measured by 10 kg cell and calibrated by F2 class standard weights.

Shaft torque is measured by 2 kNm torque meter and calibrated by F2 class standard weights.

Speed Measurement and Calibration System

Measurement of Turbine Speed by rotary Speed transducer

Variable Frequency Drive with Motor

Main Pump and motor with VFD (SINAMICS G120-Siemens)

Dynamometer with VFD (SINAMICS S120-Simens)

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

Four Quadrant Reversible Pump Turbine Characteristics

Data acquisition, control and operation of model testing are done by PLC based SCADA system. Results and graphs related to model as well as prototype are plotted simultaneously in NI-Labview System.

Vortex and Flow Pattern Observation System

Latest image watching instruments like High-speed camera, Stroboscope and Borescope are used for observation.

Observation of the Channel Vortex from Runner Inlet

Observation of the incipient Cavitation on Runner Blade

Observation of the Cavitation bubbles inside draft tube cone

Visualization of flow pattern inside draft tube using High Speed Camera

CFD Server Room

System Details:

Master Node: 1 no. IBM X 3550 M4 Server

Intel XEON processor E5 2680 (20 cores) @ 2.8 GHz, 25MB Cache, 1200 MHz

2 numbers IBM 600GB HDD SAS 10K RPM

64GB DDR3 1866 MHz

1 No's Dual Port FDR HCA Infinite band

4 numbers Quad Gigabit Ethernet port

1 number IMM port

1 number DVD RW drives

Storage Node: 2 nos. of IBM X 3550 M4 Server

Intel XEON processor E5 2609 V2 (2x4 core) @ 2.5 GHz, 10 MB Cache, 1200 MHz

2 No's IBM 300GB HDD SAS 2.5"

32 GB DDR3 1833 MHz

1 No's of HCA Infinite band quad port

2 numbers Gigabit Ethernet port

1 number IMM port

Compute Node: 12 nos. of IBM X 3550 M5 Server

Intel XEON processor E5 2680 (2x12 core) @ 2.5 GHz, 30MB Cache, 2500 MHz

1 No's 500GB HDD 7200 RPM SATA 2.5"

96 GB DDR4 2133 MHz

1 No's Dual Port HCA FDR Infinite band

Dual Gigabit Ethernet port

1 number IMM port

Software installed on HPC Server

Ansys-17

Matlab

Research Scopes

In hydraulic turbine R&D laboratory of HRED, IIT Roorkee, the research fields include multi-phase hydro dynamics, water power project, hydraulic machinery etc. At present, mostly research scopes are shown as follows:

Computational analysis of intensity of hydraulic turbine.

Application research of hydraulic optimization and analysis of internal flow.

Flow field display technique of hydraulic turbine.

Model test and acceptance test inland and overseas.

Research on cavitation mechanism and anti-cavitation measures.

Measurement and control technique for measurement of pressure fluctuations in hydraulic turbine.

Hydraulic vibration stability test in hydraulic machinery.

Measurement of dynamic pressure velocity field in hydraulic turbine.

National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories

Accreditation Certificate

Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory is accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for Hydro Turbine Model Testing and Fluid Flow Calibration since 2018; as per IEC 60193:2019 and ISO 4185:1980. Accreditation is renewed every two years. NABL is part of Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) which in turn is part of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Certificate of Accreditation in the field of Testing

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Certificate of Accreditation in the field of Calibration

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ISSN: 0143-0750 (Print) 2162-8246 (Online)

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Ali Abbas & Arun Kumar | International Journal of Ambient Energy | Vol. 38, No. 3, 323–330.

Development of draft tube in hydro-turbine: a review

ISSN: 0955-5986

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Ali Abbas & Arun Kumar | International journal of Flow Measurement and Instrumentation | Vol. 65, 2019, Pages 297-308.

Evaluation of uncertainty in flow and performance parameters in Francis turbine test rig

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Ali Abbas & Arun Kumar | Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics

Numerical and experimental investigations of draft tube under different operating conditions

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Ali Abbas, Nitin Kumar Jhankal & Arun Kumar | Conference: FLOTEK.G 2017- "Innovative Solutions in Flow Measurement and Control- Oil, Water and Gas" | August 28-30, 2017, FCRI, Palakkad, Kerala, India

Calibration of Electromagnetic Flowmeter Using Advanced SCADA System

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