Fluid Mechanical Design of the Potential Flow Turbine

This paper presents the software package developed at Fluid and Power Research Institute (FPRI) for the uid mechanical design of the wicket gates and the runner blades of the Potential Flow turbine [1]. This software package is based on the correct formulation of the design problem. The design problem can not be correctly formulated for Francis and Kaplan turbines with conventional wicket gates, since in these turbines the ow coming to the runner is neither axisymmetric nor potential. The package is based on a quasi-threedimensional approach. All programs in the package are highly accurate from the computational point of view. The application of FPRI uid mechanical software directly leads to the best solution from the point of view of e ciency and cavitation. The experimental data support the predictions made by the FPRI software [2,3].