Investigation on the flow similarity of Pelton turbines under high-speed water jet conditions

Key Points

• The study aims to assess flow similarity between scaled models of Pelton turbines and their prototypes under high-speed water jet conditions.
• Constructed two models using relative velocity consistency and unit parameter consistency principles.
• Analyzed internal flow characteristics of the prototypes and their respective models.
• Measured various performance metrics including water phase volume fraction and force coefficients.
• Relative velocity consistency models showed a 40.06% deviation in water phase volume fraction compared to the prototype.
• Unit parameter consistency models exhibited only an 8.42% deviation in water phase volume fraction, indicating superior similarity.
• Force correlations for the unit parameter consistency models were significantly higher, suggesting better predictive capacity for energy characteristics.

Abstract