EXPLORING STRUCTURAL DESIGN OF THE FRANCIS HYDRO-TURBINE BLADES USING COMPOSITE MATERIALS

Iakovos Mastrogiannakis, George-Christopher Vosniakos

DOI Number
https://doi.org/10.22190/FUME190609001M
First page
043
Last page
055

Abstract


Composite materials are increasingly exploited in industry especially replacing metallic structures due to their strength/weight ratio. Amongst the notable applications, for which composite materials have not challenged metals yet are hydro-turbines, which are overwhelmingly made of steel or copper alloys. Replacing blade material by laminate composites can reduce weight and inertia, as well as achieve smaller cross-sectional thicknesses, better fatigue strength, damping, and resistance to cavitation. Manufacturing techniques are mature enough to respond to the challenge, provided that the laminate composite blades are properly designed. In the current work, the design of the Francis carbon blades was studied by employing finite element analysis. The blades were designed sub-optimally with various stratification patterns and different failure and maximum displacement limitations following a systematic methodology for gradual addition of laminate layers or patches. The methodology is still of a trial and error nature driven by the designer but guesses in the individual steps are much more informed due to model analysis and optimization tools available.

Keywords

Composites, Francis Turbine Blade, Design, Finite Element Analysis, Structural Optimization

Full Text:

PDF

References


Steele, R.D., 2007, Hydraulic turbines, In: E.A. Avallone, T. Baumeister AMS, (Eds.), Marks’ Standard Handbook for Mechanical Engineers. 11th ed. McGraw-Hill, pp. 9154-9166.

Khabirul Islam, A.K.M., Bhuyan, S., Chowdhury, F., 2013, Advanced composite pelton wheel design and study its performance for pico/micro hydro power plant application, Int J Eng Innov Technol., 2(11), pp. 126-132.

Mohan, M., 2008, The advantages of composite material in marine renewable energy structures, Marine Renewable Energy Conference (RINA), London, pp. 41-57.

Nicholls-Lee, R.F., Turnock, SR, Boyd, SW., 2013, Application of bend-twist coupled blades for horizontal axis tidal turbines, Renew Energy, 50, pp. 541-550.

Herath, M.T., Gangadhara Prusty, B., Yeoh, G.H., Chowdhury, M., John, N.S., 2013, Development of a shape-adaptive composite propeller using bend-twist coupling characteristics of composites, Third International Symposium on Marine Propulsors, Launceston, Tasmania, pp.128-135.

Young, Y.L., 2008, Fluid–structure interaction analysis of flexible composite marine propellers, J Fluids Struct., 24(6), pp.799-818.

Lin, C.-C., Lee, Y.-J., Hung, C.-S., 2009, Optimization and experiment of composite marine propellers, Compos Struct., 89(2), pp. 206-215.

Liu, Z., Young, Y.L., 2009, Utilization of bend–twist coupling for performance enhancement of composite marine propellers, J Fluids Struct., 25(6), pp. 1102-1116.

Liu, Z., Young, Y.L., 2010, Static divergence of self-twisting composite rotors, J Fluids Struct., 26(5), pp. 841-847.

Hara, Y., Yamatogi, T., Murayama, H., Uzawa, K., Kageyama, K., 2011, Performance evaluation of composite marine propeller for a fishing boat by fluid-structure interaction analysis, 18th International Conference on Composite Materials, Jeju Island, Korea, p. 6.

Ahmed, A., 2012, Theoretical and experimental methods on bend-twist coupling and damping properties with the relationship to lay-up of the composite propeller marine: A review, Int J Eng Sci Technol., 4(6), pp. 2907-2917.

Maheri, A., Isikveren, A., 2010, Performance prediction of wind turbines utilising passive smart blades: approaches and evaluation, Wind Energy, 2(3), pp. 255-265.

Cox, K., Echtermeyer, A., 2012, Structural design and analysis of a 10 MW wind turbine blade, Energy Procedia, 24, pp.194-201.

Nicholls-Lee, R., Boyd, S., Turnock, S., 2009, Development of high performance composite bend-twist coupled blades for a horizontal axis tidal turbine, 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, UK, p. 10.

Ciavarella, M., Carbone, G., Vinogradov, V., 2018, A critical assessment of Kassapoglou’s statistical model for composites fatigue, Facta Universitatis-Series Mechanical Engineering, 16(2) , pp. 115 – 126.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.22190/FUME190609001M

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


ISSN: 0354-2025 (Print)

ISSN: 2335-0164 (Online)

COBISS.SR-ID 98732551

ZDB-ID: 2766459-4