Design and development of guide vane cascade for a low speed number Francis turbine

Guide vane cascade of a low speed number Francis turbine is developed for the experimental investigations. The test setup is able to produce similar velocity distributions at the runner inlet as that of a reference prototype turbine. Standard analytical methods are used to design the reference turbine. Periodic walls of flow channel between guide vanes are identified as the starting profile for the boundary of the cascade. Two alternative designs with three guide vanes and two guide vanes, without runner, are studied. A new approach, for the hydraulic design and optimization of the cascade test setup layout, is proposed and investigated in details. CFD based optimization methods are used to define the final layout of the test setup. The optimum design is developed as a test setup and experimental validation is done with PIV methods. The optimized design of cascade with one guide vane between two flow channels is found to produce similar flow conditions to that in the runner inlet of a low speed number Francis turbine.