Mechanism of air-trapped vertical vortices in long-corridor-shaped surge tank of hydropower station and their elimination

The air-trapped vertical vortices (ATVVs) are easy to form above the throttled orifices in the widely used long-corridor-shaped surge tanks (LCSSTs), when the tank water level decreases rapidly during hydraulic transients. These ATVVs may jeopardize the operation safety of the hydropower stations and should be avoided. This study elucidates the formation mechanism of the ATVVs and proposes some simple measures to eliminate them. The 3-D CFD model for predicting the ATVVs is validated first by physical model tests in a model tailrace LCSST, and then the formation mechanism is analyzed based on the numerical results. It is shown that the main influence factor for the ATVVs is the critical submergence, which can be reduced by minimizing the velocity circulation around the throttled orifices. Two practical ATVV elimination measures through suppressing the velocity circulation are compared and verified, and the optimized one is recommended.