The present invention belongs to the technical field of fluid machinery, and proposes a rotating guide vane module for hydraulic working condition adjustment and a method of assembling in a turbopump. The rotating guide vane module comprises a rotating guide vane back cover plate, a rotating guide vane front cover plate, a rotating guide vane drive gear, and rotating guide vanes. Each rotating guide vane is an integrally-formed independent component and comprises a rotating guide vane back seat, a blade, a rotating guide vane front seat, and a shaft. When the rotating guide vane module for hydraulic working condition adjustment of the present invention is used for adjusting the hydraulic working condition, a center gear rotates to drive the rotating guide vane drive gear, and then the rotating guide vanes rotate to change their opening degrees.

A wicket gate for a hydraulic turbine or pump contains a blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge, a first trunnion, a second trunnion, an air inlet aperture, an air passage and at least one air outlet aperture. The profile of the suctions side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. Whereas point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an air outlet aperture is located and point P2 is spaced apart from point P1 by less than 10% of the wicket gate length D and point P2 is located upstream of point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at point P1.

The present invention generally relates to hydraulic machinery, such as hydraulic turbines. More specifically, the invention is directed to optimizing power consumption when the turbine is used in condenser mode. The present invention provides a novel hydraulic installation where the reduction of pressure in the spiral case during condenser mode operations is more efficient, limiting the power consumption if compared to state-of-the-art installations.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, a guide vane of a water turbine rotatable about an axis, including a guide vane for directing supplied flowing water toward the downstream side. The guide vane has a downstream end edge having an upper end portion and a lower end portion. The lower end portion of the downstream end edge is displaced in the direction orthogonal to an axis with respect to the upper end portion of the downstream end edge when viewed from the downstream side.

A runner for a hydraulic turbine or pump includes a plurality of blades, each blade being defined by a pressure surface, an oppositely facing suction surface, a leading edge and a spaced apart trailing edge. At least one blade has a device for supplying a flow of oxygen containing gas to the trailing edge of at least one of the blades. The profile of the suction side surface of the blade along a cross section through a point P1 and a point P2 is concave. The point P1 is located on the suction side surface of the trailing edge where an opening is located, the point P2 is spaced apart from the point P1 by less than 3% of the runner outlet diameter D and the point P2 is located upstream of the point P1 on a line perpendicular to the trailing edge starting at the point P1.

The present invention relates to a method for optimizing the adjustment of the gating of a hydraulic turbine (1), the turbine (1) is provided with a set of wicket gates (2), wicket gates (2) are moving with a single, conjoined movement between a closing position in which they press against one another and an opening position in which they are apart from one another, by a control ring (4) that is kinematically connected to each one of these wicket gates (2), this control ring (4) being moved in rotation by at least one actuator (3), this actuator (3) including a device (31) for adjusting the travel of its rod (30), the method includes at least the following steps, the turbine (1) is previously stopped and dry and the rod (30) of the actuator (3) is provided with at least one strain gauge: 1) calculating the theoretical force to be applied to the actuator (3) in order to obtain watertight closure of the wicket gates (2); 2) measuring, via the strain gauge, the force applied to the actuator (3), the latter being inoperative; 3) after bringing the actuator (3) online, moving its rod (30) until the wicket gates (2) adopt the closing position and measuring the corresponding force, referred to as the measured force; 4) comparing the measured force with the theoretical force calculated in step 1.

The invention concerns a method for starting a hydroelectric turbine (10) provided with a runner (6) mechanically coupled to a shaft line (8), a distributor (4) comprising leak tight guide vanes to control a flow of water to said runner, a spiral case (12) for supplying water to said runner, said spiral case comprising a duct connected to a main inlet valve (14), the method comprising: a) a step of balancing pressures on both sides of said main inlet valve (14), and of at least partially opening said main inlet valve (14), while the leak-tight guide vanes of the distributor (4) are closed, water pressurized at an upstream level being present in said spiral case and at said distributor (4); b) then a step of opening the leak-tight guide vanes of the distributor (4).

A system and method for electrically controlling a submersible hydro-electric production system for avoiding leakage of oil and contaminants used in the existing hydraulic systems. The system comprises one or more submersible electrical actuators operably connected to a gate operating ring which in turn is connected to a plurality of wicket gates in the turbine. Each submersible electrical actuator comprises an electrical motor connected to a push-pull rod which is configured to transform the rotation movement received at a first end thereof to a linear movement at a telescoping end opposite the first end for rotating the gate operating ring to a desired position. The electrical actuator includes a waterproof structure which houses the electrical motor and the push-pull rod and at the same time allows for a telescoping movement of the push-pull rod for rotating the gate operating ring.

System and method for controlling operation of a hydroelectric production system comprising electrical actuators operably connected at opposite positions of a gate operating ring for rotating the wicket gates to a desired position. The system receives a single control signal designed for a hydraulic system comprising hydraulic actuators operably connected to a single fluid reservoir and configured to work in tandem to produce simultaneous and opposite axial movements. The system comprises a control interface adapted to produce new control signals, each new signal being intended to a different electrical actuator to cause the electrical actuators to have axial movements which are identical in speed and in opposite directions to substantially imitate the exact movement of the hydraulic actuators onto the gate operating ring. The system is configured to introduce a dampening effect to reduce sudden acceleration and deceleration which is purposely used in hydraulic systems to overcome friction and static effects.

This method allows determining the operating point of a hydraulic machine in a considered operating range, such as turbine mode, and comprises steps that consist in a) determining two coordinates (N11, T11) of a first series of potential operating points of the hydraulic machine for the orientation affected to guide vanes of the machine, b) measuring the rotation speed of the machine, and c) determining the torque exerted by water flow on the machine. The method further includes steps consisting in d) calculating two coordinates (N11, T11) of a second series of potential operating points of the machine in function of the rotation speed (N) measured at step b) and the torque determined at step c), and e) deducing the two coordinates (N11_real, T11_real) of operating point that belongs both to the first and the second series in the said considered operating range of the machine.