Linear Stability and Structural Sensitivity of a Swirling Jet in a Francis Turbine Draft Tube

TL;DR

This study investigates the stability and sensitivity of a swirling jet in a Francis turbine draft tube using linear stability analysis and turbulence modeling, revealing key factors influencing flow unsteadiness and potential control strategies.

Contribution

It introduces an adjoint-based sensitivity analysis incorporating turbulent viscosity effects, providing new insights into flow instability mechanisms in hydraulic turbines.

Findings

Partial load is the most unstable operating regime.

Axial velocity modifications mainly affect growth rates.

Spatial variations of eddy viscosity are crucial for accurate predictions.

Abstract

Motivated by the need to better understand flow unsteadiness in hydraulic turbines, we perform a local linear stability and adjoint-based sensitivity analysis of the turbulent swirling jet at the outlet of a Francis turbine. We use measured mean flow and turbulence profiles at several operating conditions (below, at, and above the best efficiency point (BEP) flow rate) and perform a stability analysis. Incorporating eddy viscosity $\nu_t$ into the analysis strongly damps inviscid growth rates and restricts instability to low azimuthal modes $m\in [-1,2]$, in better agreement with experiments. Three turbulent viscosity closures (constant, mixing-length and measured $k-\varepsilon$ based) yield similar spectra, with close agreement between mixing length and measured models, all identify partial load (0.92 BEP) as the most unstable regime. Sensitivity results show that axial velocity modifications primarily control growth rates, whereas azimuthal velocity changes mainly shift frequencies. We also derive the sensitivity kernel of the spectrum to turbulent viscosity modifications and find that spatial variations of eddy viscosity are essential for predicting the unstable mode range. The predictions accurately estimate stability changes for small variations in operating point. We further analyze the flow using classical inviscid swirling jet instability criteria (the generalized Rayleigh discriminant) and WKB analysis to predict the stability to broader operating points and reconcile these results to the stability and sensitivity analyses. The approach used in this study is fast and simple to model, but it neglects draft tube geometry (non-parallel effects), motivating future global stability and sensitivity analyses.