Unstable Operation of Francis Pump-Turbine at runaway: Rigid and Elastic Water Column Oscillation Modes

This paper presents a numerical simulation study of the transient behavior of a 2x340MW pump-turbine power plant, where the results show an unstable behavior at runaway. First, the modeling of hydraulic components based on equivalent schemes is presented. Then, the 2 pump-turbine test case is presented. The transient behavior of the power plant is simulated for a case of emergency shutdown with servomotor failure on Unit 1. Unstable operation at runaway with a period of 15 seconds is properly simulated using a 1-dimensional approach. The simulation results points out a switch after 200 seconds of the unstable behavior between a period of oscillations initially of 15 seconds to a period of oscillation of 2.16 seconds corresponding to the hydraulic circuit first natural period. The pressure fluctuations related to both the rigid and elastic water column mode are presented for oscillation mode characterization. This phenomenon is described as a switch between a rigid and an elastic water column oscillation mode. The influence of the rotating inertia on the switch phenomenon is investigated through a parametric study.