Faults Caused by Cavitation in Hydraulic Power Plants and Solution Methods

Hydraulic energy is one of the richest and most useful renewable energy sources in the world. For this reason, hydraulic turbines must be operated at optimum efficiency levels against multiple transient situations such as starting and stopping that shorten their useful life and cause fatigue damages in order to generate energy continuously. Pressure variations occur due to flow irregularities in Francis turbines operating at non-optimal partial loads. If the sepressure variations coincide with the natural frequency of a hydraulic, mechanical or structural component, they create high vibrations due to resonance, causing the turbine to operate in an unbalanced (balanced) manner. In this study, the high vibrations of the Francis turbine were monitored with the help of a continuous (online) vibration monitoring system via the cavitation sensor mounted on the turbine adjustment blade and the cavitation vibration effects of the operation in the case of unbalance and the cavitation vibration effect after the imbalance was eliminated. Vibration caused by the cavitation phenomenon in different operating conditions of hydraulic turbines has been shown graphically. In the the graphic given in the last part of the article, it is seen that vibration magnitude is reduced from 2 mm s-1 to 0.5 mm s-1 after the bearing failure is eliminated. This is an important consequence for the hydraulic turbines to be operated in the safe cavitation zone to avoid high vibration levels.