Electromagnetic flowmeter for transient measurements in hydraulic turbines at model scale

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This proposal aims to update the flowmeter of our hydraulic turbine test stand to perform time-resolved discharge measurements in hydraulic turbine models during transient operations. The Hydraulic Machines Laboratory (LAMH) test stand in Université Laval is currently the only hydraulic turbine test stand operating in Canada and respecting the International Electrotechnical Commission standards. However, our current flowmeter has an acquisition frequency of about 0.5 Hz, which is unsuited for evaluating the discharge in transient conditions, such as start-up and load rejections, occurring over 1 to 10 seconds. We thus propose to replace it with an Endress+Hauser Promag 55S4H, DN400 electromagnetic flowmeter. This flowmeter is a high-precision drop-in replacement with an acquisition frequency of up to 100 Hz, tailored to our needs. The LAMH research program aims at increasing the operational flexibility and service life of hydraulic turbines to, among other things, facilitate the integration of intermittent renewable energy on electrical grids. This new flowmeter will enable the LAMH to complete research projects investigating fluid-structure interactions in transient regimes such as start-up and load rejections. It will provide the necessary data to complete the Tr-FRANCIS project in the short term. Tr-FRANCIS is a six-year project supported by NSERC (CRD grant), the InnovÉE grant agency, five industrial partners and three energy suppliers. It involves five professors, three research associates, twenty graduate students (two postdocs, four Ph.D., fourteen M.Sc.) and many undergraduate interns. At the core of Tr-FRANCIS are velocity, pressure, strain and vibration measurements performed on a turbine model hydrodynamically and structurally homologous to a turbine operated by Hydro-Québec. This new flowmeter will add important information to identify correlations between flow and structural phenomena identified at different locations in the turbine during start-ups. It will also provide data for numerical simulations and the development of Reduced Order Models.