Analysis of Sediment Erosion in Pelton Nozzles and Needles Affected by Particle Size

The sediment erosion of Pelton turbine components is a major challenge in the operation and development of high-head water resources, especially in mountainous areas with high sediment yield. In this paper, a study using numerical simulation was conducted with different sediment particle sizes in the fine sand range. And the erosion mechanism of the Pelton turbine injector was analyzed. The Eulerian Lagrange method was adopted to simulate the gas-liquid-solid flow. The Mansouri's model was applied to estimate the injector erosion. The predicted erosion results were in accord with field erosion photographs. In particular, the asymmetrical erosion distribution on the needle surface was physically reproduced. With the sediment particle size increasing from 0.05 mm, the needle erosion rate decreased, while the nozzle casing erosion rate increased dramatically. In order to clarify this tendency, the characteristics of the three-phase flow were analyzed. Interestingly, the results show that with the rise in particle size, the separation of particles and water streamlines became more serious in the contraction section of the nozzle mouth. Consequently, it caused the enhancement of erosion of the nozzle surfaces and weakened the erosion of the needle surfaces. Significant engineering insights may be provided for weakening Pelton injector erosion with needle guides in the current study.