Assessment of head loss coefficients for water turbine intake trash-racks by numerical modeling

In this work, numerical simulations of fluid flow around trash-rack for different bar cross sections are conducted to investigate cross section influence on head losses. Comparison with experimental data is conducted to validate the usage of numerical simulations which enable investigation of great number of trash-rack configurations. In previous experimental studies researchers mostly focused on trash-rack parameters (bar spacing, bar length, inclinations etc.) where bar cross section was mainly rectangular or streamlined shape. Therefore, 2D simulations for different cross sections are carried out for a range of trash-rack configurations in order to provide better insight how it affects energy losses. It is shown that head loss reduction due to change in cross section is greatly dependent on trash-rack configuration, therefore optimization of simplified real water turbine trash-rack is also conducted to produce the cross section that generates smallest head losses for given configuration.