Author(s): Sebastien Alligne; Antoine Beguin; Roland Jester-Zuerker; Jean Decaix; Cecile Munch; Christophe Nicolet

Linked Author(s): Christophe Nicolet

Keywords: FMI co-simulation; SIMSEN; Ansys CFX; Hydroelectric power plants; Pressure wave propagation; Mass oscillation

Abstract: Hydraulic systems can be subjected to excitations induced by complex flow structure developed in any system's component. The interaction between the hydraulic system and the excitation source can be predicted by performing a co-simulation between two independent simulation codes. One is resolving the fluid pipe system with a one-dimensional compressible code whereas the other one computes the three-dimensional flow in a given hydraulic system's component which is the source of excitation. In the field of hydroelectric power plants, the one-dimensional SIMSEN software is widely used to compute transient dynamic response of the hydraulic system. The need to couple this tool with a 3D finite volume method of computational fluid dynamics is growing. The aim is to predict resonance or instability phenomena between hydraulic machines and piping systems. To reach this purpose, the FMI co-simulation feature has been implemented in SIMSEN as a part of the FMI library which is considered as a standard communication protocol between two simulation codes solving a set of ordinary differential equations. This protocol has been used to couple SIMSEN software with the Ansys CFX solution. The implementation has been validated with simulations of two test cases involving different physics of interest occurring in hydroelectric power plants: the pressure wave propagation in the piping system and the mass oscillation phenomenon in a surge tank.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1483/1/012035

Year: 2023