A new universal test rig has been installed in the hydraulic laboratory to assess the hydraulic performances of different types of small-power axial and radial-axial turbines and/or pumps (less than 15 kW), valves as well as other components of hydraulic systems, following the IEC* standard recommendations. Built on two floors of the hydraulic laboratory, the closed-loop circuit is supplied by three recirculating multistage centrifugal pumps (with variable speed and a power of 5.5 kW each) connected in parallel. The three pumps can deliver a maximum discharge of 45 m3/h and a maximum pressure of 160 mWC. The pressurized reservoir placed downstream the test section allows simulating different implantation levels of the model and therefore recovering the cavitation performances as well.

The operation of the test rig is controlled with an automatic regulation system through a customized LabVIEW® interface that allows for real-time measurement and display values of pumps speed, flow discharge, testing head, water temperature and Thoma number. The full capabilities of a National Instruments cRIO 9074 are used to run an autonomous regulation system based on real-time measurements in order to keep constant the value of the desired parameters (e.g. testing head, discharge, pumps speed, Thoma number, et al.). The communication between the hydraulic test rig and further measurements/monitoring systems (e.g. testing model control system) is based on a wireless architecture. In addition, the test rig control system manages a dedicated cloud of variables and makes them available for client systems, and ensures safe data centralization and storage on model testing.

* International Electrotechnical Committee, 1999, “Hydraulic Turbines, Storage Pumps and Pump-Turbines – Model Acceptance Tests”, International Standard IEC 60193, 2nd Edition
 

Contact

Vlad Hasmatuchi, vlad.hasmatuchi@hevs.ch