Litostroj Power's team of researchers and designers and colleagues from our daughter company CKD Blansko Engineering joined 29th IAHR Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems in Kyoto, Japan. This symposium gather scientists and engineers from all over the world to discuss the most recent advances in theoretical, experimental and computational research as well as the latest challenges faced by the industry.
Our R&D team presented articles from different areas. The paper ''Development trends in the field of reversible pump-turbines – Study of pumping and generating mode off-design conditions'' focuses on the pump-turbine hydraulic instabilities that appear under off-design operating conditions. Good knowledge of problematic phenomena is essential for state of the art hydraulic design of pump-turbines with wide operating ranges that enables fast transitions from pumping to generating mode and back.
Next presented paper ''Practical experiences with water hammer control in Slovenian hydropower plants'' focuses on water hammer control for new and refurbished HPPs in Slovenia, with case studies that cover the last two decades of hydropower plant development.
Paper ''Development of wide operating range runner for Francis turbine upgrading'' describes the upgrading procedure of the six units installed at HPP Stejaru in Romania in the sixties of the last century. The power plant is furnished with two identical 55 MW units and four identical 28 MW units, where the scope of the upgrading was same for all units - installing new runner and assembling wicket gate into the existing spiral case and draft tube.
Our R&D department together with Hydraulic Research Center in Blansko proves that we are leading in the innovation and that we know what we are doing.