Research & Initiatives

HWPL is equipped with the following facilities!

Wind Tunnel

Applications of wind tunnel research range from routine testing of airframes to fundamental research on the boundary layer, a slow-moving layer of air adjacent to any wind-exposed body surface. Measurements of air pressure and other characteristics at many points on the model yield information about how the total wind load is distributed.

Slurry Pot Tester

The Slurry Erosion Tester consists of a Stainless Steel Pot of 16 litres fixed on a Mild Steel frame. The pot is closed by using a detachable acrylic lid on the top. Inside this pot are two rotating elements: the “Sample Fixture” which is connected by the top rotating shaft, and the second is a stirrer, which is connected by the bottom shaft. The stirrer at the bottom rotates at a very low RPM to ensure the uniform suspension of sand particles inside the whole slurry pot.

The top shaft and bottom shaft are rotated with the help of a 2HP motor and 1.5 HP motor respectively fixed on the Mild Steel frame. There are two Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) mounted on a side panel fixed at the MS frame. The VFDs are used to control the rotation of both motors 2HP and 1.5 HP. A water jacket is also provided around the pot to maintain the temperature inside the pot. Samples of multiple shapes i.e. rectangular, square, cylindrical and air foil, etc. can be mounted on the Sample Fixture at various impact angles ranging between 00-900. For each experiment, a volume of water is filled inside the pot, and the sand is poured into it to get the required slurry concentration. A total of 7 Samples (4 Rectangular/ air foil & 3 cylindrical) can be rotated inside the pot in a single experiment.

Protective Coatings to minimize the erosive wear

The coating powder (Co-NiCrAlY reinforced with alumina) has been deposited on hydraulic turbine steel using High Velocity Oxy-Fuel (HVOF) technique.

Computational Space

HWPL is equipped with sufficient computational facilities for performing simulations for complex geometries/cases of hydro and wind power domain. Such facilities involved HPC Cluster, workstations and are about to be extended up to 200 core.

Cavitation Tunnel (Upcoming)

The tunnel will be used for the investigation of cavitation over a hydrofoil, and these investigations will help us to understand the cavitation phenomenon in the Francis turbine runner and guide vane. This is the first objective for the tunnel, but it will be designed in such a way that further small-model testing will be possible in the future using this facility. High precision sensors and high-resolution camera are the added features that will help in close monitoring of cavitating flow.

Erosion Test Rig (Upcoming)

Erosion in the components of hydraulic turbines occurs due to the impact of hard particles flowing along with the water i.e. sediment erosion. This leads to material loss and a substantial reduction in the efficiency of the plant during operation. An experimental facility with a guide vane cascade passage, consisting of 3-5 guide vanes that give almost similar flow conditions as in the spiral casing of the Francis turbine has to be designed and developed. Optimization of the test facility is being carried out using numerical investigations. Erosion wear characteristics of components of the hydraulic turbine under the impact of sediment erosion have to be investigated. Further, some erosion resistive techniques will be developed to minimize the wear in components of the hydraulic turbine.