High amplitude of pressure fluctuation is observed in a draft tube, for the case of partial load operation. Several methods had been reported to decrease the amplitude so far, such as, air or water injection to the draft tube, fins on the draft tube surface, or runner replacement with optimized velocity profile at runner exit. However, several problems for each method can be considered, such as, negative influence on efficiency, high cost, technical difficulties for installation, and so on. To solve these problems and satisfy the demand for decreasing the amplitude of pressure fluctuation simultaneously, a new runner cone with grooves on the surface was developed. As for the case with reversible pump turbine, grooved runner cone was developed with unsteady draft tube calculation based on Design of Experiment (DOE) method, and confirmed by model tests. Finally, developed runner cone was installed to the prototype pump turbine, and predicted performance was confirmed by on-site tests. Using this result, development of a new runner cone for hydraulic turbine had been started. For this case, meridian shape of the runner cone was also selected as a design parameter. Finally, we obtained the optimized shape, “diverged runner cone with spiral groove”, and the performance is confirmed by the model test. In this paper, details of development, especially for the case of hydraulic turbine and considerations of the mechanism are treated.

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