Dynamic stresses in high-head Francis turbines

As a result of stresses induced by rotor-stator interaction, a number of high head Francis turbines have failed in the past 15 years. This paper uses the methods described by Seidel et al. [20121] and Monette et al. [20142] to calculate the dynamic stresses and pressures of three different high head Francis turbines, and compares the results with prototype measurements. The goal of these numerical calculations is to provide a quick and accurate method for prediction of the dynamic stresses caused by RSI in high head Francis turbines.