Imbalances and prevention methods in hydraulic power plants

Vibration is of great importance in hydroelectric power plants as in all rotary machines. It is very difficult to predict which part of the malfunction will occur in a machine operating outside of normal vibration values. In addition, the malfunctions that occur may cause great damage to the units of hydroelectric power plants and prevent energy production for a long time. Therefore, it is vital for the machine to monitor the vibration intensity in the turbine-generator units and to take measures by determining the source of the vibration that occurs. In this study, the causes of vibration formation in hydroelectric power plants were investigated. It has been stated that vibration mainly consists of three imbalances. These are dynamic, hydraulic and magnetic imbalances. The damage caused by these imbalances to the hydroelectric power plants was examined and explained how to take action. Within the scope of this thesis, the types of vibration-related problems that may occur due to the operation of Francis turbines of Keban HEPP, which continue to produce electricity by working actively at partial loads outside of design, and the solution methods of these problems are explained. Keban HEPP units were compared with mathematical modeling by proving the improvement of the working data of the turbine before and after the failure recovery determined by the online monitoring system.