Water Power Laboratory

The Water Power Laboratory consists of various pipe-loops pressurized through centrifugal pu mps. In addition to conventional closed loop test circuits, the laboratory is equipped with an upper free surface reservoir which is unique and gives a great deal of flexibility. Of special test rigs one can mention:

• Test rig for Francis, Kaplan and reversible pu mp turbines (RPT). This rig is in accordance with IEC standards
• Test rig for Pelton turbines.
• Test rig for micro, mini and s mall turbines.

Research at the laboratory is mainly connected to student projects for Master and PhD degrees, such as:

• Design of machinery and co mponents and verification by help of numerical tools such as CFD and FEM analysis.
• Evaluation of technology and develop ment of theory for existing and new co mponents in hydraulic syste ms.
• Calculation of stability and safety margins within waterways (pipes-network) and preparations for measure ments, procedures and analysis of hydraulic syste ms.
• Testing of materials with regards to cavitation-erosion and assess ment of materials with regards to fatigue in co mbination with flow induced structural vibrations.
• Testing of model turbines.

 

The Oil Hydraulic and Pneumatic Laboratory is equipped with several rigs and test facilities for doing research within the technological field of power transmission using hydrostatic machines and systems:

• advanced test rig with computer control and data acquisition for studying design aspects of hydrostatic motors
• test rigs for basic research in dynamics and control of components and systems
• advanced equipment for research and studies of contamination control, especially particle contami­nation and wear debris analysis
• general test instruments for developing measurement methods within pneumatics and hydraulics

The measurements from the laboratory have formed the scientific base for verification of developed mathematical models incorporated in our own system and component model library. There are three different power packs of large, medium and small capacity, two of them are mobile.