Abstract:
Hydro Power Plants and Power Plants in general, consist of various components
that are controlled by various control systems. These systems are subjected, from time
to time, to some changes in the operational conditions and improvement processes;
hence some modifications in the parameters of these systems may be needed in order
to adapt to the new environment. Modeling and simulation of these systems is a good
choice to test these modifications in the systems parameters. Simulation is less time
and effort consuming and cheaper compared with experimental testing and
prototyping.
The aim of this thesis is to develop a physical model for the hydraulic control system
of power intake gates, which is a major component in a hydropower plant, in Rosiers
Hydropower Plant. The hydraulic control system components are modeled and
analyzed using the physical modeling toolboxes inside the commercially available
simulation software, MATLAB/Simulink. In order to verify the developed model,
system variables such as raising and lowering time, position of power intake gate and
oil pressure are measured on the real system and then compared with the simulation
results. Also a graphical user interface was developed to ease interacting with the
model and displaying the simulation results.
Simulation results showed very good agreement with the measurements. Furthermore,
by the help of Graphical User Interface, effect of varying intake gate weight on raising
and lowering time is investigated and analyzed.
The developed model can be used as based model to which a mechanical model of the
power intake gate and physical model of electrical components such as motors can be
integrated for deeper investigation behind the hydraulic system model. In addition, if a
modification in the existing system is to be made, the effect can be tested over the
model in advance.