Karim Khalfaoui (IHS - University of Stuttgart) publishes paper in collaboration with CDIF

CDIF has collaborated with researcher Karim Khalfaoui from the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machinery University of Stuttgart (Germany) in the publication of his paper "On the numerical prediction of added damping and added mass of vibrating disc-like structures in heavy fluids".

Predicting damping in pump-turbines and high-head Francis turbines is fundamental to assess the unit’s behaviour in potential resonance conditions, as well as to properly assess fatigue. In this work, Khalfaoui uses advanced numerical simulation methods to couple the deformation of the structure with the surrounding fluid in order to predict its damping, which is a challenging factor in research.

He also numerically assesses and demonstrates the experimental results from Greco Moraga’s work in the same Journal, “Experimental study on the influence of vibration amplitude on the fluid damping of a submerged disk”. It also contributes to a better understanding of the structural behaviour of hydraulic turbines—the key component in hydropower units.

We congratulate Karim Khalfaoui for his work and look forward to further collaboration.

The paper can be openly accessed here.