Research activities
Research Projects
XFLEX Hydro
XFLEX aims to demonstrate an innovative methodology for system integration of hydroelectric technology solutions, variable speed being a key component and a reference, to provide further enhanced flexibility services assessed by a crosscutting analysis of their impact on both the technology and the market aspects.
HydroLEAP
The HydroLEAP project consortium is uniquely well positioned to provide concise answers to the pressing questions and concrete solutions to the associated technical issues. It is constituted of major stakeholders in the Swiss hydro industry, covering the entire value chain; i.e. public research and development institutions (basic at EPFL and ETHZ, applied at HES-SO), engineering consultants (PVE Sàrl) and power station owners/operators (FMHL, MBR and Hydro Exploitation) from the SME sector, and large utilities (ALPIQ and FMV).
POST – OFEN
The project aims at predicting the stability of hydropower plant by means of the hydroacoustic properties and flow characteristics of the hydraulic system due to cavitation
SPHEROS
SPHEROS is a particle-based code, which stands on SPH and erosion. The code is developed at LMH to simulate free-surface flows in hydraulic machines and specifically silt erosion phenomena occurring in Pelton turbines.
HYPERBOLE
HYPERBOLE the project aims to study the hydraulic, mechanical and electrical dynamics of several hydraulic machines configurations – fresh and seawater turbines, reversible pump-turbines – under an extended range of operations : from overload to deep part load. A two-pronged modelling approach will rely on numerical simulations as well as reduced-scale physical model tests.
RenovHydro
The proposed multi-disciplinary project aims to develop a numerical tool for assessing the true hydropower renovation potential of these hydropower stations by considering both electricity generation increase and services to the grid.