Hydrocen - FranSed - News and Publications
“Condition Monitoring of hydraulic turbines exposed to sediment erosion”- Prajwal Sapkota, PhD candidate, Turbine Testing Lab (TTL), Kathmandu University
Prajwal Sapkota is a PhD candidate at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Kathmandu University (KU), Nepal. He is writing his PhD thesis on a project within HydroCen (Norwegian Research Centre for Hydropower Technology): FranSed (Francis Turbine for Sediment Laden Waters) at Turbine Testing Lab of KU. KU is one of the three partners of FranSed project.
“I joined team FranSed in January 2019 as a researcher and almost after a year in December 2019, I defended my PhD proposal on "Condition Monitoring of hydraulic turbines exposed to sediment erosion" before the Research Committee of School of Engineering, Kathmandu University”, says Sapkota.
Follow the link for full interview: Condition Monitoring of hydraulic turbines exposed to sediment erosion
Rector of NTNU, Gunnar Bovim in Nepal
Norway and Nepal have shared a mutual relationship since many years. Norway has been providing cooperation in terms of knowledge, financial aid and technology to Nepal. Rector of NTNU, Gunnar Bovim visited Nepal on May 2019 together with a delegation from NTNU. In his oration, he has mentioned cooperation in the following sectors between NTNU and Nepal:
- Renewable energy
- Health
- Geology
- Biology
- Social sciences
- Architecture, design and urban development
- Sustainale development
Still wondering what FranSed is??
Hear it from Principal Investigator himself:
This video is from Facebook page of Turbine Testing Lab.
Prof Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug gave this presentation during his recent visit to Nepal on May 2019.
Students from NTNU visited TTL at KU
Ten master students (including one research assistant) from Waterpower laboratory at NTNU attended the symposium as a part of their excursion. Two students presented their papers regarding variable speed operation and sediment erosion which are relevant topic to FranSed. The students also visited the turbine testing lab at KU. Model testing of Francis turbine designed under FranSed project will be tested there as a part of WP 4.
Kick off of FranSed
FranSed Project was successfully kicked off at Hydraulic Turbine Lab, AHEC, IIT Roorkee, India on 8th October, 2018. Project members from NTNU and KU travelled to IIT Roorkee where project members at IIT Roorkee welcomed them.
Bhilangana Power Plant, India. Photo : Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug
Research scholar in team FranSed from IIT Roorkee
Shubham Sharma is one of the team members of FranSed project. He is a research scholar at IIT Roorkee, India and is directly involved with the research activities of WP 3 i.e. development of a sediment erosion model for the Francis turbine.
Shubham Sharma, Research scholar at IIT Roorkee, India
New recruitment in FranSed project team
Two new researchers have joined team FranSed.
Rabina Awal is involved in Work Package 1.
Prajwol Sapkota has recently joined the FranSed project. He is involved in Work Package 4. 
Team FranSed welcomes them and is looking forward to work together for achieving the objective of the project.
Meeting of project coordinators from KU and NTNU
Sailesh Chitrakar and Shreejana Poudyal, project coordinators of FranSed from KU and NTNU respectively had a fruitful meeting at Kathmandu regarding progress of the project and upcoming deliverables.
From Left: Sailesh Chitrakar, Shreejana Poudyal