Author: ttladmin

Publication of the proceedings of IAHR-Asia 2021

The news about the event can be read in this link

The selected papers are now published in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environment Science Volume 1037.

There are 65 published papers in total divided in 5 themes: Hydraulic turbines and design optimization, Sediment erosion and cavitation, Pump and pump turbines, Computational and experimental techniques and Sustainable energy and integrated systems.

Workshop on Francis turbines and Centrifugal pumps on April 28, 2022

A one-day workshop on Francis turbines and Centrifugal pumps was conducted on April 28, 2022 at Himalaya Hotel, Kathmandu. The workshop was aimed to share the experiences of design, manufacturing, installation and testing works related to Francis turbines and pumps by Turbine Testing Lab through EnergizeNepal and HydroCen (FranSed) projects.


The workshop was attended by various industries of Nepal associated with hydropower. In the workshop, a Francis turbine design tool, Design Resource In Francis Turbine (TTL-DRIFT v1.0) developed by TTL was released as an open source design tool for the participants. The tool is expected to support industries for carrying out the design, fabrication, repair/maintenance and cost estimation of Francis turbines.


In the workshop, Professor Bhola Thapa, Vice Chancellor of Kathmandu University shared his remarks on the history of turbine design works at TTL. Similarly, Professor Manish Pokharel, Dean of School of Engineering, KU and Professor Hari Prasad Neopane delivered remarks on the need of academic-industrial collaboration and the various projects being carried out at KU to fulfill these collaborations. Mr. Pratik Man Singh Pradhan, Vice President of Butwal Power Company Ltd. also shared his experiences about sedimentation issues and sediment erosion in turbines during the inaugural session. Dr. Sailesh Chitrakar, Faculty-In-Charge of TTL delivered a presentation on the ongoing activities of TTL in the sector of Francis turbines and pumps. Mr. Amul Ghimire, Mr. Dadiram Dahal and Mr. Nischal Pokharel, who are involved in various research works related to Francis turbines at TTL shared their Master’s works and use of TTL-DRIFT for the turbine design.


Several comments were received in the table and open discussion sessions, majorly from the industrial sector. Mr. Dewan Singh Thapa from Thapa Engineering Pvt. Ltd. shared his experiences of manufacturing Francis turbines and obstacles associated with that. Mr. Surendra Bhakta Mathema from Power tech Pvt. Ltd. spoke about the significance of the design tool for industries. Some other comments received from the discussion are listed below:
• The complications related to design and manufacturing of Francis turbines were identified as the main hurdle for the industries of Nepal. Whereas Pelton and cross-flow turbines are already developed for micro-hydro power plants, a plenty of technical challenges is ceasing the development of Francis turbines.
• The design tool (TTL-DRIFT) may also incorporate other components of the turbine, such as guide vanes, stay vanes, shafts, spiral casing, draft tube etc. These components could be included in the future versions of the tool.
• There are still some trust issues for the developers and policy makers in Nepal for awarding any manufacturing works to Nepalese industries.
• For manufacturing of the large scale turbines, a huge investment might be needed in the equipment. However, there could also be some scope for refurbishment of the existing micro hydropower plants if appropriate policies related to grid synchronization are developed. The role of NEA and AEPC could be crucial in those cases.
• Some of the other developments, such as valves, pipes, etc. might be more feasible for the industries of Nepal to start with. Academic-Industry collaboration in those sectors may be fruitful in the coming days.

IAHR-Asia 2021 conference on Nov 22-23

Turbine Testing Lab, Kathmandu University has successfully hosted IAHR-Asia 2021, the third International Symposium on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems from November 22-23 in a hybrid mode. The conference was chaired by the Vice Chancellor of the university Prof. Dr. Bhola Thapa.

Seventy full papers were presented in two days of the conference whereas four invited and four featured presentations were also given by eminent personalities of the field. Presentations were broadcasted both in a physical mode and virtual mode in four group of sessions, each group consisting four parallel sub-sessions.During the opening ceremony of the conference, the 10th anniversary of Turbine Testing Lab was also celebrated releasing its 10th anniversary issue in the physical presence of Prof. Bhola Thapa, VC of the university; Prof. Dr. Subodh Sharma, Registrar of the university, and Prof. Ole Gunnar Dahlhaug and Prof. Petter Stoa from Norwegian University of Science and Technology and SINTEF respectively. Prof. Francois Avellan from Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne; Prof. Young-Ho Lee from Korea Maritime and Ocean University, Prof. Zhengwei Wang from Tsinghua University, and Prof. Chisachi Kato from The University of Tokyo provided the keynote speech through online mode.

The IAHR consists of 3 academic sessions covering its 16 technical committees, the IAHR-AWG (Asia Working Group) belongs to the Hydraulics Committee (IAHR Hydraulics), one of the 6 Water Conservancy Machinery Committees, and the Systems Committee (Committee on Hydraulic Machinery and Systems). The international conference, held every two years, has the utmost influence in the field of hydraulic machinery.

Application call for Internships at Turbine Testing Laboratory (TTL)

TTL invites interested candidates from all the 4th year undergraduate students of Department of Mechanical Engineering for the following internship positions.

  • Number of available positions : 7
  • Duration                                  : Three months
  • Location                                  : Turbine Testing Lab, KU
  • Topics:
    • Performance investigation of Pump as Turbine (1)
    • Experiments in Rotating Disc Apparatus and development of erosion model (1)
    • Experiments of erosion in cross-flow turbines (2)
    • Performance up-scaling of locally manufactured Turgo turbines (1)
    • Case study of erosion in a Pelton turbine (1)
    • Energy modeling (Current energy trend in Nepal, future prospects and possible scenarios) (1)

Application procedure:

Candidates have to email following documents (as a single pdf file) in the name of Faculty-in-Charge of TTL at ttl@ku.edu.np  within 15/09/2021.

  1. Cover Letter
  2. CV
  3. Research statement mentioning interest in preferred title
  4. Relevant academic and experience certificates
  5. Recommendation letter from the internship coordinator at DoME

Only shortlisted candidates will be called for interview.

Download Full Notice (Here)

Release of the International Symposium, CRHT-X, by web-based methods

The 10th series of the annual event of the Turbine Testing Lab at KU, “Current Research in Hydropower Technologies, CRHT-X” has been organized by web-based methods. 

This event which was scheduled on 31 March 2020 was postponed due to COVID-19. After investigation and discussions on the several available options, the Web Release of CRHT-X page with all the presentation was selected. As KU has decided to resume all the possible activities through online methods, this was the best option. 

The complete web program can be found in the following link:

Current Research in Hydropower Technologies, CRHT-X

There are 36 video presentations in the web-based mode for this event including 30 technical presentations and the welcome speech from the VC. The release event, together all the video presentations can be found in the following link. After a peer review process, the selected papers are provisioned to be published in IOP Journal of Physics: Conference Series.

A video conference was organized on 28th April to mark the release of this web page. The event was attended by the KU officials, International participants from 5 different countries, keynote speakers, authors of papers, journalists, and general audience. 

This is one of its kind activities for KU and Nepal. The experiences of successful completion of this event have added motivation and confidence to move towards online leaching learning methods at KU.