AUTOMATIC SHAPE OPTIMISATION OF HYDRO TURBINE COMPONENTS BASED ON CFD

Abstract

Since hydro turbines are designed individually according to the local situation, this requires a huge engineering effort. In order to reduce this effort, automatic optimisation tools are necessary. In this paper the shape optimisation of a turbine draft tube is shown. Different optimisation algorithms have been applied and will be discussed. From the used algorithms, the one based on approximated gradients seems to be the fastest.