Journal of Northeastern University Natural Science ›› 2018, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (6): 839-843.DOI: 10.12068/j.issn.1005-3026.2018.06.016

• Mechanical Engineering • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Optimization Method for the Runner Crown Shape of a Low Specific Speed Francis Turbine

WEN Zhe-nan, ZHANG Ying-li, BA De-chun, YUE Xiang-ji   

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering & Automation,Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
  • Received:2017-01-26 Revised:2017-01-26 Online:2018-06-15 Published:2018-06-22
  • Contact: BA De-chun
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Abstract: The turbine efficiency was aimed to be improved through the optimization design of the runner crown shape in the Francis turbine. Based on ISIGHT software platform, a method which combined GAMBIT with ANSYS FLUENT16.0 software was presented. In this method, 80 sets of the sample points were generated using the optimal Latin hypercube (OLH) of the experiment design, whose performances were evaluated through ANSYS FLUENT16.0 software. The turbine efficiency in the design condition was used as the objective function, the approximate model was used based on the response surface method (RSM), and the optimization result was finally obtained using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The proposed method was applied for the optimization design of the runner crown shape of a model Francis turbine. The results indicated that the hydraulic efficiency of the Francis turbine increased by 0.35% through the optimization process. This method provided a reasonable and effective approach to the optimization design of the runner crown of Francis turbine.

Key words: Francis turbine, runner crown, numerical simulation, particle swarm optimization algorithm, computational fluid mechanics

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