Advanced Optimization Tools for Hydro Turbine Runner Design

The objective of this work is to show how advanced optimization tools can be used for hydraulic turbine design, taking the example of a Francis runner design (new or refurbishment project). The public test case considered corresponds to a RD including Leave-One-Out (LOO), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), with the objective of facilitating surrogate reliability assessment and a comprehensive understanding of key factors of the problem studied. This methodology is tested iteratively with the Francis Runner Hydraulic design: a first optimization is run, analysed and used to define a second optimization that shows increased benefits in particular for Best Efficiency Point. The results are analysed from a hydraulic point of view to identify the benefits and effects of the last optimization.