Optimization methodology assessment for the inlet velocity profile of a hydraulic turbine draft tube: part I—computer optimization techniques

In recent years, numerical and experimental investigations on the draft tube performance have confirmed the importance of the inlet swirling flow created by the runner vanes. The results indicate that it is still a challenge to get the optimal flow distribution at the draft tube inlet which gives the best machine performance over a range of operation points. Consequently, there is a need to adjust the runner-draft tube coupling to minimize the losses arising from the inlet flow distribution. This paper focus on establishing an optimization methodology for maximizing the draft tube performance as a function of the inlet velocity profile. The overall work is divides into two parts: The part one establish the inlet velocity parametrization, the numerical optimization set-up and the objective function definition. The part two validate the numerical CFD draft tube model. These steps are represented by the coupling of the commercial softwares MATLAB, FLUENT and iSIGHT. It is considered that this proved methodology will help to find a inlet velocity profile shape which will be able to suppress or mitigate the undesirable draft tube flow characteristics. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2013