Computational fluid dynamics aided design and optimization of hydro turbine runner

Francis type turbines are commonly used turbines within the other contemporary turbine types with their wide range of flow rate and head values. Francis type turbines are composed of five different components and they generate their energy with the help of runner and runner connected generator. All components of turbine are linked, and they are designed to maximize the turbine efficiency. The dimensions of the runner vary depending on the design discharge, head and the speed of the rotor of the generators. In this study, for Francis turbine runners, a design methodology is developed, and it is applied to more than one runner. The methodology starts with the definition of the initial dimensions of the runner and it continues with an iteration process to obtain maximum hydraulic efficiency. Subsequently, to reduce the wasted design process time while designing runner and to reach the maximum efficiency easily, metamodel based design optimization is performed.