Numerical optimization of hydrofoil geometry for a Darrieus hydraulic turbine using dynamic mesh and central composite design

In this study, a Darrieus hydraulic turbine for power generation applications is chosen and the response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) is applied to obtain the optimized design for its hydrofoil geometry to increase the torque coefficient. For this aim, all turbine performance factors, except hydrofoil geometry, were considered to be constant and the turbine torque coefficient was estimated as a function of hydrofoil geometry using Parsec hydrofoil function by CCD technique. Optimized geometry of the turbine blade is the maximum points of the proposed function by RSM. To determine the turbine torque coefficient, two dimensional and transient numerical simulation for incompressible fluid flow using finite volume method is considered. Results show that the optimized geometry increases the torque coefficient about four percentages.