Optimisation of Hydraulic Draft Tubes Through CFD and Machine Learning

Draft tubes are conduits between the turbine exit and tail race for hydropower plants. They are designed to reduce flow velocity and increase static pressure within the turbine, improving energy extraction and thus turbine performance.

An optimiser was developed to find an optimal design for the diffuser of the Hölleforsen draft tube, using the pressure recovery factor between the inlet and outlet of the draft tube as the objective function