OPTIMIZATION METHOD ON IMPELLER MERIDIONAL CONTOUR AND 3D BLADE

An optimization method for 3D blade and meridional contour of centrifugal or mixed-flow impeller based on the 3D viscous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is proposed.The blade is indirectly parameterized using the angular momentum and calculated by inverse design method.The design variables arc separated into two categories:the meridional contour design vari- ables and the blade design variables.Firstly,only the blade is optimized using genetic algorithm with the meridional contour remained constant.The artificial neural network (ANN) techniques with the training sample data schemed according to design of experiment theory are adopted to construct the response relation between the blade design variables and the impeller performance.Then,based on the ANN approximated relation between the meridional contour design variables and impeller per- formance,the meridional contour is optimized.Fewer design variables and less calculation effort is required in this method that may be widely used in the optimization of three-dimension impellers.An optimized impeller in a mixed-flow pump,where the head and the efficiency are enhanced by 12.9% and 4.5% respectively,confirms the validity of this newly proposed method.