Computational Design Optimisation of a Centrifugal Pump

本项目的目的是在离心泵的设计过程中引入自动化，因此本项目属于工程设计研究领域。这是通过在设计过程中引入自动集成设计优化来实现的。为了实现这一目标，必须回答一些问题。首先，必须使用CFD模拟准确地模拟泵的流动。必须确定合适的求解器，给出准确的流场，但不具有过高的计算成本。另一方面，设计优化最容易在数量较少的参数上实现，因为在大量参数上进行优化通常是不可行的。因此，需要确定一个由足够小的参数集组成的设计向量。如果使用CFD模拟来评估潜在的泵设计非常耗时，那么就需要确定替代模型。通过评估设计空间上的许多设计，可以确定这少数设计的目标响应。然后可以在此设计空间上创建代理模型以“填补空白”。一旦目标函数在设计空间上的响应被创建，就可以对该空间进行优化。有许多优化方法可以使用；这包括局部和全局优化器。这两种优化方法都有各自的优点和缺点，对于这个应用程序，需要测试这两种方法的有效性。这些过程必须自动执行，这又增加了问题的复杂性。这个集成的设计过程必须是健壮的，并且能够处理在实现过程中可能出现的许多潜在问题。此外，这可能是一个耗时的过程，因此必须考虑上述任何过程的计算成本。

The aim of this project is to introduce automation in the design process of a centrifugal pump, and therefore this project falls under the engineering design research area. This is achieved by introducing automatic integrated design optimization into the design process. In order to achieve this aim, there are a number of questions that must be answered. To begin with, flow through the pump must be accurately simulated using CFD simulations. Suitable solvers must be determined that give accurate flow fields, but do not have prohibitively large computational costs. On the other hand, design optimization is most easily implemented over a reduced number of parameters, as optimization over a large set of parameters is usually not feasible. Therefore, a design vector consisting of a sufficiently small set of parameters will need to be determined.If evaluating potential pump design using CFD simulations is significantly time-consuming, then a surrogate model will need to be determined. By evaluating a number of designs over the design space, the response of the objectives can be determined for this small number of designs. A surrogate model may then be created over this design space to 'fill in the blanks'. Once the response of the objective functions over the design space has been created, optimization over this space can then proceed. There are a number of optimization methods that may be used; these include local and global optimizers. Both of these methods of optimization have their advantages and disadvantages, and efficacy of both methods will need to be tested for this application.These processes must be automatically performed, which adds another level of complexity to the problem. This integrated design process must be robust and able to handle a number of potential issues that may arise during implementation. Furthermore, this may be a time-consuming process and therefore considerations must be made for the computational cost of any of the above processes.