Voith and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have announced promising initial results from their joint project aimed at improving hydropower turbine design using artificial intelligence. The collaboration uses DLR’s optimization software, AutoOpti, to streamline the development of turbine components through automated and data-driven design processes.
The project is a response to growing industry pressure for more efficient, durable, and cost-effective hydropower technologies. Energy providers and plant operators are increasingly demanding performance improvements under tighter economic and regulatory constraints.
AutoOpti is designed to automate the turbine design process by integrating various simulation models, including fluid dynamics and structural mechanics. It uses machine learning to generate and evaluate new turbine designs based on performance targets such as hydraulic efficiency and mechanical durability.
“AutoOpti significantly shortens development time while measurably improving the quality of turbine design,” the project partners stated.
By using real component data from Voith, AutoOpti has already demonstrated performance gains. In tests on a Francis turbine, the tool produced new design variants that increased efficiency across multiple operating conditions without changing flow rates. Surrogate models based on Gaussian Processes helped reduce the number of costly CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations needed, accelerating the overall optimization process.
The next phase of the project will expand AutoOpti’s use to other turbine components and explore its application in additional Voith product lines. DLR is supporting this effort through training and technical workshops and is also developing new approaches using deep neural networks. One such method, called FlowFormer, is based on transformer architectures and is designed to predict complex 3D flow behaviour.
The project is part of a broader shift toward digitalised, AI-assisted design in the hydropower sector. Both partners aim to build on the current progress and establish a long-term development partnership.
