Design optimization of blade parameters of dual torus hydraulic retarder

An optimization platform of hydraulic retarder cascade is established to optimize the parameters of the bowed blade of dual torus hydraulic retarder. The parametric modeling of single periodic flow is achieved, and the grid independence is studied to validate the credibility of simulation model. Based on CFD simulation, the design of experiments is adopted to study the influences of blade wrap angles and pressure surface radii on the brake performance. The response surface methodology is built to get the optimum parameters, and the multi-island genetic algorithm is used for global optimization design. Comparison of internal flow field and brake performance before and after optimization shows that the brake performance of hydraulic retarder with the optimum parameters is improved observably, and the braking torque is averagely increased by 42.3%.