Performance prediction of a pump as turbine: Sensitivity analysis based on artificial neural networks and evolutionary polynomial regression

Abstract

The research of a general methodology to predict the pump performance in a reverse mode, knowing those of a pump in a direct mode, is a question that is still open. The scientific research is making many efforts toward answering this question, but at present, there is still not much clarity. This consideration has been the starting point of this research that thanks to artificial neural networks and evolutionary polynomial regression methods have tried to investigate and define the real weight of every input parameter, representing the efficiency of a pump in a direct way, on the output parameters, and representing efficiency of a pump used like a turbine.