An experimental study on 3-D flow in an annular cascade of high turning angle turbine blades

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study of the three-dimensional turbulent flow fields in a low-speed annular cascade of high turning angle turbine blades. Detailed measurements were performed on the blade surfaces and mid-streamsurface in the passage and at three axial planes downstream of the cascade by using wall static pressure taps, a five-hole probe and a hot-wire anemometer. The test data include static pressure distribution on blade surfaces, total pressure loss coefficient, mean flow velocity components, radial flow angle, turbulence intensity and Reynolds shear stress. Analyses of the three-dimensional cascade flow characteristics were made on the onset location of high loss vortices, the variation of pressure gradient inside the cascade passage and the properties of endwall boundary layers, total pressure loss distributions, secondary vortex turbulent dissipation and wake decay downstream of the cascade. These experimental results are valuable for revealing the details of the complex vortex flow structure in modern highly loaded axial turbomachines and validating the three-dimensional flow numerical computation codes.