Experimental study on the plasma actuators for the tip leakage flow control in a turbine cascade

Abstract

In this paper, the effects of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma actuators (PAs) on the leakage flow structures and loss in a turbine cascade have been experimental studied. Two group cases have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the DBD plasma actuators and its effect varied with the attack angle (α). By measuring the static pressure on the casing and the flow field at the exit section, the effects of the DBD PAs have been illustrated. Results show that the DBD plasma actuators on the tip of turbine cascade could make effect on the tip leakage flow by weaken the strength of the TLV near the casing. Rising the actuation strength, this effect would be enhanced. Besides, this effect on the flow structure mainly focuses on the TLV near the casing, changes in the blade passage could be ignored with the action of the DBD PAs. In the study on the attack angle, the largest loss reduction of 7.8% is noticed with the inflow Re=0.64×105 and α=5°.