Effect of Roughness and Unsteadiness on the Performance of a New Low Pressure Turbine Blade at Low Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

This paper presents a study of the performance of a high-lift profile for low pressure turbines at Reynolds numbers lower than in previous investigations. By following the results of Coull et al. (2008 on the design of high-lift airfoils, the profile is forward loaded. The separate and combined effects of roughness and wake passing are compared. On a front loaded blade, the effect of incidence becomes more important and the consequences in terms of cascade losses, is evaluated. The experimental investigation was carried out in the high speed wind tunnel of Whittle Laboratory, University of Cambridge. This is a closed-circuit continuous wind tunnel where the Reynolds number and Mach number can be fixed independently. The unsteadiness caused by wake passing in front of the blades is reproduced using a wake generator with rotating bars. The results confirm that the beneficial effect of unsteadiness on losses is present even at the lowest Reynolds number examined ͑Re 3 ϭ 20,000͒. This beneficial effect is reduced at positive incidence. With a front loaded airfoil and positive incidence, the transition occurs on the suction side close to the leading edge and this results in higher losses. This has been found valid for the entire Reynolds range investigated ͑20,000Յ Re 3 Յ 140,000͒. Roughening the surface also had a beneficial effect on the losses but this effect vanishes at the lower Reynolds numbers, i.e., ͑Re 3 Յ 30,000͒, where the surface becomes hydraulically smooth. The present study suggests that a blade with as-cast surface roughness has a lower loss than a polished one.

Experimental and CFD Analysis of Impact of Surface Roughness on Hydrodynamic Performance of a Darrieus Hydro (DH) Turbine

“…The results indicate that the effect of roughness is much greater at high Reynolds numbers. This finding is in agreement with the results reported in previous research [52][53][54][55]. Since a lower torque usually produces a lower energy output [56], it can be concluded that energy losses are caused by increase in the roughness to the DH turbine blade.…”

Distributed Roughness Effects on Transitional and Turbulent Boundary Layers

“…Reshotko [37] noted that smaller levels of roughness destabilize the mean flow through a linear amplification of the exponentially growing disturbances. On the other hand, larger levels of roughness bypass this route by distorting the flow locally [6,28,45]. Transition induced by isolated roughness has been extensively studied in the literature [2,12,18,36], specifically at supersonic speeds.…”

Resulting Aerodynamic Losses of Combinations of Localized Roughness Patches on Turbine Blades

“…The roughnesses can be induced by manufacturing or refurbishment and by operational and environmental conditions, leading to a variety of roughness structures in terms of location, density, and size [8][9][10][11]. The majority of investigations focusing on the effects of surface roughness on airfoil or engine blades and on the associated loss mechanisms consider uniform roughness structures applied over the entire airfoil surface.…”