Advances in axial turbine blade profile aerodynamics

Abstract

The aerodynamic performance of axial turbines depends significantly on profile losses, secondary flow losses, and clearance gap losses of vanes and blades. In modern high-efficiency turbomachinery operating at various working conditions, profile losses are very important criteria for the development of vanes and blades, and turbine designers strive to minimize the losses, based on better understandings of flow and loss characteristics at various working conditions. This paper summarizes recent advances in the field of turbine blade profile aerodynamics, and covers: (1) flow and loss characteristics of blade profiles, (2) flow structure and loss mechanism for transonic blade profiles, (3) off-design performance, (4) flow control, (5) design and optimization, (6) engineering design considerations, and (7) research methods of blade profile aerodynamics. The emphasis is placed on flow characteristics and loss control methods, and present insights regarding the current research trends and the prospects for future developments.

Effect of Free-Stream Turbulence on Endwall Flow of Highly Loaded Turbine Cascades in a Wide Range of Incidence

“…Based on this research, numerous studies on off-design operation (Gao et al, 2020;Kiran & Anish, 2017; have been conducted; NASA Fundamental Aeronautics Program (Variable Speed Power Turbines, VSPT) presented that the high turbine efficiency over a large (40° to 60°) incidence variation and low Reynolds numbers are the key aerodynamic challenges (Welch, 2010). Low Reynolds number operation has been widely studied (Lipfert et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2018;Qu et al, 2020).…”