Part-Span Application of Sweep and Lean at Turbine Blade Tips: A Low Speed Experimental Cascade Study
This study is aimed at exploring the possibility of aerodynamic performance improvement by providing part-span forward sweep and lean near the tip regions of axial flow turbine rotor blades. Such aerodynamic benefits may have application potential in the uncooled LPT blades. The curved forward sweep and curved lean have been provided to 25% of the blade span near the tip in cascade, Three sets of cascades of the same turbine airfoil have been studied — (i) straight blades, (ii) part span swept blades and (iii) part span leaned blades. The cascade results show that swept blade gives a recovery of 20–25% loss in blade performance near the tip region at 0° and 10° incidences. The swept and leaned blades suppress the Cp perturbations (as seen in straight blades) at 0° and at 10° incidences, on the suction surfaces of turbine blade cascades. Comparatively the leaned blades show blade unloading, largely on the pressure surface, which leads to some performance reduction. The wake loss study shows reduction in wake losses for swept turbine blade at near tip region. The end-wall boundary layer measurements across the open tips demonstrate some aerodynamic improvement, near the tip regions, for parts-span swept and leaned blades.