Aerodynamic Investigation of Upstream Misalignment over the Nozzle Guide Vane in a Transonic Cascade

The possibility of misalignments at interfaces would be increased due to individual parts' assembly and external factors during its operation. In actual engine representative conditions, the upstream misalignments have effects on turbines performance through the nozzle guide vane passages. The current experimental aerodynamic investigation over the nozzle guide vane passage was concentrated on the backward-facing step of upstream misalignments. The tests were performed using two types of vane endwall platforms in a 2D linear cascade: flat endwall and axisymmetric converging endwall. The test conditions were a Mach number of 0.85, Re_ex 1.5*10^6 based on exit condition and axial chord, and a high freestream turbulence intensity (16%), at the Virginia tech transonic cascade wind tunnel. The experimental results from the surface flow visualization and the five-hole probe measurements at the vane-passage exit were compared with the two cases with and without the backward-facing step for both types of endwall platforms.

As a main source of secondary flow, a horseshoe vortex at stagnation region of the leading edge of the vane directly influences other secondary flows. The intensity of the vortex is associated with boundary layer thickness of inlet flow. In this regard, the upstream backward-facing step as a misalignment induces the separation and attachment of the inlet flow sequentially, and these cause the boundary layer of the inlet flow to reform and become thinner locally. The upstream-step positively affects loss reduction in aerodynamics due to the thinner inlet boundary layer, which attenuates a horseshoe vortex ahead of the vane cascade despite the development of the additional vortices. And converging endwall results in an increase of the effect of the upstream misalignment in aerodynamics, since the inlet boundary layer becomes thinner near the vane's leading edge due to local flow acceleration caused by steep contraction of the converging endwall. These results show good correlation with many previous studies presented herein.