Secondary Flows in a Transonic Cascade: Comparison Between Experimental and Numerical Results

The paper presents a comparison between numerical results and experimental data about the secondary flow development in a linear transonic turbine cascade. Computations are carried out by using a three-dimensional inviscid Euler code, based on a Runge-Kutta explicit finite volume method. The experimental inlet total pressure distribution is imposed as inlet boundary condition to simulate the incoming endwall boundary layer. The comparison is made in four planes downstream of the cascade where detailed experimental data obtained in a transonic wind tunnel are available. For each of these planes secondary velocities and streamwise vorticity contour plots are presented and discussed. Moreover pitchwise mass averaged flow angle distributions showing overturning and underturning regions are shown. The comparison shows that an Euler code can predict the essential features of secondary flow phenomena like passage vortex location and intensity but a certain disagreement is found in the overturning and underturning angles evaluation. Numerical results also allow for the investigation of the development of secondary flows inside the blade channel. The investigation is carried out for three different Mach numbers: M_2is = 0.5, 1.02, 1.38, in order to show the influence of compressibility on the flow vortex structure.