An Experimental Study of Separation Control on Ultra-Highly-Loaded Low Pressure Turbine Blade by Surface Roughness

An experimental study is conducted to improve an aft-loaded ultra-high-lift low pressure turbine (LPT) blade at low Reynolds number (Re) in steady state. The objective is to investigate the effect of blade roughness on the performance of LPT blade. The roughness is used as a passive flow control method which is to reduce total pressure loss and expand LPT operating margin. The experiment is performed on a low-speed cascade facility. 3 roughness heights and 3 deposit positions are investigated in the experiment which forms a large test matrix. A three-hole probe is used to detect flow aerodynamic performance and a hotwire probe is used to detect the characteristic of suction boundary layer. Regional roughness can suppress separation loss and bring fairly low turbulent dissipation loss. Detailed surveys near the blade surface shows that the loss reduction is due to the disappearance of separation bubble from the early transition onset.