LARGE-EDDY SIMULATION OF FLOW IN A LOW-PRESSURE TURBINE CASCADE

Flow over three low-pressure turbine airfoils presented in [1] is analyzed for a range of Reynolds numbers (30,000 to 150,000) by means of large-eddy simulation. Baseline computational grid for these 2D linear cascade configurations consisted of 35 millions cells, and additional finer grids of 70 millions cells were used for grid sensitivity studies. For these low Reynolds number flows, this represents a quasi-DNS resolution which minimizes the role of the subgrid-scale model - however, WALE subgrid-scale model [7] was still employed. The configurations were analyzed for low free-stream turbulence intensity, as well as for 4% turbulence intensity at free-stream. Laminar separation exists on the suction side, and, depending on the Reynolds number, the flow at the outer edge of the separation either transitions, and the separation closes before the trailing edge, or not. Detailed comparisons to measurements are presented for computed surface pressure and total pressure losses over the range of Reynolds numbers for all three airfoils; these show that LES analyses are able to capture the main trends across all three geometries.