Influences of Incidence Angle on 2D-Flow and Secondary Flow Structure in Ultra-Highly Loaded Turbine Cascade

An increase of turbine blade loading can reduce the numbers of blade and stage of gas turbines. However, an increase of blade loading makes the secondary flow much stronger because of the steep pitch-wise pressure gradient in the cascade passage, and consequently deteriorates the turbine efficiency. In this study, the computations were performed for the flow in an ultra-highly loaded turbine cascade with high turning angle in order to clarify the effects of the incidence angle on the two dimensional flow and the secondary flow in the cascade passage, which cause the profile loss and the secondary loss, respectively. The computed results showed good agreement with the experimental surface oil flow visualizations and the blade surface static pressure at mid-span of the blade. The profile loss was strongly increased by the increase of incidence angle especially in the positive range. Moreover, the positive incidences not only strengthened the horseshoe vortex and the passage vortex but also induced a new vortex on the end-wall. Moreover, the newly formed vortex influenced the formation of the pressure side leg of horseshoe vortex.