EXPERIMENTS WITH A NEW RIBBED BLADE TIP AND ENDWALL GEOMETRY ON A HIGH PRESSURE TURBINE BLADE

A new blade tip and endwall geometry were studied experimentally. The blade tips and endwall included ribs directed in the pitchwise direction. The blade tip ribs fit between the endwall ribs, with a gap of 1.5% of axial chord between the top of each rib and the surface which it faced. Hence, a tip gap was maintained, but the tip flow area was divided into pitchwise directed channels. Experiments were conducted in a linear turbine cascade with wakes generated by moving upstream rods. Cases were documented both with and without wakes. The total pressure drop coefficient, psi, through the cascade was measured in the endwall region. Velocity fields were acquired in two planes normal to the flow direction using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The rib geometry eliminated the strong tip leakage vortex present in comparison cases with flat and squealer tipped blades. The passage vortex was strengthened and moved farther from the endwall. In spite of the elimination of the tip leakage vortex, total pressure drops were higher with the ribs than with a squealer tip and the same tip gap. Additional experiments showed that dividing the leakage flow area into channels did not reduce the total pressure change, and the endwall ribs acted as roughness and increased psi. Although the increase in psi was a negative outcome for the cascade experiment, the elimination of the tip leakage vortex could have some benefit if its detrimental effect were reduced in downstream stages.