The influence of sweep on axial flow turbine aerodynamics at mid-span

Sweep, when the stacking axis of the blade is not perpendicular to the axi-symmetric streamsurface in the meridional view, is often an unavoidable feature of turbine design. Although a high aspect ratio swept blade can be designed to achieve the same pressure distribution as an unswept design, this paper shows that the swept blade will inevitably have a higher profile loss. A modified Zweifel loading parameter, taking sweep into account, is first derived. If this loading coefficient is held constant, it is shown that sweep reduces the required pitch-to-chord ratio and so increases the wetted area of the blades. Assuming fully turbulent boundary layers, and a constant dissipation coefficient, the effect of sweep on profile loss is then estimated. A combination of increased blade area and a raised pressure surface velocity means that the profile loss rises with increasing sweep. The theory is then validated using experimental results from two linear cascade tests of highly loaded blade profiles of the type found in low pressure aeroengine turbines: one cascade is unswept, the other has 45 degrees of sweep. The swept cascade is designed to perform the same duty with the same loading coefficient and pressure distribution as the unswept case. The measurements show that the simple method used to estimate the change in profile loss due to sweep is sufficiently accurate to be a useful aid in turbine design.