An Experimental and Computational Study of the Formation of a Streamwise Shed Vortex in a Turbine Stage

Shear layers shed by aircraft wings roll up into vortices. A similar, though far less common, phenomenon can occur in the wake of a turbomachine blade. This paper presents experimental data from a new single-stage turbine that has been commissioned at the Whittle Laboratory. Two low-aspect ratio stators have been tested with the same rotor row. Surface flow visualization illustrates the extremely strong secondary flows present in both NGV designs. These secondary flows lead to conventional passage vortices, but also to an intense vortex sheet which is shed from the trailing edge of the blades. Pneumatic probe traverses show how this sheet rolls up into a concentrated vortex in the second stator design, but not in the first. A simple numerical experiment is used to model the shear layer instability and the effects of trailing edge shape and exit yaw angle distribution are investigated. It is found that the latter has a strong influence on shear layer rollup: inhibiting the formation of a vortex downstream of NGV 1 but encouraging it behind NGV 2.