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Effects of Freestream Turbulence, Reynolds Number and Mach Number on the Boundary Layer in a Low Pressure Turbine

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Abstract

In order to investigate the aerodynamics of a high speed low pressure turbine works in high Mach number and low Reynold number environment, the effect of freestream turbulence (FST) on the boundary layer development on the high speed low pressure turbine under different Reynolds numbers (Re) is numerically investigated. Large eddy simulation is adopted here with a subgrid scale model of Wall Adapting Local Eddy viscosity (WALE). Cases with Re ranging from 100 000 to 400 000 under an exit Mach number (Ma) of 0.87 have been considered at low and high FST levels. A low Ma case (0.17) under very low Re has also been studied under both low and high FST. It is found that higher Re or FST level leads to earlier transition. Re has a greater effect than FST on the development of boundary layer. The effect of FST on the boundary layer depends on the Re. The boundary layer development shows totally different behaviors under different Ma. A separation bubble could be formed under low Ma while no attachment could be detected under high Ma. The FST has a stronger effect on the separated boundary layer under low Ma, which could eliminate the separation in the present study. For all the cases under low FST, the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is the dominate mechanism in the transition process. For the low Ma case with high FST, the streamwise streaks play a dominant role in the transition process. For the high Ma cases with high FST, both the streamwise streaks and Kelvin-Helmholtz instability work in the transition process. The streamwise streaks play a more important role when the Re increased.

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Abbreviations

C :

chord length/mm

C p :

pressure coefficient

C x :

axial chord length/mm

FST:

freestream turbulence

f :

frequency

H 12 :

Shape factor

Ma :

Mach number

p s :

Static pressure/Pa

p t :

Total pressure/Pa

Re :

Reynolds number

s :

pitch/mm

St :

Strouhal number

V :

Velocity

Zw :

Zweifel number

β 1 :

Inlet angle/(°)

β 2 :

Outlet angle/(°)

β s :

Stagger angle/(°)

τ wall :

Wall shear stress

δ :

displacement thickness

θ :

momentum thickness

e:

edge of boundary layer

in:

inlet

out:

outlet

s:

separation

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Acknowledgment

This work is supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of China (No. 2017-II-0008-0022, 2019-II-008-0028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Turbomachinery Aerodynamics and Acoustics Lab (TAAL), School of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710129, China

    Wenhua Duan, Weiyang Qiao, Weijie Chen & Xinyu Zhao

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  1. Wenhua Duan
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  2. Weiyang Qiao
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Correspondence to Wenhua Duan.

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Duan, W., Qiao, W., Chen, W. et al. Effects of Freestream Turbulence, Reynolds Number and Mach Number on the Boundary Layer in a Low Pressure Turbine. J. Therm. Sci. 32, 1393–1406 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1798-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-023-1798-7

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