Abstract
The paper presents detailed midspan experimental results from two transonic linear turbine cascades. The blades for the two cascades were designed for the same service and differ mainly in their leading-edge geometries. One of the goals of the study was to investigate the influence of the leading-edge metal angle on the sensitivity of the blade to positive off-design incidence. Measurements were made for incidence values of −10.0, 0.0, +4.5, +10.0, and +14.5 deg relative to design incidence. The exit Mach numbers varied roughly from 0.5 to 1.2 and the Reynolds numbers from about to The measurements include the midspan losses, blade loadings and base pressures. In addition, the axial-velocity-density ratio (AVDR) was extracted for each operating point. The AVDR was found to vary from about 0.98 at −10.0 deg of incidence to about 1.27 at +14.5 deg. Thus, the data set also provides some evidence of the influence AVDR on axial turbine blade performance. Detailed experimental results for turbine blade performance at off-design incidence are very scarce in the open literature, particularly for transonic conditions. Among other things, the present results are intended to expand the database available in the open literature. To this end, the key aerodynamic results are presented in tabular form, along with the detailed geometry of the cascades. The results could be used in the development of new or improved correlations for use in the early stages of design. They could also be used to evaluate the ability of current CFD codes to capture reliably the variation in losses and other aerodynamic quantities with variations in blade incidence.