An Experimental Study of Local Wall Shear Stress, Surface Static Pressure, and Flow Visualization Upstream, Alongside, and Downstream of a Blade Endwall Corner

Abstract

The experimental study reported in this paper was performed to acquire information on the distribution of wall shear stress and surface static pressure in a blade endwall corner. The blade endwall corner region investigated was divided into three sections: 0.4 chord length upstream of the blade leading edge, inside the endwall corner region, and one chord length downstream of the blade trailing edge. The maximum increases in the values of wall shear stress were found to exist on the endwall, in the corner region, between the blade leading edge and the location of maximum blade thickness (≈ 140 percent maximum increase, compared to its far upstream value, at x/D = 6). Surface flow visualization defined the boundaries of the vortex system and provided information on the direction and magnitude of the wall shear stress. The acquired results indicated that the observed variations of wall shear stress and surface static pressure were significantly influenced by the interaction of secondary flows with pressure gradients induced by the presence of blade curvature.