Development of an automated non-axisymmetric endwall contour design system for the rotor of a 1-stage research turbine - Part 2 Computed and experimental results

Abstract

Non-axisymmetric endwall contouring is a mechanism which attempts to reduce the negative effects of secondary ows in compressor and turbine blade rows by allowing the otherwise cylindrical turbine endwalls to take on threedimensional (and therefore non-axisymmetric) curvature in an attempt to favourably manipulate the endwall pressure elds which drive these ows. Since its initial conception, considerable effort has been expended in determining how to 1) maximise the positive effects of the technique, and as a natural consequence of this, 2) determine which metrics are best suited to quantifying the magnitudes of these ows. One of the issues which has confounded these attempts, has been the inadequacy of contemporary computational models to predict - by some accounts - some of the most apparently desirable quantities (such as loss), accurately.