CHAPTER TWO

FLOW THROUGH CASACDES

Contents
• Aerofoil blades (Nomenclature)
• Lift and drag forces
• Turbine cascade
• Compressor cascade
Aerofoil blades(Nomenclature)
• In every turbomachine components the so called blades are continuously
interacting with the fluid flowing past the blades. Therefore to exploit the
most from fluid-blade energy interaction aerodynamic modelling of the
blade profile is inevitable.
• Aerofoil is the engineered shape of the blade used in almost all
turbomachine components (buckets are exceptions in Pelton turbines).
The airfoil has a smoothly rounded front (Leading edge) and thin back
(trailing edge).
• Leading edge: The leading edge profile is smooth and rounded so that
the flow would experience less turbulence and follows the blade profile.
• Trailing edge: It is a thin rear part of the blade so that flow separation
and back flow could be minimized.
 
Flow angle(): It is the angle which the fluid absolute inlet velocity makes
with the axial axis in axial flow machines and with the radial axis in radial
flow machines.
Blade angle (): It is the angle which the blade camber line forms with the
axial axis in axial flow machines and the radial axis in radial flow machines.
Angle of incidence (): Also called angle of attack. It is the difference
between the flow angle and the blade angle at the inlet.
•  Camber Line: It is an imaginary center line between the upper
and lower aerofoil profiles.
• Chord Line: is the line that connects the leading edge to the
trailing edge.
• Pitch: is the tangential distance between two successive
aerofoil blades.
• Stagger angle (): It is the angle which the chord line forms with
the reference line (the axial line in case of axial flow and the
radial line in case of radial flow).
• Camber angle (): It is the change in angle of the camber line
between the leading edge and trailing edge.
•  Blade thickness ()
• Maximum blade thickness ()

Important Geometric parameters in blade design

For blade camber and thickness distribution

ratio and ratio against ratio
Height – chord ratio:
Pitch – chord ratio:
Maximum thickness – chord ratio:
Loss Coefficients across an aerofoil blade
• We
  make loss calculation for a mean stream line flow across a single
blade as depicted in the picture below. We have a well-defined CV
bounded by the dotted line which is the control surface. We can fairly
assume that there is no pressure variation along the tangential
direction. The resulting force due to pressure difference at the inlet and
exit control surfaces in the axial or radial direction is:
Which is per unit width of blade.
• The change in momentum between the inlet and exit control surface
gives rise to force in the tangential direction.
For incompressible flow and considering the fact that inlet and exit
flow areas are equal,

(Force is the rate of change of linear momentum)

𝑉 𝑥1 =𝑉 𝑥2 =𝑉 𝑥𝑚=𝑉 𝑥
 
Total pressure loss

•  In actual flow situation there is a pressure drop as a result of skin

friction.
•  The losses are presented in dimensionless parameters, so that we can
have much lesser amount of effective variables.
• The total pressure loss coefficient is then defined as:
also
• The static pressure rise coefficient and the tangential force coefficient
are:
Lift and Drag forces

• Lift and drag forces are inherent forces which occurs in aerodynamic
and hydrodynamic applications. They are much more important in
aviation and aerospace engineering, in which lift and drag calculations
are the primary design parameters. But they are no less important in
turbomachine designs too. They are among the important
determining parameters to unveil the reaction forces that would
develop on the bearings of the rotor.
• From turbomachinery point of view Lift force is the component of the
aerodynamic or hydrodynamic force acting in the direction
perpendicular to the mean velocity line of action. On the contrary the
aerodynamic or hydrodynamic force component acting parallel to the
mean velocity line of action is termed as the Drag force.
• 
• Lift and Drag coefficients
  is much less than and is not likely to exceed
CASCADE WIND TUNNEL

Upstream and downstream

flow velocities and
pressures can be directly
measured by instruments.
Propagating stall is potential
problem in wind tunnels. It
occurs due to wall boundary
layer disturbing the flow
across the adjacent blade at
the upstream.
Remedy: Suction slots are
used to create a little
suction effect and avoiding
boundary layer.
• Cascade is an array of successive aerofoil blades.
• Why cascade?
 Aerofoil design hugely depend on experiment, and conducting experiment
can easily be managed in cascades instead of in actual turbo machine.
• Dimensionless numbers are defined from geometric and aerodynamic
parameters of aerofoil cascades. The performance of the cascade is
presented graphically against the dimensionless parameters.
• Elementary cascade theory is employed to compressor and turbine
cascade, but compressor blade is much more sensitive to
aerodynamic effects than that of turbine blade.
Cascade Losses
• Primary losses (Profile loss): due to boundary layer formation on the
blade surface and steep growth as a result of adverse pressure
gradient.
• Secondary losses: Due to three dimensional vortical flow which is
developed as a result of high turning of the fluid and uneven pressure
distribution at the entry of the blade.
• Tip clearance losses: Flow leakage through the radial gap between
the blade tip and the casing.
- In high pressure stages, the tip
clearance loss is about one third
of the total losses.
 Stall
Stalling is the flow separation form the aerofoil blade and reduction of lift coefficient as a
result of high angle of attack. It is a common problem in axial compressors.
compressor surge or pressure surge, is a complete breakdown in compression resulting
in a reversal of flow and the violent expulsion of previously compressed air out through
the engine intake, due to the compressor's inability to continue working against the
already-compressed air behind it.
Stream Line flow

Maximum lift

Stalled flow
Compressor Cascade
Efficiency for the
compressor cascade can be
calculated in a similar way
to that of a diffuser.
Because we are only dealing
with the losses as a result of
aerodynamic effects on the
blades.
•  Assuming a constant ratio
Stall point is the point
at which the total
pressure loss is twice
the minimum total
pressure loss
Mach number effect
  where is the velocity of the fluid
and is the velocity of sound while
travelling through that fluid.

𝑎=√ 𝛾 𝑅𝑇
 
 Turbine Cascade
• More important is blade stress
design than aerodynamic design
In turbine cascades. But it’s
importance is inevitable

• Profile loss is given by:

Secondary loss correlation in Turbine Blades
• Given by Dunham and Came

• Where Z represents
• It gives a reasonable accurate value with less complication