Numerical Predictions of Turbine Cascade Secondary Flows and Heat Transfer With Inflow Turbulence

Turbine passage secondary flows are studied for a large rounded leading edge airfoil geometry considered in the experimental investigation of Varty et al. (J. Turbomach. 140(2):021010) using high resolution Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The complex nature of secondary flow formation and evolution are affected by the approach boundary layer characteristics, components of pressure gradients tangent and normal to the passage flow, surface curvature, and inflow turbulence. This paper presents a detailed description of the secondary flows and heat transfer in a linear vane cascade at exit chord Reynolds number of 5 × 105 at low and high inflow turbulence. Initial flow turning at the leading edge of the inlet boundary layer leads to a pair of counter-rotating flow circulation in each half of the cross-plane that drive the evolution of the pressure-side and suction side of the near-wall vortices such as the horseshoe and leading edge corner vortex. The passage vortex for the current large leading-edge vane is formed by the amplification of the initially formed circulation closer to the pressure side (PPC) which strengthens and merges with other vortex systems while moving toward the suction side. The predicted suction surface heat transfer shows good agreement with the measurements and properly captures the augmented heat transfer due to the formation and lateral spreading of the secondary flows towards the vane midspan downstream of the vane passage. Effects of various components of the secondary flows on the endwall and vane heat transfer are discussed in detail.