Development of a Cost-Efficient Test Rig for Turbine Loss Education

A large number of approaches have been made to predict the total pressure loss coefficients and flow deviation angles to the geometry of turbine cascades and the incoming flow. Students feel typically uncomfortable when faced with turbine loss coefficients during their education, and it is challenging to fully understand turbine losses only by means of theory. The integration of a turbine cascade facility into academic courses might be useful but such test facilities are expensive or not available for a large number of engineering schools. To overcome this issue, a cost-efficient test rig for measurements of the flow through a two-dimensional cascade of turbine blades was designed. This test rig enabled the measurement of the flow through a blade cascade and the formation of wakes. The effect of the inlet flow angle on the cascade performance was investigated easily by students. Based on own measurements, the students were able to apply the most prominent approaches for determining loss coefficients. Furthermore, they compared their results with literature data and predictions of available correlations. By doing that, the importance of blade spacing and Reynolds number level on profile loss coefficients became more transparent and invited to further studies.