A Theory for Boundary Layer Growth on the Blades of a Radial Impeller Including End Wall Influence Free

Experimental data on the wall shear stress of a turbulent boundary layer on the suction side of a blade in a two-dimensional radial impeller is compared with the predictions of a theory which takes account of rotation and curvature effects as well as the three-dimensional influence of the end-wall boundary layers. The latter influence is assumed to arise mainly from mainstream distortion due to secondary flows created by the end-wall boundary layers and it appears as an extra term in the momentum integral equation of the blade boundary layer which has allowance, also for the Coriolis effect; an appropriate form of the Head entrainment equation is derived to obtain a solution and a comparison made. A comparison of the above theory with the Patankar-Spalding prediction method, modified to include the effects of Coriolis (including mixing length modification, MLM) is also made.