Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Wake Flow Downstream of a Linear Turbine Cascade

In turbomachinery the wake flow together with the inherent unsteadiness caused by interaction between stator and rotor has a significant impact on efficiency and performance. The prediction of the wake flow depends largely on the turbulence modeling. Therefore in this study the evolution of a viscous wake downstream of a linear turbine cascade is experimentally and computationally investigated. In a transonic cascade test stand Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV) measurements of velocity and turbulent kinetic energy are done in several axial planes downstream of the blade trailing edge. Two different turbulence models are then incorporated into a two-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver to calculate the turbulent wake flow and the results are compared with the experimental data to test the quality of the turbulence models. The large discrepancies between measurement and Calculation are assumed to be caused by the periodic vortex shedding from the blunt trailing edge which is not taken into account by the turbulence models. But further research is needed to resolve this issue.