Influence of Pre-History and Leading Edge Contouring on Aero-Performance of a 3D Nozzle Guide Vane

Experiments are conducted to investigate the effect of the pre-history in the aerodynamic performance of a three-dimensional nozzle guide vane with a hub leading edge contouring. The performance is determined with two pneumatic probes (5 hole and 3 hole) concentrating mainly on the endwall. The investigated vane is a geometrically similar gas turbine vane for the first stage with a reference exit Mach number of 0.9. Results are compared for the baseline and filleted cases for a wide range of operating exit Mach numbers from 0.5 to 0.9. The presented data includes loading distributions, loss distributions, fields of exit flow angles, velocity vector and vorticity contour, as well as, mass-averaged loss coefficients. The results show an insignificant influence of the leading edge fillet on the performance of the vane. However, the pre-history (inlet condition) affects significantly in the secondary loss. Additionally, an oil visualization technique yields information about the streamlines on the solid vane surface which allows identifying the locations of secondary flow vortices, stagnation line and saddle point.