Effects of Riblet Dimensions on the Transitional Boundary Layers Over High-Lift Turbine Blades

Substantial research exists in the literature on reducing the profile loss of transitional boundary layers over low-pressure turbine (LPT) blades via different mechanisms such as freestream turbulence, upstream wakes, and surface roughness. These mechanisms have proven to be beneficial in mitigating the separation bubble-related losses in ultra-high-lift blade designs, despite an increase in the loss due to increased turbulent wetted area (TWA). In this work, we adopt a strategy of employing surface roughness in the transitional regime to minimize the separation bubble-related losses and flush-mounted riblets downstream to further mitigate the skin-friction drag and boundary layer losses due to an increase in the TWA. Several high-fidelity scale-resolving simulations are performed on this “rough-ribbed blade surface” to discern the effect of varying the riblet spacing (s⁺) and height (h⁺). The streamwise evolution of skin-friction coefficient, boundary layer integral parameters, and shape factor are compared and contrasted among riblets of different dimensions. The instantaneous flow features and second-order statistics such as the Reynolds stress, turbulent kinetic energy, and its production are analyzed for different test cases to determine the impact of riblets on these quantities. When compared to the roughness alone configuration, the scalloped shape riblets with s⁺ = 17 and h⁺ = 22 reduced the net skin-friction drag by 7.3% and the trailing edge momentum thickness by 14.5%, thereby demonstrating the efficacy of riblets in reducing the mixing losses under adverse pressure gradients. Through an analysis of flow blockage introduced by the application of riblets, the deleterious effects of increasing the riblet height along with the necessity of optimizing the riblet ramp are highlighted.