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THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF KWU's MOST
RECENT HP//P STEAM TURBINE BLADE

Purcaru, B.-T. Giess, P.-A.

Kraftwerk-Union ( KWU ) DFVLR Goettingen
Muelheim, West Germany Institut fuer exp. Stroemungsmechanik
Goettingen, West Gremany

ABSTRACT H32 form parameter in the boundary calculation

( see ( 9 ) )
A new profile has recently been developed at Kraft- M 1 ,M2 Mach numbers of the uniform upstream and
werk-Union ( KWU ), West Germany, to increase the downstream flow
efficiency of todays high pressure ( HP ) and ML local Mach number on the blade surface
intermediate pressure ( IP ) steam turbines. The pro- static pressure and total pressure of the
p1'p01
file was described using analytical functions. There- uniform upstream flow
fore, the contour could be easily modified until the R radius of curvature of the blade contour
surface pressure distributions, which were calculated Re Reynolds number
using a singularity method, fit a desired distribu- R2' R3' R4 radii ( see Fig. 1
tion. The experiments for the aerodynamic cascade data n coordinates ( see Fig. 1
and blade surface pressure distributions were per- x,y coordinates
formed at the German Aerospace Research Establishment flow angle of the uniform upstream and
S 1 , ^2
( DFVLR ), Institute for Experimental Fluid Dynamics downstream flow
in Goettingen. Computer codes developed at the Insti- y stagger angle
tute enabled additional theoretical studies. The displacement thickness
codes used in the study included a time-marching E = sin S 2
method for calculating the 2D-flow field and an integ- energy loss coefficient
ral method for calculating the boundary layer. Both n stage efficiency ( see ( 11 ) )
u
theoretical and experimental results are discussed and
Tl' T2' 0 0 angles ( see Fig.l )
compared with efficiency measurements derived from a
position of knife edge with respect to
multistage testrig at KWU.
inlet flow direction

NOMENCLATURE
INTRODUCTION

c chord length
Although there has been continuous development, the
cpl pressure coefficient in incompressible
efficiency of turbomachines has been particularly
flow
improved in recent decades. One of the reasons for
g pitch length
this progress is the better understanding of the flow
field within the blade rows; this is the result of the
efforts spent in the past on experimental and theoret-
ical investigations. Although considerable progress
has been made, the dramatic increase in todays energy
costs makes further research worthwhile even if only
minor reductions of aerodynamic losses can be
achieved. The present paper describes the process of

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developing an improved blade for HP/IP steam turbines
of KWU, including a design procedure using a new blade
shape generation technique and the experimental check
of the theoretically predicted flow data.
Fig. 1 : Description of the mathematical procedure to
derive a blade contour
MATHEMATICAL DESCRIPTION OF BLADES AND
DEVELOPMENT OF "STANDARD PROFILES" BC

At KWU a computer code using biordinal functions has E A C D

been developed in order to obtain contours for turbo-

machinery blades. For any radial blade section,
Fig. 1, a parabola ( CD ) and an arc of a circle B
( BC ) are used to describe the suction side of the
profile without discontinuities of the radius of cur- E A D
G
&^ D
vature which, in addition, increases continuously. Two
E A'
C
ellipses ( BE, EA ) form the leading edge; two arcs of
B
a circle ( AG, GD ) fix the pressure side as well as
the trailing edge. A detailed description of the
method and of the influence of parameters ( i.e.
radius R 2 , angles 0 ° and 01 2 , ratio V/W, etc. ) to 0

the blade shape generation is given in (1). By slight

variation of the parameters, this program easily
allows minor modifications of the contours. By chang-
ing coefficients considerably, quite different profile
types can be generated, as illustrated in Fig. 2; i.e.
from slender low-turning tip section profiles, which
have large values of R 2 and 0 ° and a small ratio V/W,
to thick high-turning hub section profiles, which have
small values of R 2 and 0 ° and a large ratio V/W. The
program includes the calculations of the mechanical
properties of the profile. Thus it is possible to
design a profile to desired mechanical restrictions by
an iterative process. The procedure also lends itself
to the generation of twisted blades by means of a pre-
scribed function of the mass distribution in the
radial direction. Gas turbine blading as well as low
pressure steam turbine blading can now be geometri-
cally designed easily.
D
Fig. 2 : Different blade contours as a result of the
described procedure
In KWU's HP/IP steam turbine stages, untwisted blades
are used; the blade shape is equal for all stages but
chord lengths, c, are different. A profile of such a
blading is termed "standard profile".
Cascades of such profiles with different geometric
parameters; i.e., stagger angle, y , and pitch/chord
ratio, g/c, which should cover both ranges necessary
for machine design are investigated using a singular-
ity method to evaluate the blade surface pressure dis-
tributions. Iteratively, a redesign process is used

2
until the results fit the desired distributions ade-
quately. Thereafter a loss prediction based on an
integral method for boundary layer calculations is
executed. Of course in the final blade design it is
necessary to compromise the design for all kinds of
different restrictions; e.g., mechanical, aerodynamic,
manufacturing etc.
METHODS FOR ANALYSING CASCADES
The principal disadvantage of the used singularity
method is caused by the way in which the Kutta condi-
tion was involved in the computer code. Circulation
is assumed to be equal but opposite in sign for final
calculation points on both pressure side and suction
side. Fig. 3 demonstrates that by changing the final
calculation points on the pressure side and the suc-
tion side, respectively, within an area of less than
one percent of the total chord length results in
0.06
Cpf y;c
-2 OA4
-3
-4
-5
-6
-7
-9
Fig. 3 : Pressure distribution calculated using a sin-
gularity method (3)
extremely different pressure distributions. Neverthe-
less, this singularity method is used in the above
mentioned iteration process because of low running
costs.
This problem can be avoided by using a time-marching
finite volume procedure ( TMP ). The conservation laws
of mass, momentum and energy in integral form lead to
a system of time dependent difference equations, which
can be solved using total temperature, total pressure
and flow direction of the uniform inlet flow and the
static pressure of the uniform downstream flow as pre-
scribed boundary conditions. Such a method is availa-
ble (2) and was used to calculate the non-viscous,
3
2D-flow field for some selected cascade geometries.
Results are obtained from the blade-to-blade solution
for the local quantities in the flow field; i.e., from
an upstream plane to a downstream plane. Therefore,
the Mach numbers on the blade surface can be computed
and by integration using the conservation laws, the
values of the uniform downstream flow can be calcu-
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lated, (12).This TMP code which is much more expensive
to run than the singularity method was used to check
the final design on selected flow conditions by
another theoretical method. Additional this procedure
gives results very close to experiments as is known
from numberless previous comparisons.
Experimental tests have been performed in DFVLR's wind
tunnel for straight cascades described in (4, 5). This
facility in which downstream Mach number and Reynolds
number cannot be varied independently is a
suction-type tunnel: atmospheric air passes through a
dryer, a settling chamber, a rectangular nozzle, the
test section with the cascade, a choking diffusor to
give constant back-pressures, and finally through a
quick opening valve into a large vacuum vessel. Fig. 4
shows the cascade installed in the test section. The
Fig. 4 : Sketch of the test section
upper and lower nozzle walls are adjustable horizon-
tally and vertically to allow for different cascades
and inlet angles. Standard techniques have been used
to obtain flow data. These include wake traverses,
surface pressure distributions, schlieren pictures,
and oil flow traces on the contours. The wake flow
measurements are made by traversing a wedge-type probe
behind the cascade. This probe which has been designed
especially for turbine cascade flows is described in
(5). From the data of the inhomogeneous flow in the
traverse plane, the properties of the uniform outlet
flow are obtained by applying the conservation equa-
tions of mass, momentum and energy (12). To measure
the pressure distribution, tappings were distributed
on the mid span of the profile contour. To take
schlieren pictures the blades are fixed between glass
walls and pictures are taken using a flash of 20 ns.
Additional theoretical results can be carried out when
the experimentally obtained pressure distributions are
used as input values for a boundary layer computer
code. The calculation starts with d /c, a very small
non-zero value at the stagnation point, and assumes a
laminar boundary layer. Laminar flow separation on the
blade is defined to take place when the form parameter
H32 is within the range of 1.51509 to 1.51512, (9). At
this value for H 32 , a significant peak in d /c arises.
From this location the calculation assumes a turbulent
boundary layer.
Y/C
0.60
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
0
x/c
Fig. 5 : Blade contours ( I, II, III ) and cascades
( II, III
4
CHARACTERISTICS OF FORMER DESIGNED "STANDARD
BLADES"
Standard profiles I and II, Fig. 5 , are in operation
in KWU's HP/IP steam turbine stages. These profiles
have been designed differently and neither of them
with the above described procedure.
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The contour of blade I has been described by circular
arcs, which causes a significant discontinuity in the
radius of curvature, R, on the suction side, Fig. 6.
4.5
R/C
IbLodel II 4.0
1
M 3.5
I'
I
3.0
2.5
2.0
II
1.5 I /
1.0
I"
1.0 .5 0 .5 1.0
X/C
X/C
pressure side I
suction side
Fig. 6 : Radius of curvature of the blade contours
To demonstrate the disadvantage of such a contour, the
Mach numbers on the blade surface have been calculated
for one specific cascade geometry using the time-
marching computer code, Fig. 7. The small radius of
curvature within 0. < x/c < .4 and the considerable
discontinuity at x/c = .4 causes an overexpansion up
to ML = .78 and a recompression on the suction side at
x/c = .5. Within the region of the steep pressure
rise, transition from a laminar to a turbulent bouh-
dary layer is to be expected. Downstream of this tran-
sition, the resulting thick boundary layer can cause
separation. Both phenomena act to increase losses.
 OE
.8
M1 I o m M2 I
.7 % .0'. s • 6 435 • s
I ■ 0 0.50
• o 0.65
V • 0 0.80 • v
06

51 ^1

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.0:
4 f •/.`_ J
p
i•t
.02
.3 ^y

1 I/ lade
. 2 b .01
I! -•-•-I
1I --- Q
•
.33 .J! 45 .45 SU E
205 0 2,14 26.7" 30" 02
0
.2 .4 .6 .8X/C 1.0
Fig. 8 : Energy loss of cascades consisting of blades
Fig. 7 Calculation of local Mach numbers on blade I I, II and III
and II ( time-marching procedure; g/c = .8, Y = 61.5 ° ,
S 1 = 90, M = .5 )
.7
Mi
Blade II, Fig. 5 , has been redesigned from blade I. 6
It has been hand-fitted point-by-point to avoid the
disadvantages of the earlier design. A cascade con- .5
sisting of this blades is shown in Fig. 5 . The calcu-
lated Mach numbers for this cascade indicate that on .4
the suction side only a small pressure rise at
x/c = .3 occurs followed by a gradual acceleration up 3
to x/c = .8, see Fig. 7. Therefore, a laminar boundary
2
layer may occur and loss reduction can be expected.

.1
Experimental investigations have been performed for
cascades of blade II, (6, 7), and for a cascade of
0 1'
blade I, (8). For various downstream Mach numbers the 0 .2 .4 .6 .8 X/C1.0
energy loss, , was determined as function of down-
stream flow angles, S2 , see Fig. 8. The expected Fig. 9 : Local mach numbers on blades II and III from
reduction of losses is confirmed; within a wide range the TMP-method and from experiments ( g/c = .8,
of ( 2 and Mach numbers of interest ( .5 < M < .65 ) y = 61.5 ° , S 1 = 90 ° , M 2 = .5 )
the losses are small, The variation of Q2 was

made by changing the stagger angle, Y, from 53.5 ° to

61.5 0 . The Reynolds numbers based on chord length and
downstream flow conditions are about .4 * 10
.8 * 10 6 .
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of experiment and theory
( TMP method ) for cascades of blade II at M 2 = .5.
The agreement is perfect. Using the experimental
pressure distribution of blade II, boundary layer cal-
6 to culations have been performed by means of an integral
method (9), Fig. 10, where symbols indicate computa-
tional results. In case of blade II, laminar separa-
cion followed by laminar-turbulent transition are cal-
culated for x/c = .8. However, the steep pressure rise
up to the trailing edge causes a significant increase

.010
b'/c ^Q
.008 ation '
blade Re se
-o.—j
-o.-j 0 02512
—¢- D 0.3395 rl
.006 7

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.004 transition

0021 d -"

suction side
0

.003 Fig. 11 : Oil flow pattern on blade II ( g/c = .8,

o P,
Y = 61.5 ° , S = 90 ° , M 2 = .5

pressure side
0
0 .2 A .6 .8 X/C 1.0

Fig. 10 : Calculated displacement thickness on blade

DEVELOPMENT OF AN IMPROVED "STANDARD BLADE"
II and III ( g/c = .8, Y = 61.5 °, °
l = 90 , M 2 = .5 )

With the background of information from blade II, an

improved blade has been developed at KWU. The new
of S such that turbulent separation is predicted at
blade was required to have the same mechanical stabil-
x/c = .98.
ity as it's predecessors in order to guarantee an easy
replacement in the machines.
These results have been confirmed from the experiments
using oil flow traces on the blade, Fig. 11. The con-
First, the local Mach numbers on the surface of blade
centration of white colour can be interpreted as an
II were calculated for design conditions using a sin-
area of very low wall shear stress in a laminar sepa-
gularity method, Fig.13. All disadvantages discussed
ration bubble. The colour within this bubble could
relative to Fig. 9 are obvious again in Fig. 13. The
have changed it's structure a little when the wind
first redesign, termed blade II', has the same pres-
tunnel is shut off as mentioned in (13). This bubble
sure side as blade II but a larger R/c on the suction
is not derived from the pressure distribution, Fig. 9,
side. The calculated Mach numbers for design condition
due to the very restricted number of pressure tappings
indicate an improvement because, on the suction side
in this region. Behind the bubble, at x/c of about .8,
the pressure gradient is less steep, Fig. 13. On the
an increase of wall friction occurs indicated by a
other hand the Mach number maximum increases up to
darker region. This is in agreement with the corres-
ML = .66 and the predicted energy loss does not
ponding schlieren picture for M 2 = .5, Fig. 12, show-
decrease significantly. Moreover, for larger stagger
ing a rapid increase of turbulent boundary layer
-
angles, y , the flow channel is of convergent-divergent
thickness at about the same chordwise location.
type, which should be avoided.

Therefore, in subsequent iterations, the pressure side

For higher Mach numbers ( M 2 > .65 ) the energy loss,
^, increases considerably, Fig. 8. This disadvantage
of blade II can be explained with the steep pressure
rise on the suction side near the trailing edge,
Fig. 7, which in turn is caused by the small radius of
curvature, Fig. 6, as already explained. Consequently,
flow separation occurs for M 2 = .8 as can be seen from
Fig. 12.
has been changed as well. Blade III, the final result
of this process, is shown in Figs. 5 , 6 and 13. The
predicted energy loss has been decreased to _ .031
which is a relative reduction of about 13%.
Nevertheless, one disadvantage of this blade remains,
which is the overexpansion on the pressure side at
x/c = .2, Fig. 13. This is caused by the discontinuity

C
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ice%r '=

M = .5
2 M2 = .8
Fig. 12 Schlieren pictures of cascade II ( g/c = .8, y= 61.5 0 , S = 90 0

of R, Fig. 6, where the concave leading edge switches

M1
to the convex pressure side, Fig. 5 . To avoid this
.6
discontinuity for future blade designs, the part of

5 / \ the computer code generating the pressure side has

been recently modified.
4

.2 ^ blade CHARACTERISTICS OF THE IMPROVED "STANDARD

--- II BLADE"
II ,

1
— ID
For design conditions the flow field has been calcu-
0
0 .2 ,G 6 .8 1.0 lated for comparison with the TMP code, Fig. 14. Up to
xis
x/c = .3 the results agree completely, downstream from
this range the Mach numbers are higher using the TMP
method and the pressure gradient on the suction side
near the trailing edge decreases. However, the blade
loading is almost the same.
Fig. 13 : Local Mach numbers on blade II, II' and III
( singularity method ) Blade III has also been investigated in DFVLR's

7
 M1 it
r

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f I suction side
.45

.0 1723 .35
J J pressure side

0 .2 1. .6 .8X /c 1.0

I -y N'1 M2 2
.,44 ; . y ^ may" dRS"

TMP 60.0° .180 .471 24.6 0

singularity
method
60.0 ° .179

numbers
.465 24.3

on
°

blade III
1
Fig. 14 : Local Mach Fig. 15 Oil flow pattern on blade III ( g/c = .8,
( comparison : singularity method vs time-marching
°
Y = 61.5 , al = 90 , M2 = .5 ) °
procedure )

suction side at x/c = .45, Fig. 15. On the pressure

wind tunnel for straight cascades, (10). The cascade side at .2 < x/c < .3 the compression results in a
geometries and the range of Mach numbers, M 2 , as in laminar separation bubble followed by transition.
case of cascade II tests. Results from wake traverses Further downstream attached flow is obvious. In sum-
are shown in Fig. 8. Variation of downstream flow mary, this leads to the conclusion that the
angle was made by varying the stagger angles from accelerated/decelerated flow at x/c = .3 on the pres-
0
53.5 to 65.5 0 and the corresponding Reynolds numbers sure side is of minor effect to the losses than the
vary from .6 * 10 6 to 1.1 * 10 6 . The considerable gain of the other profile changes.
decrease of the energy loss, F" , is obvious and con-
firms the prediction for design condtions. For off-de- Finally, experimental investigations from the multis-
sign operation, over a remarkable range of flow angles tage testrig of KWU are shown in Fig. 16. A detailed
2 from 21 0 to 27 ° and Mach numbers M 2 from .5 to .65, description of the testrig and the evaluation method
the decrease of F compared with blade II is even more
than predicted ( about 25% ).
95
TMP code results are compared with the experimental 7 1u

ones in Fig. 9 showing a satisfactory agreement bet-

.93 blade III
ween experiment and theory. Comparison with cascade blade II
0
II indicates that the experimental results also con-
91
firm the predicted improvements.

The boundary layer calculation is shown in Fig. 10. On 89

the suction side transition is predicted at x/c = .55

and on the pressure side at x/c = .12 followed by a 87 `

* .3 .4 .5 e 6
steep increase of 5/c at x/c = .3. The corresponding
oil flow visualization picture shows transition on the Fig. 16 : Stage efficiency for bldes II and III

8
is given in (11). Variation of the stagger angle from
53.5 0 to 65.5 0 was used to vary E = sin S„ at the
fixed Reynolds number of 3.0 * 10 6 . It can be seen
that the stage efficiency, n , increases in the range
u 6 Heinemann,H.-J.
of operation when blade III is used. This confirms the
results from the cascade measurements.
CONCLUSION
The design procedure of Kraftwerk-Union ( KWU ), Muel-
heim for HP/IP steam turbine blades using profile
description by mathematical functions and cascade flow
calculation by means of a singularity method is
described. This procedure has been applied in order to
develop an improved "standard profile". Theoretical
and experimental cascade investigations carried out at
German Aerospace Research Establishment ( DFVLR ) in
Goettingen have demonstrated a marked improvement in
comparison to former designs.
REFERENCES
1 Purcaru,B.-T.
Attorney docket number VPA 80P9461 the interna-
tional priority of which is claimed under
35 USC 119 or
Patentanmeldung der KWU beim deutschen Patentamt,
Muenchen,Aktenzeichen P 3029082.5-13 and
P 3201436.8-13
2 Lehthaus,F.
Berechnung der transsonischen Stroemung durch
ebene Turbinengitter nach dem Zeitschrittverfah-
ren, VDI-Forschungsheft Nr. 586 "Untersuchnugen
ueber die transsonische Stroemung durch Turbinen-
Schaufelgitter", S. 5-24, VDI-Verlag, Duesseldorf,
1978
3 Lawaczeck,O.;Buetefisch,K.A.;Heinemann,H.-J.
Vortex streets in the wakes of subsonic and tran-
sonic turbine cascades, IUTAM Symposium sur 1'Aer-
oelasticite dans le Turbomachine
Revue Francaise de Mechanique, Numero special
p. 9 - 16 ( 1976
4 Lawaczeck,0.
Der Pruefstand fuer ebene Schaufelgitter der aero-
dynamischen Versuchsanstalt Goettingen
DFVLR-AVA Bericht 70 A 46 ( 1970 )
5 Kost,F.H.;Graham,C.G.
Shock Boundary Layer Interaction on High Turning
Transonic Turbine Cascades, ASME technical paper
79-GT-37 ( 1979
Experimentell Untersuchungen an dem Trommelstufen-
profil II im kompressiblen Unterschallbereich
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DFVLR-AVA Bericht 72 C 14 ( 1972
7 Lehthaus,F.
Experimentell Untersuchungen an dem Trommelstufen-
profil II im kompressiblen Unterschallbereich
DFVLR-AVA Bericht 73 C 11 ( 1973
8 Giess,P.-A.
Basisprofil I fuer Dampfturbinen-Hoch- and -Mit-
teldruckstufen, Experimentelle Untersuchungen and
Vergleich mit den Profilen II and III
DFVLR-AVA Bericht 81 A 22 ( 1981
9 Rotta,J.C.
Fortran-IV Rechenprogramm fuer Grenzschichten bei
kompressiblen ebenen and achsensymmetrischen
Stroemungen
DLR-FB 71-51 ( 1971
10 Lehthaus,F.;Giess,P.-A.
Systematische experimentelle Untersuchungen zum
Einfluss der Gittergeometrie an einem Dampfturbi-
nen - Mitteldruckstufen-Profil III
DFVLR-AVA Bericht 79 C 18 ( 1979
11 Kraemer,P.
Stroemungstechnische Untersuchungen an vierstufi-
gen Modellturbinen mit II- and III- Profilen im
Turbinenpruefstand der KWU
KWU, Muelheim, Techn. Bericht TM/TVL/002 ( 1979
12 Amecke,J.
Probleme der transsonischen Stroemung durch Turbi-
nen - Schaufelgitter
VDI-Forschungsheft Nr. 540,
VDI Verlag Duesseldorf ( 1970
13 Heinemann, H.-J.
Influence of Secondary Flow Effects on Blade Sur-
face Measurements in 2D Transonic Cascades
AGARD Conference proceedings No. 214, Secondary
Flow in Turbomachines ( 1977 )