Poor Blade Curvature - A Contributor in the Loss of Performance in the Compressor Unit of Gas Turbine Systems

Abstract

The relationship between the curvatures of the blade and the loss of performance of the compressor unit of the gas turbine system was studied. Three blade sets of three different blade curvatures 20^o, 35^o and 50^o were fabricated for this investigation. The blades were tested in a manually fabricated wooden wind tunnel and points of flow separation and vortex height on the trailing edge of each blade set were recorded. The obtained results were then analyzed with respect to the blade velocity distribution effects, compressibility effects and blade loading effects. The analysis indicates that the larger the blade curvature the higher the possibility of poor performance of the system.

Keywords: blade curvature, flow separation, vortex height, velocity, blade loading, stagnation, pressure, suction surface.