Turbulence measurements in a transonic two-passage turbine cascade

This paper presents detailed turbulence measurements in a two-dimensional, transonic, double passage turbine cascade. Particle image velocimetry was used to obtain mean velocity and turbulence measurements all around a single turbine blade within about 2 mm of the blade and wall surfaces. The passage walls were designed using an optimization procedure so that the blade surface pressure distribution matches that of the blade in an infinite cascade. The resulting experimental model captures much of the complexity of a real turbine stage (including high streamline curvature, strong accelerations, and shocks) in a passage with a continuous wall shape, allowing for high measurement resolution and well controlled boundary conditions for comparison to CFD. The measurements show that in the inviscid regions of the passage the absolute level of the turbulent fluctuations does not change significantly as the flow accelerates, while the local turbulence intensity drops rapidly as the flow accelerates. These results provide a benchmark data set that can be used to improve turbulence models.