Influence of coupled boundary layer suction and bowed blade on flow field and performance of a diffusion cascade

Based on the investigation of mid-span local boundary layer suction and positive bowed cascade, a coupled local tailored boundary layer suction and positive bowed blade method is developed to improve the performance of a highly loaded diffusion cascade with less suction slot. The effectiveness of the coupled method under different inlet boundary layers is also investigated. Results show that mid-span local boundary layer suction can effectively remove trailing edge separation, but deteriorate the flow fields near the endwall. The positive bowed cascade is beneficial for reducing open corner separation, but is detrimental to mid-span flow fields. The coupled method can further improve the performance and flow field of the cascade. The mid-span trailing edge separation and open corner separation are eliminated. Compared with linear cascade with suction, the coupled method reduces overall loss of the cascade by 31.4% at most. The mid-span loss of the cascade decreases as the suction coefficient increases, but increases as bow angle increases. The endwall loss increases as the suction coefficient increases. By contrast, the endwall loss decreases significantly as the bow angle increases. The endwall loss of coupled controlled cascade is higher than that of bowed cascade with the same bow angle because of the spanwise inverse “C” shaped static pressure distribution. Under different inlet boundary layer conditions, the coupled method can also improve the cascade effectively.