The Analysis of Leading Edge Deformations on Turbomachine Blades

With recent advancements in the development of material and manufacturing technology, the leading edge geometry of turbomachine blades has attracted widespread attention. “Sharp” leading edges always have a better aerodynamic performance, though it is prone to deformations easily. Thus, flat plates and real compressor cascades with different leading edge deformations were investigated to study the influence, which is applicable for thin blades at low speeds. Different boundary layer characteristics, including the velocity profile, transition process, and loss, are compared. The results show that there are several kinds of contradictory influence mechanisms and that the final phenomenon is closely related to the condition of the original boundary layer. In low turbulence, with large and laminar separation, the deformations can suppress separation and decrease loss. In high turbulence, with short and transitional separation, deformations can promote the transition process and increase the loss. The sensitivities of different the original leading edge shapes are also compared. This indicates that a good design always has a better robustness at low turbulence values, while it is worse at high turbulence values. The cascade experiment and simulation show that the deformation influence is similar to flat plates and that it is enlarged near the hub, which affects the corner separation.