Juli Pearson

Date of Award

January 2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Forrest Ames

Abstract

The growing demand for increased efficiency in turbine engine designs has sparked a growing interest for research of air flow around curved surfaces. The turbine’s operating conditions result in material property constraints, especially in the first stage turbine vanes and blades. These turbine vane components experience extreme loading conditions of both high temperature and high turbulence intensities exiting the combustor. The surface of the turbine blades has cylindrical leading edges that promote stabilizing flow accelerations. These convex surfaces can cause a reduced eddy diffusivity across the boundary layer.

This thesis reviews measurements of velocity and turbulence intensities taken just shy of the thirty degrees offset from the stagnation line of a two-dimensional cylindrical leading edge under a wide range of turbulence and flow conditions flow conditions. Flow conditions and velocity measurements were gathered with respect to the distance to the surface. The length of the measurements extended from the surface to beyond the boundary layer’s edge. The instrumentation used to collect data was a single wire driven by a constant temperature anemometer bridge. The hot wire is specially modified to measure data near the cylindrical leading edges curved surface. The traversing system allowed the acquisition of high-resolution boundary layer data. The traversing system was installed internally to the cylindrical leading edge to reduce probe blockage.

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