A Study on Flow Control Effect by Application of Gurney Flaps in Low Pressure Turbine Airfoils for Aeroengine

Abstract

In this research, we have studied low pressure turbine airfoils used in high bypass ratio turbofan engine which is currently mainstream as aeroengine. One of the approaches to weight reduction of low pressure turbine is to reduce the number of blades. However, as the inter-blade pressure gradient increases due to the high load, a strong secondary flow is generated and the turbine efficiency is remarkably lowered. In addition, the outflow angle is greatly changed by the secondary flow.

In this study, we applied Gurney Flap to low pressure turbine airfoils, and investigated its performance of controlling the outflow angle through experiment and numerical analyses. Further optimization of the gurney flap shape was also done.