An Experimentally Derived Model to Predict the Water Film in a Compressor Cascade With Droplet Laden Flow

In recent years, overspray fogging has become a powerful means for power augmentation of industrial gas turbines. Despite the positive thermodynamic effect on the cycle, droplets entering the compressor increase the risk of water droplet erosion and deposition of water on the blades leading to an increase of required torque and profile loss. Due to this, detailed information about the structure and the amount of water on the surface is key for compressor performance. Experiments were conducted with a droplet laden flow in a transonic compressor cascade focusing on the film formed by the deposited water. Two approaches were taken. In the first approach, the film thickness on the blade was directly measured using white light interferometry. Due to significant distortion of the flow caused by the measurement system, a transfer of the measured film thickness to the undisturbed case is not possible. Therefore, a film model is adapted to describe the film flow in terms of height averaged film parameters. In the second approach, experiments were conducted in an undisturbed cascade setup and the water film pattern was measured using a nonintrusive quantitative image processing tool. Utilizing the measured flow pattern in combination with findings from the literature, the rivulet flow structure is resolved. From continuity of the water flow, a film thickness is derived showing good agreement with the previously calculated results. Using both approaches, a three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of the water film pattern is created giving first experimental results of the film forming on stationary compressor blades under overspray fogging conditions.