Choice of Blade Profile, Pitch and Chord

SRM University
Propulsion-II
Choice of blade profile, pitch and chord

The choice of stator and rotor blade shapes, which will accept the gas incident upon
the leading edge, and deflect the gas through the required angle with the minimum loss. An
overall blade loss coefficient Y must account for the following sources of friction loss. We
are going to choose the stator and rotor blade angles which will accept the gas incidence upon
L.E and deflect the gas through the required angle with the minimum loss.
Losses
Overall blade
loss coefficient
Profile loss
Annulus loss
Measured
in cascade
Secondary
flow loss
Tip clearance
loss
Grouped into one term

secondary loss s
Total Profile Annulus Secondary Tip clearance

flow loss
Loss
Profile loss
It is associated with boundary layer growth over the blade profile, which includes the
separation loss under adverse conditions of extreme angles of incidence or high inlet Mach
number.
Fig 1.8 Boundary layer growth over blade profile
A.Vinoth Kumar Department of Aerospace Engineering
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Annulus loss
It is associated with boundary layer growth on the inner and outer walls of the annulus.
Fig 1.9 Annulus loss
Secondary flow loss

This loss arising from secondary flows which are always present when a wall boundary layer
is turned through an angle by an adjacent curved surface.
Fig 1.10 Secondary flow loss
Tip clearance loss

Near the rotor blade tip the gas does not follow the intended path, fails to contribute its
quota of work output, and interacts with the outer wall boundary layer.
Fig 1.11 Tip clearance loss
The profile loss coefficient Yp is measured directly in cascade tests. Losses annulus and
secondary losses cannot easily be separated, and they are accounted for by a secondary loss
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coefficient YS. The tip clearance loss coefficient, which normally arises only for rotor blades,
will be denoted by Yk. Thus the total loss coefficient Y comprises the accurately measured
two-dimensional loss Yp plus the three-dimensional loss (YS + Yk) which must be deduced
from turbine stage test results.
Choice of Blade profile
Figure 1.12 conventional steam turbine blade profile
Figure 1.12 shows a conventional steam turbine blade profile constructed from
circular arcs and straight lines. Gas turbines have until recently used profiles closely
resembling this, although specified by aerofoil terminology. One example is shown as the T6
base profile which is symmetrical about the centre line, It has a thickness/chord ratio (t/c) of
01, a leading edge radius of 12 percent t and a trailing edge radius of 6 percent t. When
scaled up to a t/c of 02 and used in conjunction with a parabolic camber line having the point
of maximum camber a distance of about 40 percent c from the leading edge, the T6 profile
leads to a blade section similar to that shown but with a radiused trailing edge. In particular,
the back of the blade after the throat is virtually straight. Other shapes used in British practice
have been RAF 27 and C7 base profiles on both circular and parabolic arc camber lines. All
such blading may be referred to as conventional blading.
It is important to remember that the velocity triangles yield the gas angles, not the
blade angles. Typical cascade results showing the effect of incidence on the profile loss
coefficient Yp for impulse ( 0 and 2 3 ) and reaction type blading are given in Fig.
1.13. Evidently, with reaction blading the angle of incidence can vary from -15 to + 15
without increase in Yp. The picture is not very different even when three-dimensional losses
are taken into account. This means that a rotor blade could be designed to have an inlet angle
2 equal to say ( 2r 5 ) at the root and ( 2t 10 ) at the tip to reduce the twist required by
a vortex design. It must be remembered, however, that a substantial margin of safe incidence
range must be left to cope with part-load operating conditions of pressure ratio, mass flow
and rotational speed.
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Fig 1.13 effect of incidence upon YP
With regard to the outlet angle, it has been common steam turbine practice to take the
gas angle as being equal to the blade angle defined by cos- 1(opening/pitch). This takes
account of the bending of the flow as it fills up the narrow space in the wake of the trailing
edge; there is no 'deviation' in the sense of that obtained with decelerating flow in a
compressor cascade. Tests on gas turbine cascades have shown, however, that the cos-1(o/s)
rule is an overcorrection for blades of small outlet angle operating with low gas velocities, i.e
for some rotor blades. Figure 1.14 shows the relation between the relative gas outlet angle,
3 say, and the blade angle defined by cos-1(o/s). The relation does not seem to be affected
by incidence within the working range of 15 degrees. This curve is applicable to 'straightbacked' conventional blades operating with a relative outlet Mach number below 0.5. With a
Mach number of unity the cos-1(o/s) rule is good for all outlet angles, and at Mach numbers
intermediate between 0.5 and 1.0 it can be assumed that [ cos1 (o/ s) 3 ] varies linearly with
Mach number.
Fig 1.14 Relation between gas and blade outlet angle
Note that until the pitch and chord have been established it is not possible to draw a
blade section to scale, determine the 'opening', and proceed by trial and error to make
adjustments until the required gas outlet angle 2 or 3 is obtained. Furthermore, this process
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must be carried out at a number of radii from root to tip to specify the shape of the blade as a
whole. Now the pitch and chord have to be chosen with due regard to
(a) The effect of the pitch/chord ratio (s/c) on the blade loss coefficient,
(b) The effect of chord upon the aspect ratio (h/c), remembering that h has already
been determined,
(c) The effect of rotor blade chord on the blade stresses, and
(d) The effect of rotor blade pitch upon the stresses at the point of attachment of the
blades to the turbine disc.
Optimum pitch to chord ratio (s/c)

Fig.1.15 shows the optimum pitch to chord ratio for different gas angles and blade
angles. These curves suggest, as might be expected, that the greater the gas deflection
required [ (1 2 ) for a stator blade and 2 3 for a rotor blade] the smaller must be the
'optimum's/c ratio to control the gas adequately. The adjective 'optimum' is in inverted
commas because it is an optimum with respect to Yp not to the overall loss Y. The true
optimum value of s/c could be found only by making a detailed estimate of stage
performance for several stage designs differing in s/c but otherwise similar. In fact the sIc
value is not very critical.
Fig 1.15 Optimum pitch to chord ratio(s/c)
Consider the nozzle gas angles and rotor blade angles as mentioned below
1m 0 , 2m 58.38 , 2m 20.49 , 3m 54.96
The optimum pitch to chord ratio for the above considered angles can be found by using
fig1.15 by the correlating 1m with 2 m for nozzle and 2 m with 3m for rotor.
(s/ c) N 0.86
(s/ c)R 0.83
Choice of Aspect ratio (h/c)

The influence of aspect ratio is open to estimation, but for our purpose it is sufficient to note
that, although not critical, too low a value is likely to lead to secondary flow and tip clearance
effects occupying an unduly large proportion of the blade height and so increasing Ys for the
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Propulsion-II
nozzle row and (YS + Yk) for the rotor row. On the other hand, too high a value of h/c will
increase the likelihood of vibration trouble: vibration characteristics are difficult to predict
and they depend on the damping 'provided by the method of attaching the blades to the
turbine disc. A value of h/c between 3 and 4 would certainly be very satisfactory, and it
would be unwise to use a value below 1.
Consider a gas turbine with the mean height of the nozzle and rotor blades are given by
1
1
hN (h1 h2 ) (0.046 0.0612) 0.0536 m
2
2
1
1
hR (h2 h3 ) (0.0612 0.077) 0.0691m
2
2
The chord of the nozzle and rotor can be obtained by adopting aspect ratio (h/c) of 3.
h
3
C N
h
0.0536
CN N
0.0175m
3
3
h
3
C R
h
0.0691
CR R
0.023m
3
3
Using these values of chord, in conjunction with the chosen s/c values, gives the blade
pitches at the mean radius of 0.216 m as
(s/ c) N 0.86
sN 0.86 C N 0.86 0.0175 0.01506m
(s/ c) R 0.83
sR 0.83 CR 0.83 0.023 0.0191m
The number of blades can be calculated by using the pitch of the nozzle and rotor blades
2 rm 2 (0.216)
nN
90
sN
0.01506
2 rm 2 (0.216)
71
sR
0.0191
It is usual to avoid numbers with common multiples to reduce the probability of introducing
resonant forcing frequencies. A common practice is to use an even number for the nozzle
blades and a prime number for the rotor blades. As it happens the foregoing numbers are
satisfactory and there is no need to modify them and re-evaluate the pitch s.
nR
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Choice of Blade Profile, Pitch and Chord

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What are the different types of losses in a gas turbine?

What are the different types of losses in a gas turbine?

How does the pitch to chord ratio affect gas deflection?

How does the pitch to chord ratio affect gas deflection?

SRM University

Choice of blade profile, pitch and chord

Grouped into one term

Total Profile Annulus Secondary Tip clearance

Fig 1.8 Boundary layer growth over blade profile

A.Vinoth Kumar Department of Aerospace Engineering

Fig 1.9 Annulus loss

Secondary flow loss

Fig 1.10 Secondary flow loss

Tip clearance loss

Fig 1.11 Tip clearance loss

Choice of Blade profile

Figure 1.12 conventional steam turbine blade profile

A.Vinoth Kumar Department of Aerospace Engineering

Fig 1.13 effect of incidence upon YP

Fig 1.14 Relation between gas and blade outlet angle

A.Vinoth Kumar Department of Aerospace Engineering

Optimum pitch to chord ratio (s/c)

Fig 1.15 Optimum pitch to chord ratio(s/c)

Choice of Aspect ratio (h/c)

A.Vinoth Kumar Department of Aerospace Engineering

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