Growth of Secondary Losses and Vorticity in an Axial Turbine Cascade

The growth of losses, secondary kinetic energy, and streamwise vorticity have been studied in a high turning rotor cascade. Negative vorticity associated with the passage vortex agreed well with predictions of classical secondary flow theory in the early part of the blade passage. However, toward the exit, the distortion of the flow by the secondary velocities rendered the predictions inaccurate. Areas of positive vorticity were associated with the feeding of loss into the bulk flow and have been related to separation lines observed by surface flow visualization.