High Speed Cascade Testing and its Application to Axial Flow Supersonic Compressors

This paper describes the high speed cascade program underway at the von Karman Institute Turbomachinery Laboratory in Belgium. The primary purpose of the program is to contribute to the understanding of turbomachinery flow problems at transonic and supersonic speeds. Supersonic axial flow rotor blade sections and subsonic stator blade sections are investigated in a high speed cascade facility. The paper describes the cascade facility, instrumentation, and blade sections investigated. The aerodynamic flow through high subsonic and supersonic cascade blades is discussed, and some data obtained in the cascade tunnel are compared with those obtained in a rotating machine. Several major problems of high speed cascade testing are discussed, although a final solution is not always presented.