Active Fluidic Control of a Nozzle Guide Vane Throat

Abstract Experiments were conducted to validate the building blocks of a fluidically controlled variable area turbine concept that uses injected high-pressure air to effectively reduce the choke area of the turbine inlet. Preliminary results from a simple quasi-1D converging-diverging nozzle, with an injection flow slot upstream of the throat, showed a 2.2:1 ratio between throttled mass flowrate and injected mass flowrate at a constant nozzle pressure ratio. The penetration of the injection flow and corresponding reduction in the primary flow streamtube were successfully visualized using a shadowgraph technique. Building on this success, a representative single passage nozzle guide vane transonic flowpath was constructed to demonstrate feasibility beyond the quasi-1D converging-diverging nozzle. Both secondary slot blowing from the vane pressure surface and vane suction surface just upstream of the passage throat again successfully reduced primary flow. In addition, fluidic vortex generators were used on the adjacent suction surface to reduce total pressure loss and further throttle the primary flow. Implications for the application of this active flow control technology to a variable area turbine are considered.