Experimental investigations on the effects of surface roughness for compressor cascades with different roughness magnitude and location

Abstract Blade surface roughness could significantly affect the aerodynamics performance of compressors. To explore the influence of roughness magnitude and location on blade performance, experiments were conducted in a low-speed linear compressor cascade with controlled diffusion airfoils (CDA). A part-span roughness method was employed in the experiment to maintain the axial velocity density ratio (AVDR) during the change of blade roughness magnitudes and locations. Five blade surface local roughness schemes, including the leading-edge, the fore- and aft-part of the suction surface, and the pressure surface, which were determined based on geometry sensitivity analysis, were investigated with the variation of the surface roughness magnitude between Ra = 3.1μm to 18.8μm. Cascade inlet and outlet flowfields and the blade surface static pressure distributions were measured, which could help to distinguish the change of blade performance characteristics and even blade surface boundary layer development state. A critical roughness effect was found and significant blade loss increment and available incidence range reduction appear at super-critical roughness states. At the measured maxi-roughness condition, 28.4% loss increase and 41.2% incidence range reduction were reached.