Investigation of endwall flows and losses in axial turbines. Part I. Formation of endwall flows and losses

Endwall flows are among the most important sources of loss in turbines. The process of formation of endwall flows and evolution of vorticity from the endwall boundary layers is briefly described in the paper. The resulting endwall losses are discussed. The endwall boundary layer losses are evaluated theoretically by integrating the entropy increase in the boundary layer and assuming a certain model of blade profile load. The endwall losses are also calculated with the help of CFD in a 3D straight turbine cascade of Durham and compared with the results of available experimental data of ERCOFTAC.