Experimental Investigation of Pressure Distribution and Aerodynamic Coefficients in a Blade Cascade of an Airplane Engine Compressor

Experimental investigations of pressure distribution and aerodynamic forces coefficients of a cascade of stator blades in airplane engine compressor were conducted in this research. The blades are of the 67A blade type which relate to the controlled diffusion blades family and are applied in the first stage of the compressor of the turbofan engines. In this regards, three parallel blades were built from Plexiglas, using the Laser cutting method, which two flat plates are attached to both sides of them. Pressure distribution measurement over the blade surface and coefficients of lift, drag and moment at five different angles of attacks ranging between 20 and 45° at Reynolds numbers of 400,000 through 600,000 are obtained. Flow separation effects, especially near the blades leading edges, and their effects on the pressure distribution and aerodynamic coefficients and stall phenomenon are investigated. Angle of attack variations highly affects the flow structure and aerodynamic coefficients of the blades cascade. Furthermore, increasing the angle of attack increases the flow interactions between the blades. The flow separation point over the suction side of the blade moves towards the leading edge due to increasing the angle of attack and it has negligible effects on the separation on the pressure side of the blade.