On the performance of a cascade of improved turbine nozzle blades in nucleating steam. Part 2: Wake traverses

This article is the second of a set and describes the results of wake traverses and droplet measurements in a cascade of steam turbine improved nozzle blade profiles. In the course of expansion of steam in turbines the state path crosses the saturation line, the fluid nucleates become wet, and the succeeding stages have to operate on a two-phase mixture. The formation and subsequent behaviour of the liquid phase lowers the performance of turbine wet stages. To study these problems systematically the turbine two-phase flow conditions need to be reproduced realistically, which can be done under blow down conditions. Following earlier studies of typical profiles in nucleating steam the performance of a new design of blades is presented. A substantially improved aerodynamic performance is achieved by the new profile.