Visualization of Pressure and Skin-Friction Fields on Rotating Blade Under Low-Pressure Conditions

Distributions of the pressure and mass transfer coefficient on rotating blades under low-pressure (low-Reynolds-number) conditions were visualized, whereas the latter is closely related to the skin-friction distribution. Two types of optical measurement techniques, lifetime-based pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) measurements and sublimation visualization, were implemented for the experiment inside a low-pressure chamber. For the lifetime-based PSP measurement, different types of PSP were compared, and the one most suitable in low-pressure applications was selected. In addition, the gate time setting for the low-pressure condition was determined. For the sublimation method, naphthalene was selected as the sublimation surface based on previous studies. The rotating blade test model was a 0.3-m-diam rotor system with two rectangular blades with an aspect ratio of two. The experiments were carried out at a rotational speed of 2400 rpm and at an ambient pressure of 10 kPa. The three-fourth-span Reynolds number was 9000. The pitch angle of the blades was set to 0–20 deg. Both methods successfully illustrated clear images of the distribution of pressure and mass transfer coefficients on the upper surface of the blade, and the measurement in the low-pressure environment was successful.