Recent Advances in Manufacturing of Riblets on Compressor Blades and Their Aerodynamic Impact

Since Oehlert et al. (2007), significant improvements in the manufacturing processes of riblets by laser-structuring and grinding have been achieved. In the present study, strategies for manufacturing small-scale grooves with a spacing smaller than 40 μm by metal bonded grinding wheels are presented. For the laser-structuring process, significant improvements of the production time by applying diffractive optical elements were achieved. Finally, strategies for evaluating the geometrical quality of the small-scale surface structures are shown and results obtained with two different measuring techniques (SEM and confocal microscope) are compared with each other. The aerodynamic impact of the different manufacturing processes is investigated based upon skin friction reduction data obtained on flat plates as well as the profile-loss reduction of riblet-structured compressor blades measured in a linear cascade wind tunnel. Numerical simulations with MISES embedded in a Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) were performed in order to calculate the profile-loss reduction of a blade structured by grinding to define further improvements of the riblet-geometry. A numerical as well as experimental study quantifying the relevant geometrical parameters indicate how further improvements from the present 4 % reduction in skin friction can be achieved by an additional decrease of the riblet tip-diameter and a more trapezoidal shape of the groove in order to realize the 8 % potential reduction.</jats:p

Electrode potential dependent desolvation and resolvation of germanium(100) in contact with aqueous perchlorate electrolytes

The electrode potential dependence of the hydration layer on an n-Ge(100) surface was studied by a combination of in situ and operando electrochemical attenuated total reflection infrared (ATR-IR) spectroscopy and real space density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Constant-potential DFT calculations were coupled to a modified generalised Poisson–Boltzmann ion distribution model and applied within an ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) scheme. As a result, potential-dependent vibrational spectra of surface species and surface water were obtained, both experimentally and by simulations. The experimental spectra show increasing absorbance from the Ge–H stretching modes at negative potentials, which is associated with an increased negative difference absorbance of water-related OH modes. When the termination transition of germanium from OH to H termination occurs, the surface switches from hydrophilic to hydrophobic. This transition is fully reversible. During the switching, the interface water molecules are displaced from the surface forming a “hydrophobic gap”. The gap thickness was experimentally estimated by a continuum electrodynamic model to be ≈2 Å. The calculations showed a shift in the centre of mass of the interface water by ≈0.9 Å due to the surface transformation. The resulting IR spectra of the interfacial water in contact with the hydrophobic Ge–H show an increased absorbance of free OH groups, and a decreased absorbance of strongly hydrogen bound water. Consequently, the surface transformation to a Ge–H terminated surface leads to a surface which is weakening the H-bond network of the interfacial water in contact.This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence