scholarly journals CFD analysis of optical probe interaction with wet steam flow field

2018 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 02045 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Kolovratník ◽  
Gukchol Jun ◽  
Ondřej Bartoš

In the frame of the measurement feasibility study of the liquid phase size distribution structure in steam turbines at intermediate and high pressures, on CTU the interaction of optical probes with the wet steam flow field is investigated. In order to validate and refine the existing knowledge, a new series of CFD simulations were performed, considering turbine flow geometry, water steam characteristics according to IAPWS97 formulation, and improved boundary conditions and quality of the computing mesh. This paper briefly presents the newly obtained results

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 125901
Author(s):  
Ilias Bosdas ◽  
Michel Mansour ◽  
Anestis I Kalfas ◽  
Reza S Abhari

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoshu Cai ◽  
Lili Wang ◽  
Yongzhi Pan ◽  
Xin Ouyan ◽  
Jianqi Shen

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (9) ◽  
pp. 2675-2681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sławomir Dykas ◽  
Mirosław Majkut ◽  
Krystian Smołka ◽  
Michał Strozik

Author(s):  
M. R. Mahpeykar ◽  
E. Amirirad ◽  
E. Lakzian

Progress in the development of the steam turbines brings about a renewal of interest in wetness associated problems. In turbine steam expansion, the vapour first supercools and then condenses spontaneously to become a two phase mixture. The flow initially is single phase but after Wilson point water droplets are developed and there is a non equilibrium two phase flow. The formation and behavior of the liquid create problems that lower the performance of the turbine wet stage and the mechanisms underlying this are insufficiently understood. This growing droplets release their latent heat to the flow and this heat addition to the supersonic flow cause a pressure rise called condensation shock. Because of irreversible heat transfer in this region the entropy will increase tremendously. Removal of condensates from wet steam flow in the last stage of steam turbines significantly promotes stage efficiency and prevents erosion of rotors. The following study investigates the spraying water droplets at inlet and at throat of mini Laval nozzle and their effects on nucleation rate and condensation shock. According to the results, the nucleation rate is considerably suppressed and therefore the condensation shock nearly disappeared. In other words the injecting droplets would decrease the thermodynamic losses or improve the turbine efficiency.


Author(s):  
X Cai ◽  
T Ning ◽  
F Niu ◽  
G Wu ◽  
Y Song

The direct air-cooling steam turbines have been operated more and more in the north of China. The backpressure of a turbine is affected easily with weather and varies very often in a short time. The variation of backpressure in a larger range from about 10 to 60 kPa causes many problems in design and operation of the turbine. To study the properties of the wet steam flow in the low pressure direct air-cooling steam turbine, an optical—pneumatic probe was developed based on the multi-wavelength light extinction and four-hole wedge probe. Measurements with this probe in a 300 MW direct air-cooling turbine were carried out. The measured local wetness, total wetness of exhaust steam, size distribution of fine droplets, and their profiles along the blade height are presented. The measured cylinder efficiency and total wetness agree well with the results obtained by the thermal performance tests.


Author(s):  
Yasuhiro Sasao ◽  
Satoshi Miyake ◽  
Kenji Okazaki ◽  
Satoru Yamamoto ◽  
Hiroharu Ooyama

In this paper, we present an inclusive tracking algorithm for water droplets in a wet steam flow through a multi-stage steam turbine. This algorism is based on the Eulerian-Lagrangian coupled solver. The solver continuously computes water droplet growth, kinematic non-equilibrium between vapor and droplets, capture and kinetics of droplets on turbine blades, departure of large droplets from the trailing edge of blades, acceleration and atomization of large droplets, and recollisions between blades and droplets. Our Eulerian-Lagrangian coupled solver is used to predict wetness in unsteady three-dimensional (3D) wet steam flows through three-stage stator rotor cascade channels in a low pressure (LP) steam turbine model which is developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). Droplet groups tracked by the discrete droplet model (DDM) are placed in the computational domain according to the predicted wetness. Interference from the gas phase on the droplets is considered, to track their kinetic and behavior, until they reach the outlet of the computational domain. The aim of this research is to investigate those multi-physics phenomena that trigger all forms of loss in steam turbines. In addition, this method will also be applied to multi-physics problems such as erosion in future work. This paper is presented as a first step in the research. Overviews of model of current coupling solver and several test calculations are presented.


Author(s):  
Michal Kolovratnik ◽  
Gukchol Jun

Abstract The Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU) has been conducting both theoretical and experimental research on wet steam for over 50 years. Part of this research has focused on the development of an instrument for measuring the structure of the liquid phase of wet steam — an optical extinction probe. The measurements of the wet steam structure using our optical extinction probe take place in operative steam turbines. Due to the non-negligible interaction of the probe with the flow field in its vicinity, the wet steam parameters within the probe measuring space change. This probe-flow field interaction (PFFI) negatively affects the accuracy of the measurement of the liquid phase structure. This paper presents partial results of our research into the interaction between the optical probe and the surrounding flow field. Particularly, it is the result of CFD simulations of wet steam (WS) flow in the low-pressure section of a 1000 MW nuclear plant steam turbine, in which the probe has been used repeatedly. In the simulations we consider, non-equilibrium condensation allows for the observation of the formation and development of the liquid phase within the turbine. The influence of PFFI on the liquid phase structure is evaluated by a coefficient called the Probe Influence Factor (PIF). In this work, the PIF values are presented for 3 varying traversing positions of the probe along the L-1 stage turbine blade. The use of the PIF to analyse the experimental measurement results is also discussed. The second part of the paper deals with the possibility of modifying the shape of the probe measuring head. Based on detailed analysis of the CFD simulations of PFFI, modifying the shape of the probe is proposed to reduce this interaction. The benefit of this change is evaluated using CFD simulations. Comparisons between the PIF coefficients of the original and modified optical probes indicate that modifying the shape may reduce the PFFI influence on experimental measurements.


Author(s):  
Tao Guo ◽  
Mark Burnett ◽  
Norman Turnquist ◽  
Francisco Moraga

The presence of moisture in steam turbines is known to cause blade erosion and reduce turbine performance. As a result, nucleating wet steam flow has been the topic of both academic and engineering research for many decades. However, almost all of the previous experimental studies on steam nucleation have been carried out under low pressure supersonic flow conditions, either in converging-diverging (Laval) nozzles or in supersonic airfoil cascades. Some recent experimental studies conducted droplet size/wetness measurements within actual turbines, but these tests in general only give qualitative assessment on the nucleation phenomena. They are not intended to study the mechanisms of the nucleating steam flow. In this paper, an experimental study of nucleating wet steam flow under high-pressure subsonic flow conditions is presented. In particular, the world’s first high-pressure subsonic nucleation test rig was designed and built at the GE Global Research Center. This advanced test rig takes high pressure (up to 1000 psia) clean steam with controlled inlet superheat and expands it through 1D subsonic nozzles. The Wilson line location and the length of the nucleation zone are controlled through different combinations of inlet steam pressure and superheat, and overall pressure ratios. An advanced optical measurement system was developed and used to measure the Wilson line, the ensuing condensation zone, and the droplet size and number density generated from nucleation. The flow path in the nozzle is visible through specially designed sapphire windows. The optical system is essentially comprised of two laser-photodiode pairs (405 nm and 689 nm wavelength), which can be traversed along the length of the nozzle. The experiment data have indicated that significant differences exist between high pressure subsonic nucleation and low pressure supersonic nucleation. Further, an in-house 1D analytical tool as well as a 3D multiphase CFD have been used to model the test runs, and reasonable agreements have been obtained. This study has direct application in the design of Nuclear and Concentrated Solar high pressure steam turbines.


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