scholarly journals Pressure losses and oscillations in a compact valve of a steam turbine

2021 ◽  
Vol 345 ◽  
pp. 00027
Author(s):  
Václav Sláma ◽  
David Šimurda ◽  
Lukáš Mrózek ◽  
Ladislav Tajč ◽  
Jindřich Hála ◽  
...  

Characteristics of a new compact valve design for steam turbines are analysed by measuring pressure losses and oscillations on the valve model. It is the model of an intercept valve of the intermediate-pressure turbine part. This valve is relatively smaller hence cheaper than usual control and intercept valves. Besides, four different valve seat angles were tested in order to investigate the valve seat angle influence. In order to further clarify measured phenomena, the wide range of numerical simulations were also carried out. Measurements were performed in the Aerodynamic laboratory of the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in an air test rig installed in a modular aerodynamic tunnel. Numerical simulations were performed in the Doosan Skoda Power Company using a package of ANSYS software tools. Measurement results are compared with numerical and generalized in the form of valve characteristics and pressure oscillation maps. As a result of the pressure loss analysis, pressure losses in similar valve assemblies can be predicted with required accuracy for each new turbine where modern compact valves are used. As a result of the pressure oscillation analysis, operating conditions at which dangerous flow instabilities can occur were identified. Thanks to this, the areas of safe and dangerous operating conditions can be predicted so that the operational reliability of the valve can be guaranteed.

Author(s):  
Vaclav Slama ◽  
Lukas Mrozek ◽  
Bartolomej Rudas ◽  
David Simurda ◽  
Jindrich Hala ◽  
...  

Abstract Aerodynamic measurements and numerical simulations carried out on a model of a high-pressure valve assembly used for nozzle governing of a turbine with 135MW output are described in this paper. Aim of the study is to investigate effects of control valve’s strainers on pressure losses and unsteadiness in the flow field. It is an important task since undesirable flow fluctuations can lead to operational reliability issues. Measurements were carried out in the Aerodynamic laboratory of the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IT) where an aerodynamic tunnel is installed. Numerical simulations were carried out in the Doosan Skoda Power (DSP) Company using ANSYS software tools. The experimental model consists of one of two identical parts of the real valve assembly. It means it consists of an inlet pipeline, a stop valve, a valve chamber with two independent control valves, its diffusers and outlet pipelines. The numerical model consists of both assembly parts and includes also an A-wheel control stage in order to simulate the real turbine operating points. The different lifts of the main cone in each control valve for its useful combinations were investigated. Results were evaluated on the model with control valve’s strainers, which were historically used in order to stabilize the flow, and without them. The results of the experimental measurement were compared with the numerical results in the form of pressure losses prediction. From measured pressure fluctuations, it was found out where and for which conditions a danger of flow instabilities occurs. It can be concluded that there is a border, in terms of operating conditions, where the flow field starts to be unstable and this border is different dependent of the fact whether the control valve’s strainers are used or not. Therefore, the areas of safe and danger operational reliability can be predicted. The influence of the control valve’s strainers on the maximal amplitude of periodic fluctuations appears only for the cases when valves are highly overloaded. For normal operating conditions, there is no difference. As a result, the control valve’s strainers do not have to be used in standard applications of valve assemblies. Furthermore, a loss model for valve pressure loss estimation could be updated. Therefore, a pressure loss should be predicted with a sufficient accuracy for each new turbine bid with similar valve assemblies.


2020 ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
B. O. Bolshakov ◽  
◽  
R. F. Galiakbarov ◽  
A. M. Smyslov ◽  
◽  
...  

The results of the research of structure and properties of a composite compact from 13 Cr – 2 Мо and BN powders depending on the concentration of boron nitride are provided. It is shown that adding boron nitride in an amount of more than 2% by weight of the charge mixture leads to the formation of extended grain boundary porosity and finely dispersed BN layers in the structure, which provides a high level of wearing properties of the material. The effect of boron nitride concentration on physical and mechanical properties is determined. It was found that the introduction of a small amount of BN (up to 2 % by weight) into the compacts leads to an increase in plasticity, bending strength, and toughness by reducing the friction forces between the metal powder particles during pressing and a more complete grain boundary diffusion process during sintering. The formation of a regulated structure-phase composition of powder compacts of 13 Cr – 2 Mо – BN when the content of boron nitride changes in them allows us to provide the specified physical and mechanical properties in a wide range. The obtained results of studies of the physical and mechanical characteristics of the developed material allow us to reasonably choose the necessary composition of the powder compact for sealing structures of the flow part of steam turbines, depending on their operating conditions.


2004 ◽  
Vol 126 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Jacod ◽  
C. H. Venner ◽  
P. M. Lugt

The effect of longitudinal roughness on the friction in EHL contacts is investigated by means of numerical simulations. In the theoretical model the Eyring equation is used to describe the rheological behavior of the lubricant. First the relative friction variation caused by a single harmonic roughness component is computed as a function of the amplitude and wavelength for a wide range of operating conditions. From the results a curve fit formula is derived for the relative friction variation as a function of the out-of-contact geometry of the waviness and a newly derived parameter characterizing the response of the lubricant to pressure variations. Subsequently, the case of a superposition of two harmonic components is considered. It is shown that for the effect on friction such a combined pattern can be represented by a single equivalent wave. The amplitude and the wavelength of the equivalent wave can be determined from a nonlinear relation in terms of the amplitudes and wavelengths of the individual harmonic components. Finally the approach is applied to the prediction of the effect of a real roughness profile (many components) on the friction. From a comparison of the results with full numerical simulations it appears that the simplified approach is quite accurate.


Author(s):  
Katharina Warncke ◽  
Amsini Sadiki ◽  
Max Staufer ◽  
Christian Hasse ◽  
Johannes Janicka

Abstract Predicting details of aircraft engine combustion by means of numerical simulations requires reliable information about spray characteristics from liquid fuel injection. However, details of liquid fuel injection are not well documented. Indeed, standard droplet distributions are usually utilized in Euler-Lagrange simulations of combustion. Typically, airblast injectors are employed to atomize the liquid fuel by feeding a thin liquid film in the shear zone between two swirled air flows. Unfortunately, droplet data for the wide range of operating conditions during a flight is not available. Focusing on numerical simulations, Direct Numerical simulations (DNS) of full nozzle designs are nowadays out of scope. Reducing numerical costs, but still considering the full nozzle flow, the embedded DNS methodology (eDNS) has been introduced within a Volume of Fluid framework (Sauer et al., Atomization and Sprays, vol. 26, pp. 187–215, 2016). Thereby, DNS domain is kept as small as possible by reducing it to the primary breakup zone. It is then embedded in a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of the turbulent nozzle flow. This way, realistic turbulent scales of the nozzle flow are included, when simulating primary breakup. Previous studies of a generic atomizer configuration proved that turbulence in the gaseous flow has significant impact on liquid disintegration and should be included in primary breakup simulations (Warncke et al., ILASS Europe, Paris, 2019). In this contribution, an industrial airblast atomizer is numerically investigated for the first time using the eDNS approach. The complete nozzle geometry is simulated, considering all relevant features of the flow. Three steps are necessary: 1. LES of the gaseous nozzle flow until a statistically stationary flow is reached. 2. Position and refinement of the DNS domain. Due to the annular nozzle design the DNS domain is chosen as a ring. It comprises the atomizing edge, where the liquid is brought between inner and outer air flow, and the downstream primary breakup zone. 3. Start of liquid fuel injection and primary breakup simulation. Since the simulation of the two-phase DNS and the LES of the surrounding nozzle flow are conducted at the same time, turbulent scales of the gas flow are directly transferred to the DNS domain. The applicability of eDNS to full nozzle designs is demonstrated and details of primary breakup at the nozzle outlet are presented. In particular a discussion of the phenomenological breakup process and spray characteristics is provided.


2003 ◽  
Vol 125 (4) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Jacod ◽  
C. H. Venner ◽  
P. M. Lugt

A previous study of the behavior of friction in EHL contacts for the case of Eyring lubricant behavior resulted in a friction mastercurve. In this paper the same approach is applied to the case of limiting shear stress behavior. By means of numerical simulations the friction coefficient has been computed for a wide range of operating conditions and contact geometries. It is shown that the same two parameters that were found in the Eyring study, a characteristic shear stress, and a reduced coefficient of friction, also govern the behavior of the friction for the case of limiting shear stress models. When the calculated traction data is plotted as a function of these two parameters all results for different cases lie close to a single curve. Experimentally measured traction data is used to validate the observed behavior. Finally, the equations of the mastercurves for both types of rheological model are compared resulting in a relation between the Eyring stress τ0 and the limiting shear stress τL.


Author(s):  
C. Bianchini ◽  
M. Micio ◽  
L. Tarchi ◽  
C. Cortese ◽  
E. Imparato ◽  
...  

Control valves are one of the key steam turbine components both in terms of operational safety and flexibility. It is hence fundamental to correctly predict the valve characteristics at the various working conditions to accurately estimate machine performance and control logics. The aim of this work is to develop a simple method to predict pressure losses within the partition system to be used at preliminary design stage. Two types of partition valves typically employed in real industrial steam turbines of different power (from 1MW to 100MW) are analysed. The first type exploits a diffuser-like shape to maximize the dynamic pressure recovery before the discharge into the impulse stage. The second type, based on simple tube geometry, increases the allowable flow rate, for the same valve seat, at the cost of higher pressure losses. Geometrical dimensions have been varied to cover a wide range of configurations employed in industrial applications. An exception is made for the diffuser angle and the relative fillet radius which were fixed to guarantee product standardization among the various machine sizes. The flow is supposed axisymmetric and upstream reference condition for the entire study is 140 bar and 540 °C which are typical working conditions for such steam turbines. The influence of the shutter is also considered to properly characterize regulation of the steam flow on the basis of valve lift. Pressure losses are first modelled dividing the partition valve into singular homogeneous parts such as the intake, the straight pipe, the diffuser and the discharge, for which simple correlations are available in literature. The overall characteristic curve is validated using CFD computations conducted with the steady state RANS solver available in the commercial code CFX exploiting the SST turbulence model. The development of the correlation permitted to rapidly cover the selected range of geometries and conditions highlighting that dynamic pressure losses are the major sources of losses. Minimal passage area to discharge section ratio is hence a dimensionless value able to describe characteristic curves insensitively to any other geometrical parameter.


Author(s):  
Hongsheng Guo ◽  
Hailin Li ◽  
W. Stuart Neill

A study of n-heptane combustion in an HCCI engine was carried out by a multi-zone numerical simulation that covers a complete engine cycle. A reaction mechanism that includes 177 chemical species and 1638 reactions was used. The results of the numerical simulations were compared to existing experimental data for a range of air/fuel ratios, compression ratios and engine speeds. It is shown that the numerical simulation is able to reasonably capture the experimental cylinder pressure data over a wide range of operation conditions. It also provides a qualitative trend of CO emissions. The numerical simulation overpredicted the combustion at some operating conditions, such as at extremely high air/fuel ratios and higher engine speeds. Some differences were observed between the experimental and numerical data for NOX emissions. The numerical simulation predicted a monotonic decrease in NOX emissions as air/fuel ratio increased or compression ratio decreased, while an increase in NOX emissions was observed experimentally when combustion became very weak at extremely high air/fuel ratios or low compression ratios. It is suggested that further experiments and numerical simulations should be performed to explain this discrepancy.


Author(s):  
Matthias Strauch ◽  
Wolfgang Beer ◽  
Ingo Stephan

Flexible operation at a wide range of operating conditions combined with very high efficiency is a fundamental customer requirement for industrial steam turbines today. The blading of turbines has to be designed with those objectives in mind. Especially for intermediate pressure (IP) blades operating at fixed and variable speed there is high potential for improvement with respect to efficiency. Nonetheless these blades have to satisfy rules of reliability and mechanical integrity, in many cases American Petroleum Institute (API) Standard 612 requirements. In this paper the dynamic behavior of IP blades with an improved and efficient 3D design is investigated numerically and verified by experiments. Shrouded blades are common for IP blade design to ensure a low dynamic stress level. These blades are supposed to form a closed coupling contact between adjacent blades to grant higher stiffness of the blade row and additional contact damping. Natural frequencies and mode shapes mainly remain on stiffness and mass distribution. Contact pressure at assembly state is generated by geometric interferences of the blades. Operational centrifugal forces and untwisting of blades tend to reduce the shroud contact pressure. One focus of this study is the research of different blade shroud contact conditions after the assembly process and the influence on closed shroud conditions during operation. A highly sophisticated numerical 3D model was set up to simulate and predict contact status and dynamic behavior of the blade row. Forced vibrations were imposed on the blade rows in a spin bunker to measure speed dependent frequencies and the effect of reduced shroud forces. Three-dimensional blades as well as cylindrical blades were tested on the same rotor to compare efficiency improved blades with long term industrial proven design. Results of the experiment were in good agreement with results of numerical calculations. A 10 MW steam turbine with one controlled extraction was used for validation. The turbine was operated within and beyond standard operational limits. Amongst others, the predicted contact and dynamic behavior were verified based on centrifugal forces, steam forces and real temperature distributions. Results confirmed that closed shroud contact was maintained at all operating points for properly assembled blade rows.


Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cosi ◽  
Jonathon Slepski ◽  
Steven DeLessio ◽  
Michele Taviani ◽  
Amir Mujezinovic´

New low pressure (LP), stages for variable speed, mechanical drive and geared power generation steam turbines have been developed. The new blade and nozzle designs can be applied to a wide range of turbine rotational speeds and last stage blade annulus areas, thus forming a family of low pressure stages—High Speed (HS) blades and nozzles. Different family members are exact scales of each other and the tip speeds of the corresponding blades within the family are identical. Thus the aeromechanical and aerodynamic characteristics of the individual stages within the family are identical as well. Last stage blades and nozzles have been developed concurrently with the three upstream stages, creating optimised, reusable low pressure turbine sections. These blades represent a step forward in improving speed, mass flow capability, reliability and aerodynamic efficiency of the low pressure stages for the industrial steam turbines. These four stages are designed as a system using the most modern design tools applied on Power Generation and Aircraft Engines turbo-machineries. The aerodynamic performance of the last three stage of the newly designed group will be verified in a full-scale test facility. The last stage blade construction incorporates a three hooks, axial entry dovetail with improved load carrying capability over other blade attachment methods. The next to the last stage blade also uses a three hooks axial entry dovetail, while the two front stage blades employ internal tangential entry dovetails. The last and next to the last stage blades utilize continuous tip coupling via implementation of integral snubber cover while a Z-lock integral cover is employed for the two upstream stages. Low dynamic strains at all operating conditions (off and on resonance speeds) will be validated via steam turbine testing at realistic steam conditions (steam flows, temperatures and pressures). Low load, high condenser pressure operation will also be verified using a three stage test turbine operated in the actual steam conditions as well. In addition, resonance speed margins of the four stages have been verified through full-scale wheel box tests in the vacuum spin cell, thus allowing the application of these stages to Power Generation applications. Stator blades are produced with a manufacturing technology, which combines full milling and electro-discharge machining. This process allows machining of the blades from an integral disc, and thus improving uniformity of the throat distribution. Accuracy of the throat distribution is also improved when compared to the assembled or welded stator blade technology. This paper will discuss the aerodynamic and aeromechanical design, development and testing program completed for this new low pressure stages family.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2008 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domenico Paladino ◽  
Max Huggenberger ◽  
Frank Schäfer

Natural circulation characteristics at low pressure/low power have been studied by performing experimental investigations and numerical simulations. The PANDA large-scale facility was used to provide valuable, high quality data on natural circulation characteristics as a function of several parameters and for a wide range of operating conditions. The new experimental data allow for testing and improving the capabilities of the thermal-hydraulic computer codes to be used for treating natural circulation loops in a range with increased attention. This paper presents a synthesis of a part of the results obtained within the EU-Project NACUSP “natural circulation and stability performance of boiling water reactors.” It does so by using the experimental results produced in PANDA and by showing some examples of numerical simulations performed with the thermal-hydraulic code ATHLET.


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