Catastrophe Performance Analysis of Steam-Flow-Excited Vibration in the Governing Stage of Large Steam Turbines With Partial Admission

2013 ◽  
Vol 135 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianlan Li ◽  
Xuhong Guo ◽  
Chen Yu ◽  
Shuhong Huang

Steam-flow-excited vibration is one of the main faults of large steam turbines. The catastrophe caused by steam-flow-excited vibration brings danger to the operation of units. Therefore, it is significant to identify the impact factors of catastrophe, and master the rules of catastrophe. In this paper, the quantitative analysis of catastrophe performance induced by steam exciting force in the steam turbine governing stage is conducted based on the catastrophe theory, nonlinear vibration theory, and fluid dynamics. The model of steam exciting force in the condition of partial admission in the governing stage is derived. The nonlinear kinetic model of the governing stage with steam exciting force is proposed as well. The cusp catastrophe and bifurcation set of steam-flow-excited vibration are deduced. The rotational angular frequency, the eccentric distance and the opening degrees of the governing valves are identified as the main impact factors to induce catastrophe. Then, the catastrophe performance analysis is conducted for a 300 MW subcritical steam turbine. The rules of catastrophe are discussed, and the system's catastrophe areas are divided. It is discovered that the system catastrophe will not occur until the impact factors satisfy given conditions. Finally, the numerical calculation method is employed to analyze the amplitude response of steam-flow-excited vibration. The results verify the correctness of the proposed analysis method based on the catastrophe theory. This study provides a new way for the catastrophe performance research of steam-flow-excited vibration in large steam turbines.

Author(s):  
Juri Bellucci ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone

This work aims at investigating the impact of partial admission on a steam turbine stage, focusing on the aerodynamic performance and the mechanical behavior. The partialized stage of a small steam turbine was chosen as test case. A block of nozzles was glued in a single “thick nozzle” in order to mimic the effect of a partial admission arc. Numerical analyses in full and in partial admission cases were carried out by means of three-dimensional, viscous, unsteady simulations. Several cases were tested by varying the admission rate, that is the length of the partial arc, and the number of active sectors of the wheel. The goal was to study the effect of partial admission conditions on the stage operation, and, in particular on the shape of stage performance curves as well as on the forces acting on bucket row. First of all, a comparison between the flow field of the full and the partial admission case is presented, in order to point out the main aspects related to the presence of a partial arc. Then, from an aerodynamic point of view, a detailed discussion of the modifications of unsteady rows interaction (potential, shock/wake), and how these ones propagate downstream, is provided. The attention is focused on the phenomena experienced in the filling/emptying region, which represent an important source of aerodynamic losses. The results try to deepen the understanding in the loss mechanisms involved in this type of stage. Finally, some mechanical aspects are addressed, and the effects on bucket loading and on aeromechanical forcing are investigated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Chen ◽  
D. X. Jiang ◽  
N. F. Wang ◽  
S. P. An

Rub caused by a shedding annular component is a severe fault happening in a steam turbine, which could result in a long-term wearing effect on the shaft. The shafting abrasion defects shortened the service life and damaged the unit. To identify the fault in time, the dynamic response of rub caused by a shedding annular component was studied as follows: (I) a rotor-bearing model was established based on the structural features of certain steam turbines; node-to-node contact constraint and penalty method were utilized to analyze the impact and friction; (II) dynamic response of the rotor-bearing system and the shedding component was simulated with the development of rub after the component was dropping; (III) fault features were extracted from the vibration near the bearing position by time-domain and frequency-domain analysis. The results indicate that the shedding annular component would not only rotate pivoting its axis but also revolve around the shaft after a period of time. Under the excitation of the contact force, the peak-peak vibration fluctuates greatly. The frequency spectrum contains two main components, that is, the working rotating frequency and revolving frequency. The same phenomenon was observed from the historical data in the field.


Author(s):  
Yogini Patel ◽  
Giteshkumar Patel ◽  
Teemu Turunen-Saaresti

With the tremendous role played by steam turbines in power generation cycle, it is essential to understand the flow field of condensing steam flow in a steam turbine to design an energy efficient turbine because condensation at low pressure (LP) turbine introduces extra losses, and erosion in turbine blades. The turbulence has a leading role in condensing phenomena which involve a rapid change of mass, momentum and heat transfer. The paper presents the influence of turbulence modelling on non-equilibrium condensing steam flows in a LP steam turbine stage adopting CFD code. The simulations were conducted using the Eulerian-Eulerian approach, based on Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations coupled with a two equation turbulence model, which is included with nucleation and droplet growth model for the liquid phase. The SST k-ω model was modified, and the modifications were implemented in the CFD code. First, the performance of the modified model is validated with nozzles and turbine cascade cases. The effect of turbulence modelling on the wet-steam properties and the loss mechanism for the 3D stator-rotor stage is discussed. The presented results show that an accurate computational prediction of condensing steam flow requires the turbulence to be modelled accurately.


Author(s):  
Lin Gao ◽  
Yiping Dai ◽  
Zhiqiang Wang ◽  
Yatao Xu ◽  
Qingzhong Ma

At present, the majority of power steam turbines operate under part-load conditions during most of their working time in accordance with the fluctuation of power supply. The load governing method may cause partial admission in control stage and even some pressure stages, which impacts much on the stability of the rotor system. In this paper, CFD and FEM method were used to analyze the effect of partial admission on rotor system stability. A new approach is proposed to simplify the 3D fluid model for a partial admission control stage. Rotordynamic analysis was carried out to test the stability of the HP rotor of a 600 MW steam turbine under different load conditions. 13 different governing modes on the rotor stability were conducted and data were analyzed. It is found that rotor stability varies significantly with different governing modes and mass flow rates, which is consistent with the operation. Asymmetric fluid forces resulted from partial admission cause a fluctuation of the dynamic characteristics of the HP bearings, which consequently affect the stability of the rotor system. One of the nozzle governing modes in which the diagonal valves open firstly is demonstrated as the optimal mode with the maximum system stability. The optimization has been applied to 16 power generation units in China and result in improved rotor stabilities.


Author(s):  
Christoph Schindler ◽  
Gerta Zimmer

A load rejection disconnects the generator from the electrical grid. The resulting power excess accelerates the turbo set. Reacting to the load rejection, the turbine governor rapidly closes the steam admission valves. The remaining entrapped steam expands, thereby continuing to power the turbine. Thus the turbine speed rises till a dynamic equilibrium of accelerating and braking forces is reached. Thereafter the turbine speed decreases. If the maximally attained turbine speed remains below the trip threshold, immediate re-synchronization to the electrical grid is possible. Consequently, a forced outage of the steam turbine can be avoided and operational reliability is increased. Furthermore, functional safety requirements demand that the maximum turbine speed remains below test speed under all failure conditions. Accordingly, steam turbine design has to account for the impact of overspeed for a reliable and safe operation of the turbo set. In order to manage load rejection requirements for steam turbine operation, the design engineer applies standard rules and overspeed calculation methods. These rules limit standardized overspeed estimation by defining maximum steam volumes, valve closing times, and I&C reaction times, as well as type and number of non-return valves. A more thorough turbine overspeed investigation is necessary for several reasons, such as to evaluate this behavior under undesired failure conditions e.g. failure of non-return valves or blocking of control valves. A second justification for this investigation would be to predict changes resulting from turbine modifications — e.g. turbine upgrade or change at I&C systems. In this paper, basic and advanced overspeed calculation tools are illustrated and compared, with respect to required effort as well as accuracy of prediction. It is shown how system parameters which are most sensitive with respect to overspeed can be identified and their influence assessed. Thus, firstly it is already possible to identify and improve critical overspeed behavior during design. Secondly, the impact of particular failures can be accurately predicted, thus allowing for due implementation of appropriate counter measures. The methods, presented in this paper, were developed by the authors and their predecessors at SIEMENS AG for large steam turbo sets with a power range between 100 MW and 1500 MW.


Author(s):  
Gabriel Marinescu ◽  
Michael Sell ◽  
Andreas Ehrsam ◽  
Philipp B. Brunner

Steam turbine start-up has a significant impact on the cyclic fatigue life. Modern steam turbines are operated at high temperatures for optimal efficiency, which results in high temperature differences relative to the condition before start-up. To achieve the fastest possible start-up time without reducing the lifetime of the turbine components due to excessive thermal stress, the start-up procedure of cyclic turbines is optimized to follow the specific material low cycle fatigue limit. For such optimization and to ensure reliable operation, it is essential to fully understand the thermal behavior of the components during start-up. This is especially challenging in low flow conditions, i.e. during pre-warming and early loading phase. A two-dimensional numerical procedure is described for the assessment of the thermal regime during start-up. The calculation procedure includes the rotor, casings, valves and main pipes. The concept of the start-up calculation is to replace the convective effect of the steam in the turbine cavity by an equivalent fluid over-conductivity that gives the same thermal effect on metallic parts. This approach allows simulating accurately the effect of steam ingestion during pre-warming phase. The fluid equivalent over-conductivity is calibrated with experimental data. At the end of the paper the impact of ingested steam temperature and mass-flow on the rotor cyclic lifetime is demonstrated. This paper is a continuation of papers [1] and [2].


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. ETJLRM
Author(s):  
Simon Hecker ◽  
Andreas Penkner ◽  
Jens Pfeiffer ◽  
Stefan Glos ◽  
Christian Musch

Abstract Today’s steam turbine power plants are designed for highest steam inlet temperatures up to 620°C to maximize thermal efficiency. This leads to elevated thermal stresses in rotors and casings of the turbines. Hence, temperature distributions of the components have to be predicted with highest accuracy at various load points in the design process to assure reliable operation and long life time. This paper describes the windage heating effect in full labyrinth seals used in steam turbines. An analytical approach is presented, based on CFD simulations, to predict the resulting steam temperatures. A broad application range from very low to highest Reynolds numbers representing different turbine operation conditions from partial to full load is addressed. The effect of varying Reynolds number on the flow friction behaviour is captured by using an analogy to the flow over a flat plate. Additionally, the impact of different labyrinth geometries on the friction coefficient is evaluated with the help of more than 100 CFD simulations. A meta-model is derived from the numerical results. Finally, the analytical windage heating model is validated against measurements. The presented approach is a fast and reliable method to find the best performing labyrinth geometries with lowest windage effects, i.e. lowest steam temperatures.


Efficient expansion of steam in turbines cools the vapour to the point where it becomes wet. As turbines become larger the higher blading speeds employed lead to erosion damage of the blading as a result of impact with accumulated water in the form of drops. The distribution of this damage in the turbine is discussed. The processes of drop formation, release and subsequent motion before impact with the moving blades are described and the application of this knowledge to practical design is illustrated by particular examples.


Author(s):  
Lin Gao ◽  
Yiping Dai

Partial admission is used widely for steam turbines to match their output power to the load demand. The occurrences or thresholds of most self-induced low-frequency vibrations are under partial admission conditions. But the destabilizing forces which cause rotor instability are seldom investigated under partial admission conditions especially for large power steam turbines. Full 3D CFD model is built for the control stage of a 600 MW steam turbine applying commercial codes. N-S equations are solved to investigate the flow fields in the control stage including all the blade passages and the labyrinth seal over the shroud. Interesting flow distributions are observed for the seal spaces at partial admission conditions. A correction formula is presented for partial admission labyrinth seal based on the classical one and a method is discussed for the estimation of partial-admission phase-angle-dependent stiffness coefficients. The destabilizing forces acting on the rotor system are calculated for different eccentricity angles and are compared with those under the concentric condition. The stiffness coefficients are solved under typical partial admission conditions. They are found to change dramatically with the phase angle. The results may be helpful for a deep understanding of the low-frequency variation problems of large power steam turbines under partial admission conditions.


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.


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