Assessment of Rotor Stability for Steam Turbine Considering Labyrinth Seal Characteristics of Fluid Destabilization Force and Vibrational Frequency Effect of Bearing Coefficients

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryokichi Hombo ◽  
Kenichi Murata ◽  
Yuichiro Waki ◽  
Nobuhiro Nagata ◽  
Makoto Iwasaki ◽  
...  

Abstract Accurate evaluation of the rotor stability is important for increasing the performance of the Steam Turbines. This paper discusses the important factors (such as destabilization force, bearing coefficient) for the evaluation of rotor stability. The destabilization force which varies with the type of seal suggests that seal shape plays an important role. In the past, several researchers have studied the fluid destabilization force both numerically and experimentally and prediction of the same can be done fairly accurately by applying CFD techniques. The characteristics of the fluid destabilization force can be accurately evaluated by investigating the sensitivity of parameters such as clearance and swirl velocity for each seal type using CFD. In the case of partial admission operation in which the bearing load changes (such as control stage of steam turbines), the frequency ratio effect on bearing coefficients is higher in the case of light-load (Sommerfeld number is large) than in the case of high-load (Sommerfeld number is small). In order to estimate the frequency ratio effects due to varying load accurately, an experimental study and analytical study were carried out. As a result of comparison of the test results to analytical results, the test results are in good agreement with thermo-elastic-hydrodynamic-lubrication (TEHL) analysis which considers deformation of pad obtained by 3D-FEM. The evaluation of rotor stability at each bearing load by partial admission (example: Governing Valve test) is in agreement with the field data of steam turbine. For new designs and modification designs, this assessment considering the characteristics of each parameter is effective for improving the quality of rotor design.

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.


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):  
Lutz Vo¨lker ◽  
Michael Casey ◽  
John Dunham ◽  
Heinrich Stu¨er

This paper describes experimental and throughflow investigations on two configurations of a model three-stage low pressure steam turbine. A companion paper describes 3D CFD simulations of the same turbine test data. Global performance measurements and detailed flow field measurements with pneumatic flow probes were carried out to quantify the changes in the design due to the introduction of sweep in the last stator nozzle vanes. An existing 2D throughflow code was improved to enable the present calculations to be completed. The test results have been used in this paper to calibrate the 2D throughflow model, by adjustment of empirical correlation data to match the experimental data on one of the configurations. This throughflow model was then used to examine the influence of lean and sweep on the design. The results identify that throughflow calculations can model the global effects of lean and sweep in the last stages of steam turbines. Some insight is gained on the losses across the span for the different configurations and on the benefits of lean and sweep in reducing the hub reaction in such stages.


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):  
WanFu Zhang ◽  
JianGang Yang ◽  
QingShui Gao ◽  
Jie Li

To investigate the rotor-bearing dynamics and solve the unstable synchronous vibration problem under partial admission conditions in axial steam turbines, a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model of the governing stage for a 350 MW turbogenerator unit was established. Steam force under different partial admission cases was calculated. Results show that the uneven steam force in the horizontal direction was fairly as strong as that in the vertical direction. The maximal horizontal steam force was about 40% of the high intermediate pressure cylinder rotor weight. Synchronous vibration faults caused by partial admission may occur in practice. The finite element model was further built to analyze the rotor-bearing dynamics under partial admission conditions. Large fluctuation of the synchronous vibration was observed during the variation of control valve sequence. Finally, the effect of bearing elevation on the rotor-bearing dynamics was studied. The sensitivity of bearing load varies for different bearing elevations. An effective solution to the unstable synchronous vibration faults caused by partial admission was achieved by optimizing the distribution of bearing elevation. A relevant case was presented through practical test.


Author(s):  
Michael P. McHale ◽  
Kevin D. Stone

ASME Performance Test Code 6.2 for testing of Steam Turbines in Combined Cycle Applications has been approved by the Board of Performance Test Codes and will be issued in 2005. PTC 6.2 provides procedures for the accurate testing of a steam turbine in a Combined Cycle application with or without supplementary firing and in cogeneration applications. The procedures for testing a Rankine cycle steam turbine in a Combined Cycle application differ from those used to test a Rankine cycle steam turbine in a cycle with regenerative feedwater heating because of differences in cycle configuration and test objectives. PTC 6.2 provides procedures for testing and calculating corrected turbine-generator output performance, not corrected heat rate. The Code contains rules and procedures for the conduct and reporting of steam turbine testing, including requirements for pretest arrangements, testing techniques, instrumentation, methods of measurement, and methods for calculating test results and uncertainty. This paper will focus on challenges that have been faced with conducting performance tests on steam turbines in combined cycles in the past, and how the Code has addressed these challenges. Challenges are driven primarily by the cycle configuration, operating practices, and the basis of guarantees. Subjects to be addressed in the paper include test instrumentation, test objectives, test calculations, and test uncertainty.


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):  
Yifan Wu ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Deren Sheng ◽  
Jianhong Chen ◽  
Zitao Yu

Clean energy is now developing rapidly, especially in the United States, China, the Britain and the European Union. To ensure the stability of power production and consumption, and to give higher priority to clean energy, it is essential for large power plants to implement peak shaving operation, which means that even the 1000 MW steam turbines in large plants will undertake peak shaving tasks for a long period of time. However, with the peak load regulation, the steam turbines operating in low capacity may be much more likely to cause faults. In this paper, aiming at peak load shaving, a fault diagnosis method of steam turbine vibration has been presented. The major models, namely hierarchy-KNN model on the basis of improved principal component analysis (Improved PCA-HKNN) has been discussed in detail. Additionally, a new fault diagnosis method has been proposed. By applying the PCA improved by information entropy, the vibration and thermal original data are decomposed and classified into a finite number of characteristic parameters and factor matrices. For the peak shaving power plants, the peak load shaving state involving their methods of operation and results of vibration would be elaborated further. Combined with the data and the operation state, the HKNN model is established to carry out the fault diagnosis. Finally, the efficiency and reliability of the improved PCA-HKNN model is discussed. It’s indicated that compared with the traditional method, especially handling the large data, this model enhances the convergence speed and the anti-interference ability of the neural network, reduces the training time and diagnosis time by more than 50%, improving the reliability of the diagnosis from 76% to 97%.


Author(s):  
Juri Bellucci ◽  
Federica Sazzini ◽  
Filippo Rubechini ◽  
Andrea Arnone ◽  
Lorenzo Arcangeli ◽  
...  

This paper focuses on the use of the CFD for improving a steam turbine preliminary design tool. Three-dimensional RANS analyses were carried out in order to independently investigate the effects of profile, secondary flow and tip clearance losses, on the efficiency of two high-pressure steam turbine stages. The parametric study included geometrical features such as stagger angle, aspect ratio and radius ratio, and was conducted for a wide range of flow coefficients to cover the whole operating envelope. The results are reported in terms of stage performance curves, enthalpy loss coefficients and span-wise distribution of the blade-to-blade exit angles. A detailed discussion of these results is provided in order to highlight the different aerodynamic behavior of the two geometries. Once the analysis was concluded, the tuning of a preliminary steam turbine design tool was carried out, based on a correlative approach. Due to the lack of a large set of experimental data, the information obtained from the post-processing of the CFD computations were applied to update the current correlations, in order to improve the accuracy of the efficiency evaluation for both stages. Finally, the predictions of the tuned preliminary design tool were compared with the results of the CFD computations, in terms of stage efficiency, in a broad range of flow coefficients and in different real machine layouts.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document