Development of 60Hz Titanium 48-Inch Last Stage Blade for Steam Turbine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoriharu Murata ◽  
Naoki Shibukawa ◽  
Itaru Murakami ◽  
Joji Kaneko ◽  
Kenichi Okuno
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Mechanical Design ◽  
Thermal Power ◽  
Combined Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Recent Analysis ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Actual Size

The titanium 48-inch last stage blade that has world’s largest class exhaust annulus area and tip speed for 60Hz steam turbines has been developed. Concept of this blade is to achieve high performance and compact design of steam turbine for 1000MW thermal power plant and 300MW combined cycle plant. In the design of this blade, the optimization design has been done by using the recent analysis technologies, three dimensional CFD in aerodynamic design and FEA in mechanical design. The blade has curved axial fir-tree dovetail, snubber cover both at the tip and at the mid-span. To achieve superior vibration characteristics, continuously coupled structure was adopted for blade connection. To confirm the validity of design, first, sub-scale model blades were provided and tested in model steam turbine test facilities. Second, one row of actual size blades were assembled on the wheel of test rotor and were exposed rotating vibration test in a wheel box. Finally, these blades were tested at actual steam conditions in a full scale steam turbine test facility. In this paper, aerodynamic and mechanical design features will be introduced, and the test results of both sub-scale and actual size blades under real steam turbine operating conditions will be presented.

Unsteady Wet Steam Flow Field Measurements in the Last Stage of Low Pressure Steam Turbine

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Bosdas ◽  
Michel Mansour ◽  
Anestis I. Kalfas ◽  
Reza S. Abhari ◽  
Shigeki Senoo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Total Pressure ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Flow Structures ◽  
Wet Steam ◽  
Operating Condition ◽  
Last Stage

Modern steam turbines need to operate efficiently and safely over a wide range of operating conditions. This paper presents a unique unprecedented set of time-resolved steam flowfield measurements from the exit of the last two stages of a low pressure (LP) steam turbine under various volumetric massflow conditions. The measurements were performed in the steam turbine test facility in Hitachi city in Japan. A newly developed fast response probe equipped with a heated tip to operate in wet steam flows was used. The probe tip is heated through an active control system using a miniature high-power cartridge heater developed in-house. Three different operating points, including two reduced massflow conditions, are compared and a detailed analysis of the unsteady flow structures under various blade loads and wetness mass fractions is presented. The measurements show that at the exit of the second to last stage the flow field is highly three dimensional. The measurements also show that the secondary flow structures at the tip region (shroud leakage and tip passage vortices) are the predominant sources of unsteadiness at 85% span. The high massflow operating condition exhibits the highest level of periodical total pressure fluctuation compared to the reduced massflow conditions at the inlet of the last stage. In contrast at the exit of the last stage, the reduced massflow operating condition exhibits the largest aerodynamic losses near the tip. This is due to the onset of the ventilation process at the exit of the LP steam turbine. This phenomenon results in 3 times larger levels of relative total pressure unsteadiness at 93% span, compared to the high massflow condition. This implies that at low volumetric flow conditions the blades will be subjected to higher dynamic load fluctuations at the tip region.

Unsteady Flow Field and Coarse Droplet Measurements in the Last Stage of a Low Pressure Steam Turbine With Supersonic Airfoils Near the Blade Tip

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Bosdas ◽  
Michel Mansour ◽  
Anestis I. Kalfas ◽  
Reza S. Abhari ◽  
Shigeki Senoo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Last Stage

The largest share of electricity production worldwide belongs to steam turbines. However, the increase of renewable energy production has led steam turbines to operate under part load conditions and increase in size. As a consequence long rotor blades will generate a relative supersonic flow field at the inlet of the last rotor. This paper presents a unique experiment work that focuses at the top 30% of stator exit in the last stage of an LP steam turbine test facility with coarse droplets and high wetness mass fraction under different operating conditions. The measurements were performed with two novel fast response probes. A fast response probe for three dimensional flow field wet steam measurements and an optical backscatter probe for coarse water droplet measurements ranging from 30 up to 110μm in diameter. This study has shown that the attached bow shock at the rotor leading edge is the main source of inter blade row interactions between the stator and rotor of the last stage. In addition, the measurements showed that coarse droplets are present in the entire stator pitch with larger droplets located at the vicinity of the stator’s suction side. Unsteady droplet measurements showed that the coarse water droplets are modulated with the downstream rotor blade-passing period. This set of time-resolved data will be used for in-house CFD code development and validation.

scholarly journals Turbine Cascades of Last Stage Blades for Wide Range of Operating Conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondrej Novak ◽  
Marek Bobcik ◽  
Martin Luxa ◽  
Jaroslav Fort ◽  
Bartolomej Rudas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Power Plants ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Combined Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Biomass Waste ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Turbine Cascades

Recent trends in the electric energy market such as biomass, waste incineration or combined cycle power plants require innovative solutions in steam turbine design. Variable operating conditions cause significant changes in flow field surrounding the steam turbine last stage blades. Therefore, the enlargement of operating range for last stage blades presents new challenges in design of turbine cascades. Several turbine cascades were designed and analyzed by commercial and in-house software of CTU Prague. Selected profiles were experimentally validated in the high-speed wind tunnel for 2D cascade measurements of the Institute of Thermomechanics of the Czech Academy of Sciences which is equipped by an adjustable supersonic inlet nozzle, perforated inserts at side walls and adjustable perforated tailboard. Comparisons are presented of numerical results with optical and pneumatic measurements for a wide range of inlet and outlet Mach numbers for optimized hub and tip profile cascades.

Design, Manufacturing and Testing of a New Family of Steam Turbine Low Pressure Stages

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Cosi ◽  
Jonathon Slepski ◽  
Steven DeLessio ◽  
Michele Taviani ◽  
Amir Mujezinovic´
Keyword(s):  
Power Generation ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Full Scale ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Family ◽  
Last Stage

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.

Unsteady Flow Field and Coarse Droplet Measurements in the Last Stage of a Low-Pressure Steam Turbine With Supersonic Airfoils Near the Blade Tip

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Bosdas ◽  
Michel Mansour ◽  
Anestis I. Kalfas ◽  
Reza S. Abhari ◽  
Shigeki Senoo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Fast Response ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Electricity Production ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Steam Turbines ◽  
Last Stage

The largest share of electricity production worldwide belongs to steam turbines. However, the increase of renewable energy production has led steam turbines to operate under part load conditions and increase in size. As a consequence, long rotor blades will generate a relative supersonic flow field at the inlet of the last rotor. This paper presents a unique experiment work that focuses at the top 30% of stator exit in the last stage of an low pressure (LP) steam turbine test facility with coarse droplets and high wetness mass fraction under different operating conditions. The measurements were performed with two novel fast response probes: a fast response probe for three-dimensional flow field wet steam measurements and an optical backscatter probe for coarse water droplet measurements ranging from 30 μm up to 110 μm in diameter. This study has shown that the attached bow shock at the rotor leading edge is the main source of interblade row interactions between the stator and rotor of the last stage. In addition, the measurements showed that coarse droplets are present in the entire stator pitch with larger droplets located at the vicinity of the stator's suction side. Unsteady droplet measurements showed that the coarse water droplets are modulated with the downstream rotor blade-passing period. This set of time-resolved data will be used for in-house computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code development and validation.

Unsteady Wet Steam Flow Field Measurements in the Last Stage of Low Pressure Steam Turbine

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Bosdas ◽  
Michel Mansour ◽  
Anestis I. Kalfas ◽  
Reza S. Abhari ◽  
Shigeki Senoo
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Total Pressure ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Test Facility ◽  
Flow Structures ◽  
Wet Steam ◽  
Operating Condition ◽  
Last Stage

Modern steam turbines need to operate efficiently and safely over a wide range of operating conditions. This paper presents a unique unprecedented set of time-resolved steam flowfield measurements from the exit of the last two stages of a low pressure (LP) steam turbine under various volumetric massflow conditions. The measurements were performed in the steam turbine test facility in Hitachi city in Japan. A newly developed fast response probe equipped with a heated tip to operate in wet steam flows was used. The probe tip is heated through an active control system using a miniature high-power cartridge heater developed in-house. Three different operating points (OPs), including two reduced massflow conditions, are compared and a detailed analysis of the unsteady flow structures under various blade loads and wetness mass fractions is presented. The measurements show that at the exit of the second to last stage the flow field is highly three dimensional. The measurements also show that the secondary flow structures at the tip region (shroud leakage and tip passage vortices) are the predominant sources of unsteadiness at 85% span. The high massflow operating condition exhibits the highest level of periodical total pressure fluctuation compared to the reduced massflow conditions at the inlet of the last stage. In contrast at the exit of the last stage, the reduced massflow operating condition exhibits the largest aerodynamic losses near the tip. This is due to the onset of the ventilation process at the exit of the LP steam turbine. This phenomenon results in three times larger levels of relative total pressure unsteadiness at 93% span, compared to the high massflow condition. This implies that at low volumetric flow conditions the blades will be subjected to higher dynamic load fluctuations at the tip region.

Impact of Mistuning on the Vibration Behaviour of the Last Stage in a Model Three Stage Low Pressure Steam Turbine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Heinz ◽  
Markus Schatz ◽  
Michael V. Casey ◽  
Heinrich Stu¨er
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Amplitude Distribution ◽  
Low Pressure ◽  
Forced Response ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Resonance Frequencies ◽  
Pressure Steam ◽  
Last Stage ◽  
Operating Points

The last stages of a low-pressure steam turbine, with long freestanding blades, may experience forced response excitation during resonance crossing at start-up and shut-down and this can be responsible for blade failure. This paper presents an experimental investigation of the circumferential blade amplitude distribution at different operating conditions and for different mistuning configurations in a scale model of a state-of-the-art low pressure steam turbine. Five configurations are investigated; two with different intentionally mistuned frequency arrangements, where the blades are placed alternately in different high-low configurations and three randomly mistuned systems. For the randomly mistuned systems the standard deviation of the resonance frequencies of the last stage blades is varied. The maximum blade amplitude and the circumferential blade amplitude distribution of each mistuning configuration are compared at different operating points and at a repeatable rotational speed gradient. The behaviour of the blade amplitude distribution at different operating conditions shows that the vibration levels depend on both the mistuning configuration and the operating points.

Influence of a Cylindrical Exhaust Hood Installation on the Last Stage Rotor Blades of a Low Pressure Model Steam Turbine

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian F. Müller ◽  
Markus Schatz ◽  
Damian M. Vogt ◽  
Jens Aschenbruck
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Rotor Blades ◽  
Pressure Measurements ◽  
Exhaust Hood ◽  
Blade Vibration ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Vibration Behavior ◽  
Last Stage

The influence of a cylindrical strut shortly downstream of the bladerow on the vibration behavior of the last stage rotor blades of a single stage LP model steam turbine was investigated in the present study. Steam turbine retrofits often result in an increase of turbine size, aiming for more power and higher efficiency. As the existing LP steam turbine exhaust hoods are generally not modified, the last stage rotor blades frequently move closer to installations within the exhaust hood. To capture the influence of such an installation on the flow field characteristics, extensive flow field measurements using pneumatic probes were conducted at the turbine outlet plane. In addition, time-resolved pressure measurements along the casing contour of the diffuser and on the surface of the cylinder were made, aiming for the identification of pressure fluctuations induced by the flow around the installation. Blade vibration behavior was measured at three different operating conditions by means of a tip timing system. Despite the considerable changes in the flow field and its frequency content, no significant impact on blade vibration amplitudes were observed for the investigated case and considered operating conditions. Nevertheless, time-resolved pressure measurements suggest that notable pressure oscillations induced by the vortex shedding can reach the upstream bladerow.

A Novel Technique for Steam Turbine Exhaust Pressure Limitation Using Dynamic Pressure Sensors

2005 ◽  
Vol 219 (9) ◽  
pp. 925-932 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. Riaz ◽  
K. J. Barb ◽  
A Engeda
Keyword(s):  
Steam Turbine ◽  
Dynamic Pressure ◽  
Pressure Sensors ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Strain Gauges ◽  
System Response ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Finite Elements Analysis ◽  
Pressure Transducers ◽  
Last Stage

In this paper, a novel approach is presented to increase the operational flexibility of steam turbines. Exhaust pressure at the exit of the last-stage blades is one of the most important parameters that limit the operation of a steam turbine, especially on days with hot ambient conditions. The main concern in these off-design high-exhaust pressure operating conditions is that it can result in flow separation, which can lead to aeromechanics instabilities and thus to blade failure because of high-cycle fatigue. In the method proposed in this paper, dynamic pressure transducers are placed around the perimeter of the last-stage blade to measure the pressure variations caused by vibrating last-stage blades. This approach, which is applicable to condensing turbines only, will provide increased exhaust pressure limits through realtime monitoring of the pressure signal and thereby enable the power plant to produce more power during times of peak demand. Finite elements analysis was performed to predict the natural frequencies of the row of blades to distinguish between the synchronous and nonsynchronous modes of vibration. Strain gauges were placed on the blades to obtain the experimental frequency information of the system. Response from the dynamic pressure transducers was compared with responses from the strain gauges. An excellent agreement between the two sets of results proved the validity of the proposed method.

Test Verification of Water Cooled Gas Turbine Technology

1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Horner ◽  
G. A. Cincotta ◽  
A. Caruvana
Keyword(s):  
Turbine Rotor ◽  
Combined Cycle ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Scale Model ◽  
Technology Readiness ◽  
Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Verification Test ◽  
Integrated Gasification ◽  
Test Verification

This paper presents the results of three significant tests recently performed by GE under the DOE High Temperature Turbine Technology Phase II Program contract. The first test involved a simulated Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) test of a water-cooled composite nozzle exposed to low Btu coal gas at design operating conditions (2600 F + firing temperature, 12 atm pressure). The second test is that of a water-cooled monolithic nozzle, a full-scale model of the second-stage nozzle planned for the Technology Readiness Vehicle Verification Test. The third test demonstrates coolant water delivery, transfer, and metering distribution, from the stationary feed line to the turbine rotor, enroute to individual bucket airfoil coolant passages. These tests successfully demonstrated the IGCC operation with very good results, and show every indication that operation at firing temperatures up to 3000 F is well within the design capability of the water-cooled turbine.

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