Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Five
Steam Turbines
Prof. Shashank S. Bhamble
Mechanical Engineering Department
Shri Sant Gajanan Maharaj College of Engineering, Shegaon
Energy Conversion-I
STEAM TURBINES
A Steam turbine is a prime mover in which rotary motion is obtained by gradual change
of momentum of the steam.
b) Based on the cylinder flow arrangement: Steam turbines may be classified based upon the
flow arrangement into following types.
(i) Single flow single casing turbine
(ii) Double flow single casing turbine
(iii) Cross flow compound turbine with single flow
(iv) Cross flow compound turbine with double flow
(v) Triple cross flow compound turbine with double flow
c) Based on direction of flow: Steam turbines can be classified based on the direction of flow
by which steam flows through turbine blading. Steam turbines can be:
(i) Radial flow turbine
(ii) Tangential flow turbine
(iii) Axial flow turbine
In radial flow turbines the steam is injected in middle near shaft and steam flows radially
outwards through the successive moving blades placed concentrically. In radial flow turbines
there are no stationary blades so pressure drop occurs in moving blade passage. Concentric
moving blades rings are designed to move in opposite directions.
In tangential flow turbines the nozzle directs steam tangentially into buckets at the
periphery of single wheel and steam reverses back and re-enters other bucket at its’ periphery.
This is repeated several times as steam follows the helical path. Tangential flow turbines are
very robust but less efficient.
In axial flow turbines steam flows along the axis of turbine over blades. These axial flow
turbines are well suited for large turbo generators and very commonly used presently.
d) Based on number of stages: Steam turbines can also be classified based upon the number
of stages in steam turbines i.e. depending upon the amount of heat drop. It can be:
(i) Single stage turbine
(ii) Multi stage turbine.
Single stage turbines have the expansion occurring in single stage while in multi stage
turbines the expansion occurs in more than one stages of turbine. When expansion occurs in
two stages it is called double stage turbine and with expansion occurring in three stages it is
called triple stage turbine.
e) Based on the application of turbine: Depending upon application the steam turbine can be
classified as below:
(i) Condensing turbine
(ii) Non-condensing turbine
(iii) Back pressure turbine
(iv) Pass out turbine
Condensing steam turbines are those in which steam leaving turbine enters into condenser.
Such type of steam turbines permit for recirculation of condensate leaving condenser. Also the
pressure at the end of expansion can be lowered much below atmospheric pressure as the
expanded steam is rejected into condenser where vacuum can be maintained. Condensing
turbines are frequently used in thermal power plants.
Non-condensing steam turbines are those in which steam leaving turbine is rejected to
atmosphere and not to condenser as in case of condensing turbine.
Back pressure turbines reject steam at a pressure much above the atmospheric pressure
and steam leaving turbine with substantially high pressure can be used for some other purposes
such as heating or running small condensing turbines.
Pass out turbines are those in which certain quantity of steam is continuously extracted for
the purpose of heating and allowing remaining steam to pass through pressure control valve
into the low pressure section of turbine. Pressure control valve and control gear is required so
as to keep the speeds of turbine and pressure of steam constant irrespective of variations of
power and heating loads.
f) Based on speed of turbine: Steam turbines can be classified based upon the steam turbine
as low speed, normal speed and high speed turbines as given below.
(i) Low speed steam turbine.
(ii) Normal speed steam turbine.
(iii) High speed steam turbine.
Low speed turbines are those steam turbines which run at speed below 3000 rpm. Normal
speed steam turbines are those turbines which run at speed of about 3000 rpm while high
speed steam turbines are the one which run at more than 3000 rpm.
g) Based on pressure in steam turbines: Steam turbines can also be classified based upon the
inlet pressure of steam turbine as follows:
(i) Low pressure steam turbine
(ii) Medium pressure steam turbine
(iii) High pressure steam turbine
(iv) Super pressure steam turbine
Low pressure steam turbines have pressure of inlet steam less than 20 kg/cm2 while
medium pressure steam turbines have steam inlet pressure between 20 kg/cm2 to 40 kg/cm2.
High pressure steam turbines have steam inlet pressure lying between 40 kg/cm2 to 170
kg/cm2 while turbines having inlet steam pressure more than 170 kg/cm2 are called super
pressure steam turbines.
IMPULSE TURBINE
Schematic of impulse steam turbine is shown in Fig. 1. It has single-stage having a nozzle
fitted in the casing followed by ring of moving blades mounted on the shaft. Variation of velocity
and pressure along the axis of turbine is also shown here. Here pressure drop occurs only in the
nozzle and ideally no pressure drop occurs in blades.
stationary nozzle ring of the subsequent stage. In pressure compounding high pressure steam
enters the first ring of stationary nozzles where part expansion occurs causing drop in pressure
and increase in steam velocity. Steam subsequently enters moving blade ring where no pressure
drop occurs due to symmetrical blading but velocity drops. Steam leaving moving blade ring
enters the stationary nozzle ring where remaining part of expansion occurs and expanded
steam subsequently enters the moving blade ring. Pressure and velocity variation in a pressure
compounded impulse turbine stage are shown in Fig. 2 along with the schematic of such
compounding.
which act as guide blades. Steam is smoothly guided by fixed blade ring and passes on to ring of
moving blades in which remaining part of velocity drop takes place. Thus in a stage of velocity
compounded impulse turbine there is stationary nozzle ring followed by moving blade ring and
subsequently a fixed blade ring and moving blade ring. Here pressure drop occurs only in nozzle
and the velocity drop occurs in two parts in two moving blade rings respectively.
For the smooth and symmetrical impulse turbine blades used as fixed guide blades there
is no drop in velocity of steam passing through fixed blade ring. Velocity compounded impulse
turbine offers advantages such as less number of stages compared to pressure compounding
and so less cost. It also requires less space and is relatively more reliable and easy to start. In
multi stage velocity compounded impulse turbine the first stage has large pressure drop and
remaining turbine stages are subjected to lower pressure range, thus lesser number of stages. In
velocity compounded impulse turbine since pressure drop occurs in nozzle itself so the rest of
turbine and its’ casing need not be manufactured very strong. But the efficiency is low due to
large frictional losses due to large initial velocity and ‘non optimum value of ratio of blade
velocity to steam velocity for all blade rings’. Efficiency of velocity compounded impulse turbine
goes on decreasing with increase in number of stages.
proportion of work per stage and then the highly efficient ‘Rateau stages’ absorb the remaining
energy available. Here it is possible to reduce over all-length of turbine and thus there is saving
in initial cost which more than offsets the lower efficiency.
In a reaction turbine the pressure drop occurs in both stationary and moving rows
contrary to the impulse turbine where the total pressure drop occurs in stationary nozzles
alone. The difference in blading of reaction and impulse has already been described earlier. In
reaction turbine the passage between two consecutive blades is of converging type as compared
to impulse turbine blading which has constant cross-sectional area passage between two
consecutive blades.
Figure 5 shows the schematic of a reaction turbine stage having fixed blades followed by
moving blades row. Due to the varying cross section area for steam flow the pressure drop
occurs in both stationary (fixed) blades row and moving blades row. The velocity increases in
stationary blades which act as nozzles. Thus the passage formed in the stationary blades in
reaction turbine are of nozzle type although they do not have conventional nozzle shape. Steam
stream leaving stationary blades impinges upon the moving blades. This impinging stream
exerts a force to the right as evident from the velocity diagrams of reaction blading. Velocity
diagram of reaction turbine is similar in principle to the velocity diagram in impulse turbine.
Steam entering moving blades is subjected to pass through converging area passage
along with change in direction. Thus there is increase in velocity (V2 > V1) from inlet to exit in
moving blade which results in a reaction force. Change in direction of velocity is accompanied
by change in momentum thus an impulse force. It shows that the rotation of shaft is caused by
the combination of impulse and reaction forces. The magnitude of impulse force depends upon
the pressure drop in fixed blades. It may be noted that due to shaft rotation being caused by
combination of impulse and reaction forces these reaction turbines are also termed as impulse-
reaction turbine. These are also called full admission turbines as the steam enters through fixed
blade row over complete annulus. The enthalpy drop over the reaction turbine stage shows that
heat drop occurs in both fixed blades and moving blades rows. If the total enthalpy drop in stage
is equally divided between the stationary and moving blades then the stage is called 50%
reaction stage. A mathematical parameter called ‘degree of reaction’ is used to quantify the
proportion of enthalpy drops occurring in stationary and moving blades. The ‘degree of
reaction’ is defined as the ratio of enthalpy drop in moving blades row (rotor blades) to the total
enthalpy drop in the stage. Mathematically it can be given as,
= h1 – h2
h0 - h2
Such turbines having 50% degree of reaction are called ‘Parson’s turbine’. Parson’s
turbine has symmetrical blades for moving and stationary blades i.e. inlet angles of stationary
and moving blades are equal and also the exit angles of stationary and moving blades are equal.
Term symmetrical blading in reaction turbine refers to the 50 per cent reaction stage.
LOSSES IN STEAM TURBINES
Steam turbine being work producing device running at quite high speed has number of
losses occurring in it. These losses when put together result into substantial loss of energy.
Therefore, while selecting a turbine due attention should be paid to the losses in turbine. Some
of the losses occur within turbine stages while some are external to stage. These losses are
described ahead.
1. Losses in nozzles: Steam turbine nozzle is designed for isentropic expansion so as to result
in increase in velocity from inlet to exit. Practically in a nozzle the steam leaving nozzle may not
have velocity equal to the designed velocity value. This deviation in operating state of nozzle
may occur because of non-isentropic expansion. The reasons for non-isentropic expansion may
be friction losses between the steam and nozzle wall, viscous friction resistance to flow in the
steam particles, boundary layer formation and separation, heat loss during flow etc.
admission turbine the region inside turbine having inactive steam is negligible and so the
windage loss is nearly negligible. To minimize windage loss the turbine should be filled with
moving steam (active steam). Windage losses are very small in case of low pressure stages.
Reaction turbines have negligible windage losses as they are full admission turbines.
5. Loss due to leakage: Steam leakage may occur across the turbine shaft and between stages.
Leakage of steam may result in availability of less work from stage as steam is not fully utilized
for producing work. Leakage occurs during flow from one stage to other or from one row to
other through the clearance space between diaphragm and shaft. Leakage also occurs across the
blade tip. Leakage across diaphragm occurs in both impulse turbine and reaction turbine stages.
Leakage across tip is not prominent in case of impulse turbine as the pressure difference is very
small. Tip leakage is prominent in reaction turbine stages.
Due to this diaphragm and tip leakage effective mass flow rate for doing work gets
reduced and is consequently a loss of energy. Leakage is accompanied by the increase in
entropy and so the decrease in availability of work due to throttling of steam which is an
irreversible process. Leakage loss can be minimized by reducing the clearances as much as
possible after providing for expansion of turbine parts so that the metal-to-metal rubbing is
avoided. Different seals such as labyrinths, carbon rings, water, steam or air seals are used to
prevent this leakage through clearance. Also in order to reduce leakage loss the drum type
construction is preferred to diaphragm and wheel type construction in reaction turbines.
Another type of leakage may be of balance-piston leakage which refers to leakage between
balance piston and casing. Here fluid leaks out in high pressure region of turbine and
atmospheric air bleeds into casing in low pressure sub atmospheric region (condensor side).
Generally this is not a total loss as the leakage out and leakage in are not varying too much. This
kind of loss can also be prevented by employing labyrinth packing. At low pressure/subsonic
region (condenser side) of turbine the labyrinth packing is fed with low pressure steam so that
steam leaks in instead of air in case of unavoidable leakage.
6. Losses in bearings: Turbine bearings are critical parts to support high speed rotation of
shaft. Generally, a loss to the tune of 1% of turbine output occurs in bearings. Although this loss
depends upon bearing load, oil viscosity, speed of shaft, bearing surface area and film thickness
etc.
7. Losses at inlet and exit: Loss at inlet of steam turbine occurs at regulating valves at entry. At
these valves which may be stop valve or governor valves the throttling loss generally occurs
causing lowering of entering steam pressure. At the exit of steam turbine the steam becomes
wet and the fluid now is mixture of water droplet and steam. Due to wetness of steam at exit
end the water particles being heavier cause loss of kinetic energy. These water particles, if in
excessive amount may also endanger the turbine blade. The kinetic energy of fluid at exit of
steam turbine is a total loss and theoretically the fluid leaving turbine must have the lowest
possible energy in it. This loss of energy may be of the order of 10 – 13 per cent.
8. Losses due to radiations: Radiation losses also occur in steam turbines, although they are
very small compared to other losses and may be neglected. In case of steam turbines the high
temperature steam is limited to small part of casing so losses are small. But the radiation losses
are quite significant in gas turbines. In order to prevent radiation losses the pipings, turbine
casing etc. carrying hot fluid should be well insulated.
GOVERNING OF STEAM TURBINES
Governing of steam turbine is required for controlling and regulating the output of a
turbine according to variable demands in service. This regulation of turbine is done by
maintaining accurate and positive control of speed, pressure and flow by employing governors.
Governing of turbine maintains the speed of turbine at constant level irrespective of load.
Governing of steam turbines can be of following types depending upon the mechanism of
regulation.
(i) Throttle governing
For throttle governing of steam turbine the steam consumption rate may be plotted with
load resulting into characteristic line called Willans line as shown in Fig. 8.
(b) The wetness of steam gets reduced in later stages due to throttling. Due to this reduced
wetness there occurs reduction in stage efficiency at part load operation of turbine.