Design and Research for Foundations of Turbine-Generator Sets

Zhou Jianzhang
1
Shao Xiaoyan
2


Abstract: This paper reviews and analyzes history and present situation of turbine
generator foundation in China for last ten years. It states dynamic analysis, static
deflection analysis and model test technology. By analyzing project examples, this
paper introduces the development and application of this technology. In order to
advance China's technology of turbine-generator foundation designing, this paper
provides reference for designing of foundations of turbine generators.
Key words: Balanced quality grade, foundation of turbine-generator sets,
dynamic analysis, static deflection analysis, model test

1 Current situation of T-G foundation design
In recent years, China's electric power construction develops rapidly. The
construction scale expands day by day. The capacity of full and half speed machines
develops from 600MW, 1000MW to 1750MW. There are different kinds of
machines from countries like the United States, Japan, Germany and France and
those improved by domestic manufactures. Higher demands for the turbine generator
foundation design in China (hereinafter referred to as the T-G foundation) are put
forward. The technology of T-G foundation designing has advanced to a new level.
Manufactures introduce these imported and improved machines and provide T-G
foundation design criteria and references of T-G foundation. According to the
manufacturer and design criteria in China and abroad and the experience of previous
T-G foundations, considering the different design conditions of each power plant, the
T-G foundation design engineers carry out a large amount of numerical analysis and
model tests for T-G foundation in order to ensure steady and safe operation of the
machine. T-G foundations of different machines and capacities are improved and
optimized. A lot of low frequency foundations with slender columns appear, which
are typical of Siemens 600MW and 1000MW machine foundations.







Zhou Jianzhang
1
and Shao Xiaoyan
2

1
EAST CHINA ELECTRIC POWER DESIGN INSTITUTE, Shanghai, E-mail: zjz@ecepdi.com
2
QINGDAO CREATE ENVIRONMENT CONTROL TECHNOLOGY CO. LTD, Qingdao Shandong
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Figure 1 1000MW Siemens T-G Figure 2 1000MW T-G
foundation in operation spring foundation under construction
At the same time, several 600MW full speed and 1000MW half speed machines with
spring foundations have been put into operation. Several 1000MW full speed and
half speed new machines with spring foundations are under construction. Because
the spring foundation has incomparable advantages to conventional T-G foundation,
it is designed and analyzed primarily.

Figure 3 Research on the layout of spring foundation combined with turbine house
2 Vibration analysis of foundation
The unbalanced force is input data for vibration analysis of foundation. Generally the
unbalanced force is determined by a constant balanced quality grade. Based on
vibration analysis of shaft system by Manufacturer recently, unbalanced forces are
resulted from bearing forces under rotor excitation. The following example briefly
describes the use of this kind of unbalanced force to calculate forced vibration.
2.1 Set and foundation
1000MW full speed machine has a high pressure turbine, an intermediate pressure
turbine, two low-pressure turbines and a generator. The bearing is supported on
transverse beam directly. The shaft system is composed by 6 rotors and 7 bearings,
which is called single shaft and single support point bearing.
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Figure 4 single shaft and single support point bearing set
Table 1 rotor
Rotor HP IP LP1 LP2 GEN EXC Total
Weight(g) 16460 35419 91756 93228 90944 2155 329962
Length(mm) 5277 7368 8485 8545 13250 2930 45855
1
ST
Critical speed (rpm) 2170 1620 1410 1470 660 3650
2
ND
Critical speed (rpm) >3600 >3601 >3602 >3603 1930 >3605

Figure 5 Spring foundation
The foundation is spring foundation. The bottom surface and top surface elevation of
the concrete deck are respectively 13.5 and 17(m). The bottom elevation of three
transverse beams between intermediate pressure turbine, low pressure turbine 1, 2
and generator are respectively 13, 12.75 and 13(m). The width of turbine and
generator are respectively 17.85 and 12(m). The total length of the deck is 51.3(m).
The total weight of concrete deck is 46344(kN). The total weight of equipment is
17300(kN). The ratio of total weight between the concrete deck and the equipment is
2.67.
2.2 Unbalanced force
During the vibration analysis of turbine generator shafting, the rotor eccentric loads
on the intermediate position or both ends of the rotor are taken as one load case. Each
rotor has two or three load cases. The force response of each load case on each
bearing in operating speed is the unbalanced force of turbine foundation forced
vibration. The under mentioned real example has 14 load cases.
According to the manufacturer's requirements, in each load case of the unbalanced
force, when the speed is between 10% of the normal operating speed, the vibration
response amplitude of turbine foundation could not be more than 40% of the values
for zone "A". It is the same when the unbalanced force is multiplied by 2.5, the
vibration response amplitude of turbine foundation could not be more than the values
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for zone "A".

Figure 6 Rotor eccentric load on the intermediate position of the rotor
Figure 7 Rotor eccentric loads on both ends of the rotor
The Harmonic method is used in the forced vibration analysis of turbine foundation.
The vertical and horizontal unbalanced force on each bearing and their phase should be
determined during the analysis, according to the manufacturers information. The
vertical and horizontal vibration amplitude should be acquired in order to check by the
criteria in each load case. Turbine foundation forced vibration analysis show that under
the unbalanced force of the ninth load case, in the second load position of low pressure
rotor 2, the vibration amplitude in bearing Brg_4 between two low pressure turbines is
the maximum. The unbalanced force is listed as follows:
Table 2 unbalanced force
Unbalanced force (LP2_2)
Bearing Rotor Fv(kN) DRG_v Fh(kN) DRG_h Fv/Fh Fr(kN) Fv/R Fh/R Fr/R
Brg_1 80.71 7.53 252.00 17.55 273.00 0.43 19.10 0.09 0.22 0.24
Brg_2 254.38 19.38 119.00 35.18 105.00 0.55 40.16 0.08 0.14 0.16
Brg_3 623.58 61.83 35.00 38.78 324.00 1.59 72.98 0.10 0.06 0.12
Brg_4 907.04 138.65 249.00 27.20 262.00 5.10 141.29 0.15 0.03 0.16
Brg_5 903.06 88.08 78.00 35.73 111.00 2.47 95.04 0.10 0.04 0.11
Brg_6 456.49 8.70 32.00 15.08 75.00 0.58 17.41 0.02 0.03 0.04
Brg_7 10.57 0.70 310.00 1.23 341.00 0.57 1.41 0.07 0.12 0.13
Max 907.04 138.65 310.00 38.78 341.00 5.10 141.29 0.15 0.22 0.24
Mark Brg_4 Brg_4 Brg_7 Brg_3 Brg_7 Brg_4 Brg_4 Brg_4 Brg_1 Brg_1
Total/
Average
3235.82 46.41 153.57 24.39 213.00 1.61 55.34 0.09 0.09 0.13
note
Fv,FhVertical and horizontal unbalanced force multiplied by 2.5
DRG_v, DRG_hPhase of the vertical and horizontal unbalanced force
FrSRSS of vertical and horizontal unbalanced force
Fv/FhThe ratio of unbalanced force between vertical and horizontal
Fr/R,Fv/R,Fh/RThe ratio between unbalanced force and weight of rotor
2.3 Summary and discussion
(1) The unbalanced force resulted from vibration analysis of shaft system is
compared with the unbalanced force resulted determined by a constant balanced
quality grade, the differences are listed as follows:
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1) The amplitude of vertical and horizontal unbalanced force is not the same
2) Each bearing unbalanced force is unable to be determined by constant balanced
quality grade
3) When the balanced quality grade is G2.5 and G6.3 for full speed machine, the
unbalanced force is 0.08 and 0.2 of weight of the rotor. The Table 2 shows that:
during the shafting vibration analysis, the vertical unbalanced force in turbine
module is greater than G2.5 and less than G6.3. The horizontal unbalanced force
of bearing Brg_1 in turbine module is greater than G6.3.
(2) Under the unbalanced force of the shafting vibration analysis and constant
balance quality grade analysis, the differences between maximum vibration
amplitude analysis methods are summarized as follows.
Table 3 Analysis methods of maximum vibration amplitude of T-G foundation
Num. Analysis load case number
Unbalanced force number
of each load case
The maximum
value method
1
Determined by the total number of rotor and
vibration analysis of shafting system
All bearings
Take the
maximum
2 The total number of rotor is multiplied by 2 Single bearing SRSS
3
All unbalanced forces in the same or alternating
direction and vertical or horizontal direction,
A total of 4 load cases.
All bearings
Take the
maximum
Note
Num. 1Unbalanced force of shaft vibration analysis
Num. 2 and 3Unbalanced force of constant balanced grade
(3) The shafting vibration analysis of unbalanced force marks the progress of
technology. When manufacturers provide unbalanced force of shafting vibration
analysis, the forced vibration should be analyzed based on the unbalanced forces
provided by the manufacturer.
3 Static Deflection analysis of turbine-generator foundation
Along with the unit capacity becoming larger and the continuous updating of the
machine, T-G foundation static deflection analysis is attracting more and more
attention from foundation designers. With the updating of the new machines by every
manufacturer, strict rules have been made for the deflection limits of the foundation
shafting. Various methods for stipulating deflection limits and their advantages and
disadvantages are briefly reviewed as fol1ows.
3.1 Radius of Curvature Criteria
The radius of curvature is defined as the circle determined by any three points that lie
in one plane. This criterion generally requires that radius of curvature need to be
checked at each set of three adjacent transverse girders along both the vertical and
transverse directions. The acceptable limits of vertical and transverse radius that
describe the shaft curvature caused by static load in operatinghereinafter referred
to as the operating loads) subsequent to initial alignment vary from one machine to
another. One criterion is greater than 40km for a single bearing and 3000-r/min
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machine. After calculating, the criterion is met for spring foundation of a 3000-r/min
and 1000mw machine.

Figure 8 Procedure to calculate the Center point coordinates and the Radius
3.2' Criteria
' criteria consider the whole shaft-line project onto horizontal plane of the
foundation tablewith all rotors represented by segments of line. Owing to
foundation deflection under operating loads, angles are generated at each coupling
between the various successive segments representative of the rotors. The limit of '
is less than 510
-5
. After calculating, the criterion is met for spring foundation of a
1500-r/min and 1000mw machine.
According to Figure10the radius of curvature and ' all are based upon the circle
determined by any three points. The formula (1) is expressed as relation between the
radius of curvature and '. Suppose the distance between the first and third point is
10 (m)the radius of curvature R is 40 (km) and ' is 12.510
-5
, which exceeds the
510
-5
of limit value. Indicating' criteria are stricter than the radius of curvature
criteria. When the distance between the three points is equal, arch height H = 0.313
(mm) which is the displacement difference of the adjacent bearings is more than 0.25
(mm).

Figure 9 ' Criteria Figure 10 Radius of curvature R and '

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Table 4 Radius of curvature R and '
A(m) R(km) '(5.0E-05) H(mm)
10.000 130.000 3.846 0.096
10.000 120.000 4.167 0.104
10.000 110.000 4.545 0.114
10.000 100.000 5.000 0.125
10.000 90.000 5.556 0.139
10.000 80.000 6.250 0.156
10.000 70.000 7.143 0.179
10.000 60.000 8.333 0.208
10.000 50.000 10.000 0.250
10.000 40.000 12.500 0.313
10.000 30.000 16.667 0.417
10.000 20.000 25.000 0.625

A= 2Rsin 2
(1)
3.3 Differential radial displacement between adjacent bearings
Under operating loads, one new datum line is established respectively by drawing a
line connecting the rotor support points. The new datum lines can be sloped lines
which are established based on the condition that the distance between the line and
each point W1, W2, is minimal (best line). In the under mentioned sketch, the
label Datum Operating Load is used to identify these new datum lines. The
deflection of any rotor support points from the new datum line for operating loads
must not exceed R/20.125mm. The differential displacement between adjacent
bearings must not exceed R0.25mm. After static deflection calculation for two
spring foundations of 900mw and 3000-r/min Siemens machine in operating, the
deflection of any rotor support point from the new datum line and the differential
displacement between adjacent bearings all exceed the limit. Compared with two
above-mentioned criteria of three point pattern, the criteria are difficult to meet. This
criteria is based upon the best line pattern of each bearing of the shaft system. When
this criteria is used to analyze the static deflection, it can be determined by consulting
with the manufacturer based on the comparison of the results between the new
foundation and the reference foundation.

Figure 11 Displacement and differential Figure 12 Displacement and differential
radial displacement: side view radial displacement: end view
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3.4 Influence Coefficient Approach
In order to more accurately determine the effects of displacement of the foundation
under operating loads, these criteria define the amount of misalignment that a
turbine-generator rotor system can withstand without imposing unacceptable loads
on the rotor bearings in the rotor system.
Based on the static analysis of shaft system by Manufacturer, matrix [R/R ]
0.1mm
is
obtained from a successive, arbitrary lowering 0.1mm of each journal bearing.
Based on the static analysis of foundation by foundation designer, matrix [] is
obtained from bearing displacement under normal operating loads.
Under operating loads, the loads on the rotor bearings in the rotor system are
calculated by formula follows.

The limit of R/R vary from one machine to another. One limit is less than 10% and
20% in vertical and horizontal respectively for 1000mw and a 1500-r/min machine.
4 Model test
For new kind and the first design of T-G foundation, model test is an effective
method to verify and evaluating the foundation design and analysis of reasonable and
reliable, and is advanced technology that is different from the numerical analysis of
the dynamic characteristics and vibration response of the T-G foundation.
The first vibration and seismic model test of spring foundation has been done based
on T-G foundation of the 1000MW and half speed ALSTOM machine, date in 2009.
Test according to the proportion of 1:10 established the spring foundation of real
model, including the spring vibration isolation system simulation, seismic action
considering the deck and the equipment of gravity on the column pressure. The
substructure design under spring conclusion is according to the general structure
seismic requirements, can be used as the engineering design and technical support.
5 Conclusions
Promoting technological development depend on productivity, T-G foundation
design engineers are to make unremitting efforts to explore and master the technique
of T-G foundation, expecting to make greater contributions to the T-G foundation
design for large capacity and new type of machine.
Reference
[1] Design of Large Steam Turbine-Generator Foundation. Task Committee on
Turbine Foundations of the Fossil Power Committee and the Nuclear Energy
Division of ASCE(1987)
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