1)DESCRIPTION Cussons Steam Power Plants have been designed to provide a comprehensive facility for the complete investigation

of a steam power plant. The features incorporated and power ratings chosen constitute an excellent representation of industrial practice within the limitations of an educational laboratory. The equipment is offered in the form of three schemes of 5, 10 and 20 kW rating respectively. Each scheme comprises a full range of separate but compatible units enabling the complete installation to be tailored to suit individual customers requirements. A basic laboratory scheme would comprise a boiler and turbine/condenser. In addition the complementary items; Separating and Throttling Calorimeters, Superheater, Tanks, Blowdown Tank, Water Treatment, Interconnecting Pipework and Lab. Design, Steam Pipework Lagging, and Installation & Commissioning may be supplied as required. In the majority of cases water treatment will be required, and unless a suitable volume of cooling water is available, a cooling tower will also be required. Both these items are available if required. Further optional items such as additional boiler and superheater instrumentation, flue gas analysers etc. though not strictly essential to the plant operation, considerably improve the versatility, and hence teaching potential, of the equipment. The boilers used are vertical firetube type designed for simple operation and maintenance. The boiler may be supplied for oil or gas firing, suitable for 35 second fuel oil or natural or manufactured gases. Water feed and steam pressure control are fully automatic with low water level alarm and lock out, and interlocked air, ignition, and flame failure sequence burner control. The flue outlet is fitted with a condensate trap and flue gas divertor. Flue ducting is available as an optional extra. Similarly, superheaters may be oil or gas fired and incorporate fully automatic control with steam coil over temperature and flame failure detectors. Additional instrumentation is available for both boiler and superheater to enable complete performance analysis. The turbine units are single stage impulse type with

D.C. dynamometer, overhead control unit, constant speed governor, condenser and condensate system. The units are compact in design requiring a minimum of floor space, and do not require special foundation arrangements. The boiler/steam turbine power plant may be used to supply steam for the full set of the steam bench experiments. The versatility of the plant may be further improved by the addition of any or all of the following experimental units:Heat exchanger the heating medium may be steam or internally generated hot water with air or cold water cooling. The unit is fully instrumented and may be used for 4 or 8 passes with parallel or contra flow. Steam engine a horizontal single cylinder reciprocating engine complete with Meyer valve gear, governor and Prony brake dynamometer. Boiler Control Demonstration Unit a transparent plastic model boiler clearly showing the various control sensing units, and complete with water feed pump and control system, and electronically simulated boiler pressure and burner control. The facilities can be tailored to suit your requirements and Cussons engineers can plan, design, erect and commission the complete installation. A complete list of the scheme items and optional equipment is shown overleaf. STEAM POWER PLANT Power Plant Components In order to analyze a complete power plant steam power cycle, it is first necessary to analyze the elements which make up such cycles. (See Figure 26) Although specific designs differ, there are three basic types of elements in power cycles, (1) turbines, (2) pumps and (3) heat exchangers. Associated with each of these three types of elements is a characteristic change in the properties of the working fluid. Previously we have calculated system efficiency by knowing the temperature of the heat source and the heat sink. It is also possible to calculate the efficiencies of each individual component. The efficiency of each type of component can be calculated by comparing the actual work produced by the component to the work that would have been produced by an ideal component operating isentropically between the same inlet and outlet conditions.

Figure 26

Steam Cycle

A modern steam power station is highly complex and it requires numerous main equipments and auxiliary equipments.The important equipments of steam power station are 1.Steam Generating Equipment 2. Condenser 3.Prime mover 4.Water Treatment Plant 5. Electrical Equipment 1.Steam Generating Equipment It is an important part of steam power station and it is mainly concerned with the generation of superheated steam.It includes items such as boiler,boiler furnace,super heater,economiser,air preheater and other heat reclaiming devices 1.1 Boiler Boiler is a closed vessel in which heat energy obtained by coal combustion is used to convert water into steam and it could be broadly classified into two

(a)Water tube boilers (b) Fire tube boilers In a water tube boiler water flows through the tube and the hot gases produced by combustion flows over the tube there by heating it.But in the case of Fire tube boilers the combustion gases and other byproducts of combustion flows through the tube surrounded by water.Water tube boilers are more advantageous than fire tube boilers since it requires less space,smaller size of tubes and drums,high working pressure due to small drum,less chance of explosion etc,So we choose water tube boilers of large capacity in steam power stations.The pictures of boiler control board and water tube boiler is given below respectively. 1.2 Boiler Furnace Boiler furnace is a chamber where fuel(coal) is burnt in order to produce heat energy.In addition to this it provides support and enclosure to combustion equipment ie burner.The walls of boiler furnace are made of refractive materials such as fire clay,silica,kaolin etc.These materials has got the property to retain size,shape,weight and other physical properties even at high temperatures.Furnace walls could be of three types they are (a) Plain refractory walls (b) Hollow refractory walls with an arrangement for air cooling. (c) Water walls Plain refractory walls are used in small furnace where the temperature is not high.In large plants the temperature is much high and so the plain refractory furnace may get damaged so we use hollow walls with air circulating arrangement to reduce temperature.The latest technique is the water walls in that plain tubes are arranged side by side on the inner face of the refractory walls and these tubes are connected to the upper and lower headers of the boiler.The boiler water is made to circulate through the tubes which would absorb the heat from the furnace walls and makes it cool.The picture of fiber and shell used as refractory material is shown below. 1.3 Superheater A superheater is a device which superheats the steam i.e., it raises the temperature of steam above boiling point of water. This increases the overall efficiency of the plant. A superheater consist of a group of tubes made of special alloy steels such as chromium-molybdenum. These tubes are heated by heat of flue gases during their journey from the furnace to the chimney. The steam produced in the boiler is led through the superheater where it is superheated by the heat of

flue gases. Superheater are mainly classified into two types according to the system of heat transfer from flue gases to steam viz. (a) Radiant superheter (b) Convection superheater The radiant superheater is placed in the furnace between the water walls and receives heat from the burning fuel through radiation process. It has two main disadvantages. Firstly,due to high furnace temperature, it may get overheated and, therefore, requires a careful design. Secondly the temperature of superheater falls with increase in steam output. Due to this limitations, radiant superheater is not finding favour these days. On the other hand, a convection superheater is placed in the boiler tube bank and receives heat from flue gases entirely through the convection process.It has the advantage that temperature of superheater increases with the increase in steam output. For this reason, this type of super is commonly used these days.

1.4 Economiser It is device which heats the feed water on its way to boiler by deriving heat form flue gases.This results in raising boiler efficiency, saving in fuel and reduced stresses in the boiler due to higher temperature of feed water. An economiser consists of a large number of closely spaced parallel steel tubes connected by header of drums. The feed water flows through these tubes and the flue gases flow outside. A part of the heat of flue gases is transferred to feed water, thus raising the temperature of the latter.

1.5 Air pre-heater Superheater and economisers generally cannot fully extract the heat from flue gases.Therefore, pre-heater are employed which recover some of the heat in the escaping gases. The function of

an air pre-heater is to extract heat from the flue gases and give it to the air being supplied to furnace for coal combustion. This raises the furnace temperature and increases the thermal efficiency of the plant.Depending upon the method of transfer of heat from flue gases to air, air pre-heaters are divided into the following two classes: (a) Recuperative type (b) Regenerative type The recuperative type air heater consists of a group of steel tubes.the flue gases are passed through the tubes while the air flows externally to the tubes. thus heat of flue gases is transferred to air. The regenerative type air pre-heater consists of slowly moving drum made of corrugated metal plates. The flue gases flow continuously on one side of the drum and air on the other side. This action permits the transference of heat of flue gases to the air being supplied to the furnace for coal combustion. Induced draught fan and chimney is shown below 2.Condensers. A condenser is a device which condenses the steam at the exhaust of turbine. It serves two important functions.Firstly, it creates a very low ( By liquidation steam at the exhaust of turbine, a region of emptiness is created. This results in a very low pressure at the exhaust of turbine.) pressure at the exhaust of turbine, thus permitting expansion of the steam in the prime mover to very low pressure. This helps converting heat energy of steam into mechanical energy in the prime mover. Secondly, the condensed steam can be used as feed water to the boiler. There are two types of condensers, namely: (i) Jet condenser (ii) Surface condenser

surface condenser

jet ( A Surface Condenser ) In a jet condenser, cooling water and exhausted steam are together. Therefore , the temperature of cooling water and condensate is the same when leaving the condenser. Advantages of this type of condenser are : low initial cost, less flow area required, less cooling water required and low maintenance charges. However, its disadvantage are: condensate is wasted and high power is required for pumping water. In a surface condenser, there is no direct contact between cooling water and exhausted steam. It consists of a bank of horizontal tubes enclosed in a cast iron shell. The cooling water flows through the tubes and exhausted steam over the surface of the tubes. The steam gives up its heat to water and is itself condensed. Advantage of this type of condenser are : condensate can be used as feed water, less pumping power required and creation of better vacuum at the turbine exhaust. However, disadvantage of this type of condenser are : high initial coast, requires large floor area and high maintenance charges. 3. Prime mover. The prime mover converts steam energy into mechanical energy. There are two type of steam prime mover viz., steam engines and steam turbines. A steam turbine has several advantages over a steam engine as a prime mover viz., high efficiency, simple construction, higher speed, less floor area requirement and low maintenance cost. Therefore, all modern steam power stations employ steam turbines as prime mover. Steam turbines are generally classified into two type according to the action of steam moving blades viz., (i)Impulse turbines (ii) reaction turbines In an impulse turbine, the steam expands completely in the stationary nozzles (or fixed blades), the pressure over the moving blades remaining constant. In doing so , the steam attains a high velocity and impinges against the moving blades. This results in the impulsive force on the moving blades which sets the rotor rotating. In a reaction turbine, the steam is partially expanded in the stationary nozzles, the remaining expansion takes place during its flow over the moving blades. The result is that the momentum of the steam causes a reaction force on the moving blades which sets the rotor in motion. (Impulse turbine)

4. Water treatment plant. Boiler require clean and soft water for longer life and better efficiency.However, the source of boiler feed water is generally a river or lake which may contain suspended and dissolved impurities, dissolved gases etc. Therefore, it is very important that water is first purified and softened by chemical treatment and then delivered to the boiler. The water from the source of supply id stored in storage tanks.The suspended impurities are removed through sedimentation, coagulation and filtration. Dissolved gases are removed by aeration and degasification. The water is 'softened, by removing temporary and permanent hardness through different chemical processes. The pure and soft water thus available is fed to the boiler for steam generation. ( Water treatment plant )

5. Electrical equipment. A modern power station contains numerous electrical equipment. However, the most important items are: (i) Alternators. Each alternator is coupled to a steam turbine and converts mechanical energy of turbine into electrical energy. The alternator may be hydrogen or air cooled. The necessary excitation is

provided by means of main and pilot exciters directly coupled to the alternator shaft. (ii) Transformers. A generation station has different types of transformers, viz., (a) main step -up transformers which step-up the generation voltage for transmission of power. (b) station transformers which are used for general service (e.g., lighting) in the power station. (c) auxiliary transformers which supply to individual unit-auxiliaries. (iii)Switchgear. It houses such equipment which locates the fault on the system and isolate the faulty part from the healthy section. It contains circuit breakers, relays, switches and other control devices.

switchgear C) A steam power station mainly works on Rankine cycle.In steam power station steam is produced by the combustion of coal and hence producing steam from water in the boiler.The steam is then made to expand in the prime mover and then it is condensed using a condenser to feed back it to the boiler again.The steam turbines rotates due to the impact of the steam on its blades and this sets the coupled alternator in motion which converts mechanical energy into electrical energy.This type of stations are constructed where surplus amount of coal and water is available and the power requirement is very large. Advantages of Steam Power Station 1. The fuel used for power production is cheap(coal). 2. The initial cost is less compared to other type of generating stations. 3. it can be installed at any place since it is easy to transport coal. 4. requires less area compared to that of hydro electric power stations. 5. The production cost is cheaper compared to that of diesel power stations. Disadvantages 1. it produces smoke and fumes which pollutes earth atmosphere. 2. The running cost is high compare to that of hydro electric power stations.