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STEAM TURBINE WORKING PRINCIPLE

INTRODUCTION
Steam Turbine can translate into mechanical work a relatively large fraction of
the Heat energy rendered available by the expansion of the steam in the
Turbine. Here no linkages needed for converting Heat Energy to Kinetic energy.
PRINCIPLE of ACTION
•Steam is caused to fall in pressure in a passage or Nozzle whereby a certain
amount of heat energy is converted into Kinetic Energy & Steam moves out
with a greater velocity.
• Steam with a high velocity enter the moving part of the Turbine and here
suffer a change in direction of motion which gives rise to a Change of
momentum and therefore to a force. This constitutes the Driving Force of the
machine. Moving Part of the Turbine is called BLADE.
Based on Blade design ,Axial Flow Turbine are mainly of
Two types:

A] Impulse Turbine B] Impulse –Reaction Turbine

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 Impulse Turbine
• The passage of of steam through the moving part the Turbine
, called as Blade may take place in such a manner that the
pressure at the outlet side is equal to that at the inlet side.
Such a turbine is broadly termed as Impulse Turbine

• The steam jets in an impulse turbine are directed by the fixed

nozzles at the turbine's bucket shaped rotor blades where the
force exerted by the jets causes the rotor to turn while at the
same time the velocity of the steam is reduced as it imparts
its kinetic energy to the blades. The blades in turn change the
direction of flow of the steam and this change of momentum
corresponds to the increased momentum of the rotor.
(Descartes - Conservation of momentum).
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 Impulse Turbine- contd..
• The entire pressure drop in the turbine stage occurs in the
fixed nozzles in the stator and there is no pressure drop as the
steam passes through the rotor blades since the cross section
of the chamber between the blades is constant. Impulse
turbines are therefore also known as constant pressure
turbines.
• The design is relatively simple and the turbine casing does not
necessarily need to be pressure proof.
• But Steam impulse turbines usually operate at extremely high
speeds of 30,000 r.p.m. or more and are thus subject to
enormous centrifugal forces. For most practical applications
the speed must be geared down.
• Each simple Impulse turbine comprising a set of ‘Nozzles’ &
‘Blades’ is termed as a ‘STAGE’.

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 Impulse –Reaction Turbine
• Here the pressure of the steam at outlet from the
moving blade of the turbine may be less than that at the
inlet side. The drop in pressure suffered by the steam
during its flow through the moving blades causes a
further generation of Kinetic Energy within the blade
and adds to the propelling force which is applied to the
Turbine Rotor. Such a turbine is broadly termed as
Impulse –Reaction Turbine .
• Reaction turbines are generally much more efficient than
impulse turbines and run at lower speeds which means
they don't necessarily need reduction gearing. They are
however more complex and the high pressure steam
makes them more susceptible to leaks between the
stages.
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 Reaction Turbine

• Both the fixed and the rotor blades of the reaction turbine
are shaped more like aerofoils, arranged such that the
cross section of the blades diminishes from the inlet side
towards the exhaust side of the blades. This means that the
cross section of the steam passages between both sets of
fixed and rotor blades increases across the turbine stage. In
this way both sets of blades essentially form nozzles so that
as the steam progresses through both the stator and the
rotor its pressure decreases causing its velocity to increase.
The rotor becomes basically a set of rotating nozzles.
• As the steam emerges in a jet from between each set of
rotor blades, it creates a reactive force on the blades which
in turn creates the turning moment on the turbine rotor.
(Newton's Third Law - For every action there is an equal
and opposite reaction)
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 Pressure-compounded Impulse Turbine
A no. of simple impulse machine in series can be arranged on the
same shaft ,
 By arranging the expansion of the steam in a number of steps,
 allowing the exhaust steam from one turbine to enter the nozzle of
the succeeding turbine.
This is equivalent to splitting up the entire pressure drop into a series
of smaller pressure drops; Hence the term “Pressure-
compounded”
The Pressure Compounding causes a smaller transformation of Heat
energy into Kinetic energy to take place in each stage than in
simple Impulse turbine.
Hence the steam velocities are much lower, with the result the Blade
velocity and the rotational speed may be lowered.
Advantage: given a constant quantity of available energy per Kg of
steam, speed may be reduced at will simply by increasing the
number of stages. 7
r

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 Simple Velocity compounded Impulse Turbine
• Comprises a Nozzle or set of Nozzles and a wheel fitted with two or more
rows of moving blades.
• A number of stationary Guide Blades suitably arranged in between the
moving blades and set in the reverse manner.
• Steam entering nozzle expands from initial pressure down to the exhaust
pressure.
• Velocity is very high after nozzle as in simple impulse turbine.
• Velocity progressively comes down as it passes through a number of
stages of moving blades whereby kinetic energy of steam is converted to
work done.
• There is slight drop in velocity in the fixed guide blade due to friction.
• This type of Turbines are having lower Efficiency.
• This Impulse stage is known as ‘CURTIS’ Stage.

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AXIAL FLOW ‘IMPULSE-REACTION’ or REACTION
TURBINE

• No of rows of moving blades attached to the Rotor and equal no of

Fixed Blades (similar to Nozzles as mentioned in Impulse Turbine
Stage) attached to casing.
• In Fixed guide Blade or Nozzle, Steam undergoes small drop in
pressure with corresponding increase in velocity.
• In Moving Blades, it suffers a change in direction and therefore of
momentum. This gives rise to an impulse on the blades.
• Further, during its passage though moving blade steam undergoes
drop in pressure with consequent increase in velocity. This gives rise
to a ‘reaction’ in a direction opposite to that of the added velocity.
• Here the gross propelling force is the vector sum of the Impulse and
the Reaction.

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STEAM FLOW THROUGH BLADES
VELOCITY DIAGRAM

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 VELOCITY DIAGRAM
In a pure impulse turbine stage,
• P0 and P1 are pres at nozzle inlet and outlet
• V1 is absolute velocity of steam w.r.t casing coming out of nozzle at
an angle α with the direction of blade velocity.
• It is a vector quantity having Magnitude, Direction and sense &
represented by csi
• c-b represent velocity of blades relative to casing. Let it be u.
• b-si is joined. This is velocity of steam relative to blade at inlet.
• Thus although the steam is actually moving towards the blade along
the line c-si , owing to the fact that blade itself is moving with
velocity c-b, steam appears to enter the blade in direction b-si with
a relative velocity of U1 at angle β1(inlet angle of blade).

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 VELOCITY DIAGRAM

• In a pure impulse turbine, pres P1 in the clearance space

between Nozzle and blade is equal to steam pres P2 in the
space immediately adjacent to the blade at outlet side.
• Now U2 is the relative velocity at which the steam will flow
out of the blade at a certain angle β2 (outlet angle of blade).
• If there is no frictional loss in blade, U2 = U1. Otherwise U2
will be less than U1.
• Now b-so is drawn representing outlet velocity of steam
rela.tive to blade
• c-so is joined which represents Absolute velocity of steam at
outlet w.r.t casing and represented by V2.

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 FORCE ON BLADE

• FORCE ON BLADE:(refer velocity diagram)

• Join csi with cso . This vector represents change of
velocity that the steam undergoes in passing
through the blade represented by BD.
• Resultant force necessary to produce the change
of velocity BD is w/g x BD where w is steam flow
through blade.
• According to Newton’s third law, force exerted by
steam on the blade is equal and opposite to that
exerted by blades on the steam.
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 Turbine Losses

A. Nozzle Friction
B. Blade Friction
C. Disc Friction
D. Diaphragm Gland and Blade Tip leakage
E. Partial Admission
F. Wetness
G. Exhaust

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 Steam Turbine mainly two types
A] Condensing Type- Mainly used in Electricity Generation in Thermal Power
Plants
B] Back pressure Type- Here Turbine generates “Captive Power “plus Exhaust
steam used in Process Industry & Steam Heating.

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