Steam turbines

Condenser back pressure Steam expands through stages of wheels in a Steam turbine and exhaust into Condenser. Maximum work will be extracted, only if the steam is expanded to very minimum back pressure in Condenser. Lower the vacuum pressure, more is the work done in Turbine. Hence for improving on back pressure in condenser, controllable losses can be reduced and improvement in efficiency can be seen. There are several avoidable reasons for bringing deterioration on condenser back pressure. Let us now look into those usual and controllable losses contributing to departure of Condenser Back Pressure from optimum: a. CW inlet temperature higher than the design b. CW flow velocity through condenser is reduced compared to normal c. CW water box tube mouth is fouled with debris or tubes are choked. d. Dirty tubes or tube have internal scale e. Unwanted external air ingress in to the system under vacuum. Let us now analyze in detail the effect of each of the above with an aim on controlling avoidable losses due to condenser problems. Effect of variation in Circulating water temperature on back pressure: Amount of heat transferred in a heat exchanger usually depends upon Log Mean Temperature Difference (LMTD) between two fluids, which is equivalent to the ratio of change in CW temperature from inlet to outlet of condenser and the log of ratio between two differences of CW inlet temperature and the outlet temperature with saturation temperature of condensing liquid. The primary effect of change in CW inlet temperature is to alter the steam saturation temperature, by the same amount as the CW temperature change, assuming all other factors are constant. There will be change in back pressure, depending upon the saturation temperature. So to say, with increase in CW inlet temperature there will be rise in saturation temperature of condensing vapor, resulting in deterioration of back pressure. Rise in CW inlet temperature has got a secondary effect too caused by the fact that the water film in contact with condenser tube surface changes with the temperature of the water. With increase in inlet temperature thinner will be water film on tube surface and it will help to improve on the heat transfer. The magnitude of the secondary effect is approximately equal to the fourth root of the mean temperature.

Hence, desirable effect, on improving back pressure, is very marginal compared to the undesirable effect of increasing effect on saturation temperature. The primary and secondary changes are in opposite directions. Roughly with 5.5 deg C temperature rise in CW inlet temperature, the TTD reduces by 0.55 deg c. Effect of change in Circulating water flow on back pressure: The change in quantity of flow of Circulating Water will affect the performance of condenser in two ways: i. The decrease in quantity reduces the velocity of flow through the tubes and Heat transfer rate varies at a proportion of square root of CW velocity. Hence with decrease in velocity the heat transfer will also reduce at square of flow. ii The resulting rise in temperature rise across condenser on account of reduction in flow of water, will help to improve on heat transfer but to a CW inlet temperature. lesser extent, as compared to the bad effect root of velocity leads to poor heat transfer.

of reduction in velocity of flow. We have already seen the effect of back pressure on increase of

Effect of Air in Condenser Steam space: Entry of unwanted Air in the steam space lays a reversal effect on heat transfer across tube wall, thereby increasing the saturation temperature of condensing steam and hence results in deterioration of back pressure. When steam condenses the incondensable air remains as it is. This air surrounds the tubes and forms a thin layer of film over tube surface. Air film is an excellent insulator. Hence it badly affects heat transfer from cooling water to condensing steam. It is the reason entry of external air into vacuum space is not at all desirable. Mixing of 0.002% dry air by weight of steam may cause at least 1% deterioration in back pressure. With increase in air into vacuum system, steam ejectors may be over loaded. It may be found difficult to maintain the condenser vacuum with single ejector. So there could be a necessity to cut in another ejector in to service. This is the common problem in many of the thermal power stations. Sub-cooling effect Air is incompressible as well as incondensable. Air mixed with water vapor occupies the entire space in the condenser above hot well. The total back pressure exerted is combination of both partial pressure of vapor and air together when they individually occupy the same space. When more and more volume of air ingress takes place, space occupied by air goes on increasing. The pressure exerted by air increases with the more space occupied by it. Hence the pressure exerted by water vapor goes down, according to

Daltons law of partial pressure. As a result there is an apparent dip in pressure exerted by water vapor in the system. Accordingly, the saturation temperature of condensing steam falls down to match to the partial pressure of water vapor. This saturation temperature is lower than the corresponding saturation temperature of condensing steam at the back pressure of condenser. Hence there is an effect of under cooling. When under cooling takes place, there is an additional heat energy wasted to cool down to that lower level. Hence there is a controllable quantum of loss of energy spent over it. Hence it is advisable to control of entry of unwanted air into the vacuum space of the system.

Method to determine deviation of backpressure against load on turbine:

It is required to establish specific graphical representation curves showing optimum back pressure for a range of different load conditions on steam turbine. This will be evolved for different CW inlet temperature conditions at different load conditions. When once such curves are established it would be easy to evolve required back pressure for any load for a particular CW temperature. To draw this curve a test is to be conducted at different load conditions to determine rise in CW temperature of a particular unit. Also find out the terminal temperature difference (TTD) at the corresponding load conditions. Plot a curve of Load verses CW rise and TTD in a single graph. From the above curves the optimum saturation temperature can be calculated, which will be: Saturation Temperature of condensate = (CW temperature rise + TTD) + CW temperature at inlet to condenser Then find out the backpressure for the corresponding saturation temperature thus obtained. Suppose for a CW temperature of 20deg C at a particular load, say 100 MW, record CW rise and TTD. Assuming CW rise is 7.5 and TTD is 3 deg C, the corresponding saturation temperature of condensate is: (7.5+3) + 20 i.e 30.5 deg C. For saturation temperature of 30.5 the back pressure will be 43.65 bar. For each load condition for a particular CW inlet temperature back pressure is to be evaluated and graphical curves are to be established. Then you can choose the optimum Back Pressure for the corresponding saturation temperature from the steam tables. CW water box tube mouth is fouled with debris or tubes are choked: The cooling water may contain plenty of floating maters, living organisms, muck and mud, depending on source of cooling water. However much care is taken, sometimes the debris find their way into condenser. There are also cases wherein fishes, snacks and frogs too find their way and get stuck inside tubes. Sometimes the egg floats down to water box and the living organs grow over there and ultimately choke the tubes.

Whatever it is, the effect of blocking or choking of tubes reduces the quantity of water flow through the condenser. Hence the reduction in CW flow as we have already discussed greatly affects the condenser back pressure. Care has to be taken that floating material is to be controlled at the intake canal itself before inlet to Cooling Tower Basin. Trash gates and strainers are to be well maintained to keep away unwanted debris from CW inlet. Dirty tubes or tube have internal scale: The cooling water is drawn from different sources in different power plants. Some where river water is used and some where sea water is used. Depending upon the source, the water has got its own quality characteristics. Some sources of water consist of salts indifferent forms and ultimately get deposited in the internal surface of the condenser tubes. Another aspect is the control of Algae growth on CW side. In some cases other organisms find their habitat and start growing inside the tubes. At time mud and muck also get deposited which can be easily cleaned off. Some of the salts make a hard scale formation which can be removed only by some sort of chemical cleaning method. All these are very seriously interfering with heat transfer. The scales or the deposits are bad conductors of heat and acts as heat barriers, ultimately affecting the condenser back pressure. The solution to the problem is to create non-conducive environment by dosing chlorine. An alternative to chlorine dosing for maintaining the tubes clean is to go for on-load mechanical ball cleaning system. A little bit abrasive spongy type rubber balls are introduced at the CW inlet and circulated through the tubes along with the water and collected at the outlet. Scale prevention may be achieved by controlling pH of CW system at >8 by sulfuric Acid dosing. Organic phosphates and polymers are also made use of now-a-days for chemical treatment of CW system. Periodically chemical cleaning of the CW side of the condenser tube nest with Hydrochloric acid may have to be carried out to remove scale deposits. Optimum Back Pressure: It is always desirable to have optimum required Back Pressure in condenser. It is not always true that having better than optimum back pressure will help improving cycle efficiency. On many occasions, it may result in adverse effect, when some measures are taken to improve back pressure in order to achieve much more than the optimum for which the machine is designed. a. It is true that increased flow will increase velocity and help improve vacuum. But it may result in increased input power on CW pumps. Gain on improved back pressure may get offset by additional auxiliary power input. b. Improved vacuum in condenser will increase the velocity of steam leaving the last stage blades. Increase in velocity of exhaust steam may result in increase in Turbine leaving losses and ultimately the effect may prove to be negative.

c.

Decrease in condensate temperature by improved vacuum may cause more flow through extracted steam to LP Heaters. There will loss of work done by that quantity of steam flow through further stages ahead.

d.

Lower the vacuum, lower is going to be vapor temperature. Lower the temperature of vapor higher will be the wetness in steam. Increased wetness may cause damages to last stage blades.

Hence summarizing the problem related to condenser back pressure: a. Increase in CW inlet temperature will tend to rise the saturation temperature of condensing vapor and hence back pressure will deteriorate. b. With increase in CW inlet temperature, film of cooling water on tube wall may thin out and help to transfer more heat. This effect is negligible, since the magnitude of this effect is approximately equal to the fourth root of the mean temperature. c. With decrease in CW inlet flow, velocity through tubes also decreases. The heat transfer will also reduce at square root of velocity of flow. Hence back pressure will be affected. d. Air leaking into vacuum space may form a thin layer of film over tube surface. Air film is an excellent insulator. Hence it badly affects heat transfer from cooling water to condensing steam. e. With more air in leak ejectors may be over loaded. Additional ejector may be required for maintaining vacuum. f. By Doltons due to partial pressure of incondensable air, there could be sub cooling of condensate which is an waste of energy spent in the system. g. External dirt, muck floating objects or living organisms may block or choke the tubes and reduce CW flow. Hence affects the back pressure. h. Scaling of tubes by dissolved salts depositing over tube surface also act as insulator and deteriorates heat transfer in condenser. Turbine inlet Steam pressure and temperature The Turbine inlet Steam conditions have influence on both cycle and turbine efficiency. Design philosophy in choosing pressure and temperature parameters for a turbine inlet lies in the fact to select the highest feasible temperature for improving cycle efficiency and then appropriately determine on the pressure, taking care that at the end of expansion the limit on dryness fraction is not exceeded. Invariably, 11% or 14% of wetness of steam at the last stage of the LP stage of a turbine rotating at 3000 rpm and at 1500 RPM respectively. The increase in wetness causes a drop in efficiency. Moisture found in wet steam also causes severe erosion in the last stage LP blades. Any variation in the TSV steam temperature will reflect on specific volume of inlet steam and in consequent change of flow. In addition the temperature parameter variation may also bring the following changes too in the cycle operation:

Change in total heat of TSV steam Change in total heat of cylinder exhaust steam Change in pressure throughout the turbine resulting in changes in bled steam and the flow to condenser.

A drop of 10 deg C in steam temperature would bring down the turbine efficiency by 0.5 % to 0.7%. But in case of reheat turbines wetness of exhaust steam is much lower and hence loss due to temperature change does not affect much... Effect of steam pressure on operating efficiency: In case of throttle governed turbine any variations in pressure before TSV at a particular time will change the position of control valves. In case pressure at TSV increases there will be more throttling resulting in lowering of TSV temperature, lesser available isentropic efficiency. In case pressure at TSV is reduced to meet the same load demand the converse effect will be visible. Sliding Pressure Operation: When operating a throttle governed turbine at art loads the action of throttling steam results in reduction of steam temperature. However even if pressure at boiler is reduced upto certain limit, the temperature can be maintained. This would result in decrease of wetness and slight increase in heat to exhaust steam. But there will be some advantage in working at part load with reduced boiler pressure. Nozzle governing: The operation of nozzle governed turbines is to operate it at valve points i.e. for given parameters the load must be adjusted in such a way that a particular number of valves are kept open. In case load varies in such a way that it does not suit the valves then one of the valves is to be throttled which means loss in efficiency. Thus if there is a pressure rise two of the situations can arise: a. Valve opening kept constant and allowed to increase on generator load provided the system accepts. This will result into, (i) Steam flow increase (ii) Electrical output increase (iii) Efficiency increase b. The load remains constant and one of the valves is throttled. The steam through the throttled valve will do less work in first stage. But later on all steam will get mixed. The net result may be slight decrease in wetness. Effect of re-heater pressure drop on operating efficiency: The pressure drop in the re-heater circuit, between the exhaust of the HP cylinder and the inlet to IP cylinder, like a pressure drop at any other location, may cause loss in efficiency. The re-heat pressures are generally 1/ 4 to 1 / 3 of TSV pressure and hence correspondingly more volume of steam is required to be coped with necessitating thereby bigger pipes. If size of piping is reduced then pressure drops and

hence consequent loss will be more. The usual pressure drops in re-heater piping are 7.5 % to 10% in British design and 5% to 12.5% in American design. Reasons for re-heater that are responsible for drop in re-heater pressure are: a. BFP turbine out of service b. Feed Heater abnormalities c. R/H safety valve passing Effect of blade deposits on operating efficiency: The deposits on blades increase the pressure ratio across a stage, changing thereby the velocity ratio (steam velocity / Blade velocity) the effect of which is loss in efficiency. Further the deposits restrict the area of flow from a rough surface burs etc. on blades, which results in increased windage losses. Thus it is imperative that steam paths should be kept aerodynamically clean. Due to deposits load reduction upto 20% and efficiency reduction upto 5% can occur. The cause of blade deposits is the carry over of salts due to ineffectiveness of drum separators and foaming in drum. The soluble salt deposits can be removed by steam washing. But heavy deposits of hard layer of silica can not be easily removed. Such hardened layer of silica deposits can be removed only by sand blasting of rotor blades, for which the turbine may have to be opened up. Effect of Gland packing wear and tear on Operating Efficiency: Gland seal packing in Steam Turbines helps in sealing leakage of steam to waste through shaft seals on HP side and to prevent air in leak to condenser on exhaust end. If the seal packing steam is not adequate it will result in air ingress through turbine exhaust and results in increase of Condenser Back Pressure. Generally, packing steam for seals is taken from external sources during start up and very low load operation. Once loading on turbine is increased self steam is extracted out from HP end and supplied to LP side. In case the seal steam is vented out to atmosphere the loss may be a little more and is definitely recoverable. This could happen only in very small capacity turbines, wherein the vented out steam flow is invariably negligible and hence ignored. Normally seal steam is extracted out and passed through gland steam condensers. Heat loss is compensated to some extent by transferring to condensate water flow. The condensed drain is also taken back to condenser through suitable means such as traps or siphon arrangements. Hence generally heat loss due to gland sealing is quite a small in quantity and is so neglected. However the H P leak off steam passing on to LP side, definitely results in loss of some useful work, which could have been extracted out, if passed through turbine wheels. In case of heavy wear and tear to HP glands there may be more leakage of steam passing on to LP end. The greater the amount of steam leakage greater is the loss, since the quantity leaking out is simply getting diverted to exhaust end

without performing any useful work. Hence the labyrinth seals are to be properly set right during every overhaul. H P steam pressure controllers are to be maintained properly just to maintain the minimum pressure required (generally 0.1 ata). Greater is the wear and tear to gland seals labyrinth, higher is going to be the pressure at seals. The result is increased leak of flow and increase in controllable losses. It also creates nuisance of steam vapour coming into contact with bearing oil and contaminating if excessive pressure is maintained in Gland seals. Attemperation spray for re-heater steam temperature control: Re-heat steam temperature control is done by attemperation using feed water in the cold re-heat line before entering the boiler. The quantity of water used for attemperation does not flow through HP cylinder and as such does not pass through the complete cycle. The effect of this is a reduction in efficiency. It is estimated that a loss of 0.18% in efficiency can take place with use of 23000 Kg / hr. of spray water for 350 MW TG working at 160 bars abs pressure and 566deg C temperature at TSV and 566deg c reheat temperature. Therefore in normal operation reheat steam temperature control is exercised through means other than spray which is used only in emergency.