Steam Turbine Principle

The steam energy is converted mechanical work by expansion

through the turbine. Th expansion takes place through a series of
fixed blades (nozzles) and moving blades each row of fixed blades
and moving blades is called a stage. The moving blades rotate on
the central turbine rotor and the fixed blades are concentrically
arranged within the circular turbine casing which is substantially
designed to withstand the steam pressure.
On large output turbines the duty too large for one turbine and a
number of turbine casing/rotor units are combined to achieve the
duty. These are generally arranged on a common centre line (tandem
mounted) but parallel systems can be used called cross compound
systems.

Two Turbine Cylinders Tandem Mounted

There are two principles used for design of turbine blades the impulse
blading and the reaction blading.
Impulse Blading

Power Engineering

New Benchmarks for Steam Turbine Efficiency

08/01/2002

By Dr. Alexander S. Leyzerovich,

Consultant
In the 20th century, steam turbines became the most powerful electric power
generators available, accounting for more than 50 percent of the world's installed
power generation capacity. However, many people, even some power engineering
professionals, had come to view steam turbines as a mature technology that would
not experience any remarkable achievements in the near future. Indeed, by the late
1980s, the thermal efficiency of new steam turbines had practically stabilized. But
the 1990s brought new breakthroughs in steam turbine technology, and technology
progress continues today. This progress is primarily the result of two main factors.
The first is the development of new heat-resistant high-chromium-percentage
ferritic-class steels that enable steam turbines to reach elevated steam
temperatures without resorting to austenitic steels. The second is implementation of
new advanced approaches to steam path design. Noteworthy as well are advances
in developing longer last-stage rotating blades that further decrease exit losses.
The leading producers of large power steam turbines in the world today are
European-based multinationals ALSTOM and Siemens AG; GE Power Systems (GE) in
the U.S.; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Hitachi and Toshiba Corp. in Japan;
Leningrad Metallic Works (LMZ) in Russia; Ansaldo Energia in Italy; Turboatom in
Ukraine; and Skoda in Czech Republic.

Latest and Greatest

The advances in steam turbine technology can be better understood by reviewing

the design, installation, and commissioning results of several power plants that
have recently come on-line. By late 2001, the first operating year's and acceptance
tests' data had been processed and partially published for two of the newest power
units commissioned in Germany and Japan. These two units are the 907 MW Unit 1
of the Boxberg power plant, operated by Eastern-Germany
utility VEAG, and the 1050 MW Unit 2 of the Tachibana-wan
Figure 1. Siemens
power plant, located in Tokushima Prefecture (Shikoku Island) steam turbine in
and operated by Electric Power Development Co. (EPDC).
use at Boxberg
power plant in
Boxberg Unit 1 went on-line in June 2000 and passed
Germany. Photo
acceptance tests in October 2000. The unit's net efficiency was
courtesy of
42.7 percent and the gross efficiency of the Siemens steam
Siemens.
turbine was 48.5 percent. Its steam conditions of 3860 psi and
Click here to
1013/1078 F do not practically differ from those of other
enlarge image
recent-vintage turbines at German power plants.
Tachibana-wan Unit 2 entered commercial operation in midDecember 2000. With a gross efficiency of 49 percent, its MHI
steam turbine has been acclaimed the most efficient worldwide. The unit's steam
conditions, at 3636 psi and 1112/1130 F, represent the next step in the Japanese
steam temperature staircase: 1000/1051 F for Matsuura Unit 1 (1000 MW, 1990);
1000/1099 F for Hekinan Unit 3 (700 MW, 1993); 1051/1099 F for Nanao Ohta (500
MW, 1995); 1099/1099 F for Matsuura Unit 2 (1000 MW, 1997); and 1112/1112 F for
Misumi Unit 1 and Haramachi Unit 2 (1000 MW, 1998).
The cited steam turbine efficiency figures provide a benchmark for new units.
Meaningful is that both power plants burn solid fuel. It is worth recalling that the

best steam turbines put into operation in the 1990s had already reached
comparable gross efficiency values:

47.4%-Japan's Hekinan Unit 3, with a rated output of 700 MW and steam

conditions of 3480 psi, 1000/1099 F (MHI turbine);

47.6%-Germany's Hessler plant, with a rated output of 720 MW and steam

conditions of 3990 psi, 1072/1112 F (ALSTOM turbine); and

48.4%-Japan's Kawagoe Units 1 and 2, with a rated output of 700 MW and

steam conditions of 4496 psi, 1051/1051/1051 F (Toshiba turbines).

Of significance is that these units, as well as those at Boxberg and Tachibana-wan,

achieved these close efficiency values with the turbines at materially different
steam conditions. According to MHI, a steam temperature increase from 1000/1100
F to 1112/1112 F makes a turbine more efficient (heat rate) by about 2.2 percent,
that is, its efficiency rises by approximately 1.1 percent. According to German power
plant engineers, raising the steam parameters from 3625 psi, 1004/1040 F to 3915
psi, 1085/1112 F should increase turbine efficiency about 1.3 percent. So, closeness
of the actual efficiency values for the same capacity class turbines with remarkably
different steam temperatures, and with regard to differences in the condenser
vacuum (722 mm Hg at Boxberg and 730 mm Hg at Tachibana-wan), feedwater
heating, etc., says at least that some of these turbines have noticeable reserves to
increase efficiency by reducing losses in the steam path and using more progressive
designs.

Design Features

The turbines at Boxberg and Tachibana-wan significantly diverge in their design

schemes. Siemens' 907 MW 3000-rpm turbine at Boxberg is a tandem-compound
(TC) five-cylinder machine (single-flow HP cylinder, double-flow IP cylinder, and
three double-exhaust LP cylinders, Figure 1), whereas MHI's 1050 MW turbine at
Tachibana-wan (Figure 2) is a typical cross-compound machine with the HP and IP
cylinders positioned on the high-speed shaft (3600 rpm) and two double-exhaust LP
cylinders on the low-speed shaft (1800 rpm). Today, the largest west-European TC
turbines in operation for fossil-fuel power plants have a single capacity of 933 MW
(ALSTOM units at the German power plant Lippendorf), second only to the Soviet TC
3000-rpm turbine with a rated output of 1200 MW. The German Niederaussem plant
will reach about 1000 MW when Unit K comes on-line in November 2002. The
maximum single capacity of the "high-speed" TC steam turbines manufactured by
Japanese producers has remained at about 840 MW.
Figure 2. MHI steam
turbine in use at
Tachibana-wan
power plant in
Japan. Photo
courtesy of MHI.
Click here to
enlarge image

It is well known that the ultimate capacity of a given turbine is,

to a degree, determined by the length of the last-stage blades
(LSB). Siemens' recent-vintage 3000-rpm large steam turbines,
including the Boxberg units, are furnished with free-standing
39-inch steel LSB that provide an annular area of 98.6 ft2 per
flow. Under development are 45-inch steel LSB (first applied in
the Niederaussem K turbine) and 53-inch titanium LSB. Table 1
compares LSB characteristics for several recent steam turbine
models from various manufacturers.

For the time being, Japanese steam turbines in the 1000-1050 MW range are
designed cross-compound with two LP cylinders on the low-speed shaft. Until
recently, these had been furnished with 41- and 44-inch steel LSB. The turbine for
Tachibana-wan Unit 2, however, uses an integrally shrouded 46-inch LSB. This
significantly reduces the energy losses in the last stage and makes it possible to use
the same turbine configuration for a single capacity of up to 1300 MW. Moreover, a
few years ago Hitachi declared their readiness to produce high-speed TC fourcylinder (HP+IP+2xLP) 1000 MW turbines with new LSB. MHI has similar projects. In
the future, such a turbine could even transform into a three-cylinder machine-with
the use of an integral HP-IP cylinder. In this case, a two-cylinder (HP-IP+LP) scheme
could be used up to a single capacity of 750 MW. MHI also has applied 3600 rpm,
40-inch steel LSB-the scale design of a 3000 rpm, 48-inch LSB -in a 700 MW TC
three-cylinder unit that started commercial operation in April 2002.
MHI traditionally produces its steam turbines with reaction blading in the HP and IP
sections. Above 1000 MW, both cylinders are designed double-flow, symmetrical
about the steam admission plane. In particular, the HP cylinder has double nozzle
boxes and a double-disc control stage with triple-pin blades. For the hightemperature (HP and IP) rotors of 1112/1200 F-class steam turbines, MHI uses a new
ferritic 12 Cr steel with first-stage steam cooling of the rotating blade attachment
zones. To reduce bearing wear, the rotor journals are overlaid with a lower Cr weld
material.
The highest-temperature rotating blades of the first stages are made of austenitic
refractory alloy R26. For stationary parts, the nozzle chambers, inner casings and
No. 1 blade rings are made of 12 Cr cast steel, and 9 Cr forged steel is used for the
HP valve casings and steam admission pipes. The turbine steam path, designed
using advanced three-dimensional (3D) flow analysis techniques, is equipped with
twisted, tapered, bowed and inclined vanes and blades. All the rotating blades are
integrally shrouded with improved labyrinth seals. It is estimated that the
heightened steam parameters, decreased exhaust losses due to the increased LSB
length, and three-dimensionally designed blading improved the turbine heat rate
about four percent as compared with MHI's steam turbines launched before 1993.
Relative to its contemporary Japanese counterparts, Siemens' Boxberg turbine has
rather modest steam parameters. However, while the MHI turbine is rather
"conservative" in design, the Siemens 1000 MW-class turbine has many original
design features. Because of the relatively moderate length of the LSB, the turbine is
made in five cylinders, including three LP cylinders. The 180-foot turbine-generator
set is mounted on a specially tuned, spring-supported reinforced-concrete
foundation. To facilitate the turbine's thermal expansion, the bearings are rigidly
mounted on the foundation; the outer casings of the HP and IP cylinders and the
inner casings of the LP cylinders rest on the adjacent bearing pedestals, and the
cylinder casings are free to slide about them along the axial keys. The shaft line
expands from the combined journal-and-thrust bearing located between the HP and
IP cylinders. All the rotors are made of solid forgings (without a central bore) with
forged-on coupling flanges and are joined with hydraulically tensioned bolts.
As is typical for Siemens' large capacity machines, the turbine is designed with
combined stop-and-control valves, throttle steam admission control, a single-flow
two-shell HP cylinder without the control stage and nozzle boxes, and with a barreltype outer casing (i.e., without a bolted horizontal joint). Despite its remarkable
overall weight of 120 tons, the cylinder was delivered to Boxberg fully assembled.
The IP cylinder is of dual-flow, two-shell design. The upper and lower halves of its

outer and inner casings are bolted together along a horizontal flange joint. Extra
ribs reinforce the inner casing, and a thermal shield counteracts the uneven
temperature distribution caused by unidirectional flow of steam leaving the cylinder
through the upward port in the outer casing.

Power Engineering

New Benchmarks for Steam Turbine Efficiency

08/01/2002

By Dr. Alexander S. Leyzerovich,

Consultant
In the 20th century, steam turbines became the most powerful electric power
generators available, accounting for more than 50 percent of the world's installed
power generation capacity. However, many people, even some power engineering
professionals, had come to view steam turbines as a mature technology that would
not experience any remarkable achievements in the near future. Indeed, by the late
1980s, the thermal efficiency of new steam turbines had practically stabilized. But
the 1990s brought new breakthroughs in steam turbine technology, and technology
progress continues today. This progress is primarily the result of two main factors.
The first is the development of new heat-resistant high-chromium-percentage
ferritic-class steels that enable steam turbines to reach elevated steam
temperatures without resorting to austenitic steels. The second is implementation of
new advanced approaches to steam path design. Noteworthy as well are advances
in developing longer last-stage rotating blades that further decrease exit losses.
The leading producers of large power steam turbines in the world today are
European-based multinationals ALSTOM and Siemens AG; GE Power Systems (GE) in
the U.S.; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), Hitachi and Toshiba Corp. in Japan;
Leningrad Metallic Works (LMZ) in Russia; Ansaldo Energia in Italy; Turboatom in
Ukraine; and Skoda in Czech Republic.

Latest and Greatest

The advances in steam turbine technology can be better understood by reviewing
the design, installation, and commissioning results of several power plants that
have recently come on-line. By late 2001, the first operating year's and acceptance
tests' data had been processed and partially published for two of the newest power
units commissioned in Germany and Japan. These two units are the 907 MW Unit 1
of the Boxberg power plant, operated by Eastern-Germany
utility VEAG, and the 1050 MW Unit 2 of the Tachibana-wan
Figure 1. Siemens
power plant, located in Tokushima Prefecture (Shikoku Island) steam turbine in
and operated by Electric Power Development Co. (EPDC).
use at Boxberg
power plant in
Boxberg Unit 1 went on-line in June 2000 and passed
Germany. Photo
acceptance tests in October 2000. The unit's net efficiency was
courtesy of
42.7 percent and the gross efficiency of the Siemens steam
Siemens.
turbine was 48.5 percent. Its steam conditions of 3860 psi and
Click here to
enlarge image

1013/1078 F do not practically differ from those of other recent-vintage turbines at

German power plants.
Tachibana-wan Unit 2 entered commercial operation in mid-December 2000. With a
gross efficiency of 49 percent, its MHI steam turbine has been acclaimed the most
efficient worldwide. The unit's steam conditions, at 3636 psi and 1112/1130 F,
represent the next step in the Japanese steam temperature staircase: 1000/1051 F
for Matsuura Unit 1 (1000 MW, 1990); 1000/1099 F for Hekinan Unit 3 (700 MW,
1993); 1051/1099 F for Nanao Ohta (500 MW, 1995); 1099/1099 F for Matsuura Unit
2 (1000 MW, 1997); and 1112/1112 F for Misumi Unit 1 and Haramachi Unit 2 (1000
MW, 1998).
The cited steam turbine efficiency figures provide a benchmark for new units.
Meaningful is that both power plants burn solid fuel. It is worth recalling that the
best steam turbines put into operation in the 1990s had already reached
comparable gross efficiency values:

47.4%-Japan's Hekinan Unit 3, with a rated output of 700 MW and steam

conditions of 3480 psi, 1000/1099 F (MHI turbine);

47.6%-Germany's Hessler plant, with a rated output of 720 MW and steam

conditions of 3990 psi, 1072/1112 F (ALSTOM turbine); and

48.4%-Japan's Kawagoe Units 1 and 2, with a rated output of 700 MW and

steam conditions of 4496 psi, 1051/1051/1051 F (Toshiba turbines).

Of significance is that these units, as well as those at Boxberg and Tachibana-wan,

achieved these close efficiency values with the turbines at materially different
steam conditions. According to MHI, a steam temperature increase from 1000/1100
F to 1112/1112 F makes a turbine more efficient (heat rate) by about 2.2 percent,
that is, its efficiency rises by approximately 1.1 percent. According to German power
plant engineers, raising the steam parameters from 3625 psi, 1004/1040 F to 3915
psi, 1085/1112 F should increase turbine efficiency about 1.3 percent. So, closeness
of the actual efficiency values for the same capacity class turbines with remarkably
different steam temperatures, and with regard to differences in the condenser
vacuum (722 mm Hg at Boxberg and 730 mm Hg at Tachibana-wan), feedwater
heating, etc., says at least that some of these turbines have noticeable reserves to
increase efficiency by reducing losses in the steam path and using more progressive
designs.

Design Features

The turbines at Boxberg and Tachibana-wan significantly diverge in their design

schemes. Siemens' 907 MW 3000-rpm turbine at Boxberg is a tandem-compound
(TC) five-cylinder machine (single-flow HP cylinder, double-flow IP cylinder, and
three double-exhaust LP cylinders, Figure 1), whereas MHI's 1050 MW turbine at
Tachibana-wan (Figure 2) is a typical cross-compound machine with the HP and IP
cylinders positioned on the high-speed shaft (3600 rpm) and two double-exhaust LP
cylinders on the low-speed shaft (1800 rpm). Today, the largest west-European TC
turbines in operation for fossil-fuel power plants have a single capacity of 933 MW
(ALSTOM units at the German power plant Lippendorf), second only to the Soviet TC
3000-rpm turbine with a rated output of 1200 MW. The German Niederaussem plant
will reach about 1000 MW when Unit K comes on-line in November 2002. The

maximum single capacity of the "high-speed" TC steam turbines manufactured by

Japanese producers has remained at about 840 MW.
It is well known that the ultimate capacity of a given turbine is,
to a degree, determined by the length of the last-stage blades
(LSB). Siemens' recent-vintage 3000-rpm large steam turbines,
including the Boxberg units, are furnished with free-standing
39-inch steel LSB that provide an annular area of 98.6 ft2 per
flow. Under development are 45-inch steel LSB (first applied in
the Niederaussem K turbine) and 53-inch titanium LSB. Table 1
compares LSB characteristics for several recent steam turbine
models from various manufacturers.
For the time being, Japanese steam turbines in the 1000-1050
MW range are designed cross-compound with two LP cylinders
on the low-speed shaft. Until recently, these had been furnished with 41- and 44inch steel LSB. The turbine for Tachibana-wan Unit 2, however, uses an integrally
shrouded 46-inch LSB. This significantly reduces the energy losses in the last stage
and makes it possible to use the same turbine configuration for a single capacity of
up to 1300 MW. Moreover, a few years ago Hitachi declared their readiness to
produce high-speed TC four-cylinder (HP+IP+2xLP) 1000 MW turbines with new LSB.
MHI has similar projects. In the future, such a turbine could even transform into a
three-cylinder machine-with the use of an integral HP-IP cylinder. In this case, a twocylinder (HP-IP+LP) scheme could be used up to a single capacity of 750 MW. MHI
also has applied 3600 rpm, 40-inch steel LSB-the scale design of a 3000 rpm, 48inch LSB -in a 700 MW TC three-cylinder unit that started commercial operation in
April 2002.
MHI traditionally produces its steam turbines with reaction blading in the HP and IP
sections. Above 1000 MW, both cylinders are designed double-flow, symmetrical
about the steam admission plane. In particular, the HP cylinder has double nozzle
boxes and a double-disc control stage with triple-pin blades. For the hightemperature (HP and IP) rotors of 1112/1200 F-class steam turbines, MHI uses a new
ferritic 12 Cr steel with first-stage steam cooling of the rotating blade attachment
zones. To reduce bearing wear, the rotor journals are overlaid with a lower Cr weld
material.
The highest-temperature rotating blades of the first stages are made of austenitic
refractory alloy R26. For stationary parts, the nozzle chambers, inner casings and
No. 1 blade rings are made of 12 Cr cast steel, and 9 Cr forged steel is used for the
HP valve casings and steam admission pipes. The turbine steam path, designed
using advanced three-dimensional (3D) flow analysis techniques, is equipped with
twisted, tapered, bowed and inclined vanes and blades. All the rotating blades are
integrally shrouded with improved labyrinth seals. It is estimated that the
heightened steam parameters, decreased exhaust losses due to the increased LSB
length, and three-dimensionally designed blading improved the turbine heat rate
about four percent as compared with MHI's steam turbines launched before 1993.
Relative to its contemporary Japanese counterparts, Siemens' Boxberg turbine has
rather modest steam parameters. However, while the MHI turbine is rather
"conservative" in design, the Siemens 1000 MW-class turbine has many original
design features. Because of the relatively moderate length of the LSB, the turbine is
made in five cylinders, including three LP cylinders. The 180-foot turbine-generator
set is mounted on a specially tuned, spring-supported reinforced-concrete
Figure 2. MHI steam
turbine in use at
Tachibana-wan
power plant in
Japan. Photo
courtesy of MHI.
Click here to
enlarge image

foundation. To facilitate the turbine's thermal expansion, the bearings are rigidly
mounted on the foundation; the outer casings of the HP and IP cylinders and the
inner casings of the LP cylinders rest on the adjacent bearing pedestals, and the
cylinder casings are free to slide about them along the axial keys. The shaft line
expands from the combined journal-and-thrust bearing located between the HP and
IP cylinders. All the rotors are made of solid forgings (without a central bore) with
forged-on coupling flanges and are joined with hydraulically tensioned bolts.
As is typical for Siemens' large capacity machines, the turbine is designed with
combined stop-and-control valves, throttle steam admission control, a single-flow
two-shell HP cylinder without the control stage and nozzle boxes, and with a barreltype outer casing (i.e., without a bolted horizontal joint). Despite its remarkable
overall weight of 120 tons, the cylinder was delivered to Boxberg fully assembled.
The IP cylinder is of dual-flow, two-shell design. The upper and lower halves of its
outer and inner casings are bolted together along a horizontal flange joint. Extra
ribs reinforce the inner casing, and a thermal shield counteracts the uneven
temperature distribution caused by unidirectional flow of steam leaving the cylinder
through the upward port in the outer casing.
Even though Siemens, as
well as MHI, traditionally
Click here to enlarge image
employed reactive blading in
the HP and IP sections, the
latest turbines enable stage
reactivity to be varied over a wide range. Interestingly, GE, which traditionally
employed impulse-type blading, came from the opposite end of the spectrum in
developing its "Dense Pack Steam Path" with intermediate stage reactivity.
Boxberg's three LP cylinders are dual-flow with multiple-shell casings. The entire
weight of the outer casing with its reinforcement beams rests on the condenser
dome, to which it is rigidly welded. The cast inner casing is likewise of two-shell
design, with the inner shell centered in the outer casing so as to be free to slide
axially in response to thermal expansion. The inner casing's outer shell is provided
with a special droplet shield. Besides mechanical protection, the shield promotes
superheated steam formation between itself and the outer shell, which thermally
insulates the latter and reduces heat losses.
The steam paths of all three (HP, IP and LP) turbine sections were designed with 3D
technology that resulted in the use of twisted, tapered, bowed (curved) and inclined
vanes and blades. All but the LSB are integrally shrouded with optimized labyrinthtype seals. These advances provide about a two percent efficiency increase over
conventional blading. Advanced CFD computation methods were also used to
upgrade the non-bladed turbine areas. Siemens developed a new geometry for
steam admission and exhaust paths by widening their flow area and installing
special baffles, razors and screens to avoid backflow and vortex formation and
reduce energy losses. The power plant acceptance tests demonstrated internal
efficiencies for the HP and IP cylinders of 94.2 percent and 96.1 percent,
respectively.

Performance and Efficiency

The efficiency of fuel conversion to power is 20% to 38% from condensing turbines and, to
energy, is 80% to 90% for backpressure turbines (7% to 20% electrical efficiency). There are no

technologies yet invented that convert over 60% of the energy in fuel to power, and the average
delivered efficiency for centralised power systems hovers around 33%. The remaining 2/3s of
the energy content of the fuel is typically wasted vented to atmosphere by central power
plants.