Power Generation & The Steam Turbine

The One an Only Device, which achieved a Tremendous

Growth Witnessed by the Inventor

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department
I I T Delhi
An Invention that Made Electricity Very Cheap
The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by the
Englishman Sir Charles Parsons.
The first model was connected to a dynamo that generated
7.5 kW (10 hp) of electricity.
The invention of Parson's steam turbine made cheap and
plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine
transport and naval warfare.
His patent was licensed and the turbine scaled-up shortly
after by an American, George Westinghouse.
The Parson's turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up.
A Device Easy to Scale up
Parsons had the satisfaction of seeing his invention
adopted for all major world power stations, and the size of
generators had increased from his first 7.5 kW set up to
units of 50,000 kW capacity.
Within Parson's lifetime the generating capacity of a unit
was scaled up by about 10,000 times.
The total output from turbo-generators constructed by his
firm C. A. Parsons and Company and by their licensees,
for land purposes alone, had exceeded thirty million horse-
power.

From Books of Sir Charles Parson
In 1884 or four years previously, I dealt with the turbine
problem in a different way.
It seemed to me that moderate surface velocities and
speeds of rotation were essential if the turbine motor was
to receive general acceptance as a prime mover.
I therefore decided to split up the fall in pressure of the
steam into small fractional expansions over a large number
of turbines in series, so that the velocity of the steam
nowhere should be great.
A moderate speed of turbine suffices for the highest
economy.
This principle of compounding turbines in series is now
universally used in all except very small engines, where
economy in steam is of secondary importance.
The arrangement of small falls in pressure at each
turbine also appeared to me to be surer to give a high
efficiency.
The steam flowed practically in a non-expansive manner
through each individual turbine, and consequently in an
analogous way to water in hydraulic turbines whose
high efficiency at that date had been proved by accurate
tests.


Classification of Steam Turbines
The Killer of Gas Turbine Power Generation
A Gas turbine with inlet temperature of 600
0
C resulted in
obtainable outputs of 2000-8000 KW with compressor
turbine efficiencies of 73-75%, and an overall cycle
efficiency of 17-18%.
First Gas turbine electro locomotive 2500 HP ordered from
BBC by Swiss Federal Railways.
The advent of high pressure and temperature steam turbine
with regenerative heating of the condensate and air pre-
heating, resulted in coupling efficiencies of approx. 25%.
The gas turbine having been considered competitive with
steam turbine plant of 18% which was considered not quite
satisfactory.
The Turbine Generator Set
There are several turbine designs available for use in
supercritical power plants.
These designs need not fundamentally differ from designs
used in subcritical power plants.
However, due to the fact that the steam pressure and
temperature are more elevated in supercritical plants, the
wall-thickness and the materials selected for the high-
pressure turbine section need reconsideration.
Furthermore, the design of the turbine generator set must
allow flexibility in operation.
While subcritical power plants using drum-type boilers are
limited in their load change rate due to the boiler drum (a
component requiring a very high wall thickness),
supercritical power plants using once-through boilers can
achieve quick load changes when the turbine is of suitable
design.


Steam Turbine Design for highest steam parameters
The design of a steam turbine set for an ultra-supercritical
application depends on;
the number of reheats selected,
unit rating and
site backpressure characteristics.
For a single reheat and a power output in the range of 600-
1000 MW a typical turboset design will consist of three
separate turbine modules operating at different pressure and
temperature levels.
These modules are the high pressure turbine (HP), the
intermediate pressure turbine (IP) and up to three low
pressure turbines (LP).
High Pressure (HP)Turbine
In this section, the steam is expanded from the live steam
pressure to the pressure of the reheat system, which is usually in
the order of 4 to 6 MPa.
In order to cater for the higher steam parameters in supercritical
cycles, materials with an elevated chromium content which yield
higher material strength are selected.
The wall thickness of the HP turbine section should be as low as
possible and should avoid massive material accumulation (e.g. of
oxides) in order to increase the thermal flexibility and fast load
changes.

Design Features
Using the results of state of the art material research steam
temperatures of about 300 bar / 600C for the HP turbine and
620C for the IP turbine are applied today.
To further increase the steam parameters up to approximately
300 bar / 650C life steam conditions the additional utilization
of certain design features such as active cooling of high
temperature components and the introduction of new materials
is necessary.
Going to even higher steam temperatures of 350 bar / 700C
will result in an overall power plant net efficiency of more
than 50 percent.
This can be achieved by modification of design principles and
the use of super-alloys for all high temperature parts of HP
und IP turbine.
High Pressure Turbine
The basic design principle for the HP turbine which is capable to
cope with ultra-supercritical main steam conditions is the barrel
type outer casing design.
Today this design can enable 300 bar and 600C.
The high temperature components such as the inlet barrel,
rotor and inner casing are made out of 9-12 % CrMoV
steel.
The barrel type outer casing has a vertical casing split
which can handle highest pressure loadings by adopting
the wall thickness.
This design without a horizontal flange results in an
optimal thermal deformation behavior.
The benefit are small radial clearances between inner
casing and blades, which means best turbine efficiency.
I ntermediate Pressure (I P) Turbine Section

The steam flow is further expanded in the IP turbine
section.
In supercritical cycles there is a trend to increase the
temperature of the reheat steam that enters the IP turbine
section in order to raise the cycle efficiency.
As long as the reheat temperature is kept at a moderate
level (approximately 560C) there is no significant
difference between the IP turbine section of a supercritical
plant and that of a subcritical plant.

Intermediate Pressure Turbine
The IP turbine is designed to take reheat steam conditions
of >600C.
The rotor and inner casing are made of 9-12 % CrMoV-
steel.
The high steam temperature can be handled by reducing
the rotor surface temperature by the principle of Vortex
cooling.
This cooling principle enables a temperature decrease due
to the reduction of relative steam velocity at the rotor
surface up to 20 Kelvin.
In addition the first blade stages are made of Nickel-based-
alloyed steel to withstand the centrifugal load in
combination with high temperatures.
The IP turbine is a double-flow, dual-shell turbine section.
The materials for the shaft and inner casing are high-alloy
chromium steels.
The outer casing is made of nodular cast iron.
This IP turbine module is designed for maximum reheat
temperatures.
A further increase in reheat temperature > 600C, affects
the creep-rupture strength of the shaft material.
The use of a slightly modified alloy content for the 10%
chromium shaft material can increase the material strength.
The use of 10 % chromium steel with boron shows
promising results.
Low pressure turbine
The exhaust steam of the IP turbine enters via a single cross
over pipe the LP turbine.
The LP turbine consists of a double flow with a horizontal split
casing.
The typical steam conditions are up to 7 bar and 350C.
The steam will expand to the condenser at condenser pressures
in the range of 30 - 100 mbar.
Because of the high volumetric flow rates special care has to be
attributed to the appropriate choice of LP turbine exhaust area
and design.
The development of optimal last stage blade families and long
last stage blades is the key for reasonable exhaust areas, i.e.
reduced exhaust losses.
Design of Blades
3-dimensional design with variable reaction is the newest
HP/IP blade technology .
Stage reaction describes the split of pressure drop and
velocity increase between fixed and moving blades and is
defined by the ratio of the enthalpy drop through the
rotating blade row to the enthalpy drop through the whole
stage.
With 3DV blading the stage reaction and stage loading for
each row will be numerically optimized to gain highest HP
and IP efficiencies.
Last stage blade features
The double flow low-pressure turbine is characterized by an
exhaust steam area of the final stage of >16 m per flow.
As result of the very high centrifugal forces acting on the rotor
the last stage blades could not be made of steel.
Therefore they will be made of a titanium alloy with higher yield
strength.
The profile of the last stage blade has a three-dimensional design
with a supporting mid span snubber.
Tip clearance losses of the blade are reduced by integral
shrouding.
The mid span snubber and the integral shrouds give excellent
damping behavior of the complete assembled stage.
Special design feature to minimize the axial clearances in the LP
turbine blade-path is a rigid connection via push rods which are
implemented between the intermediate-pressure outer casing and
the low-pressure inner casing.
This push rod concept for the turbine allows thermal axial
expansion of the rotor system (moving blades) and that of
the casing (stationary blades) to be matched.
The result of this is a reduction in the axial clearances for
the sealing elements between rotor and casing, and thus an
improvement in the efficiency of the turbine-generator.



Pulverized coal-Fired Supercritical plant
- 400 MWe single unit .

Single reheating configuration

The steam cycle used for this case
is based on 24.1 MPa /565 C /
565 C
Single reheat configuration
The HP turbine uses 340 kg /sec of
steam at 24.1 MPa and 560 C .
The cold reheat flow is 274.1 kg
/sec of steam at 4.38 MPa and 308
C which is reheated to 565 C
before entering it into the IP
turbine section

The turbine generator is a single machine comprised of tandem
HP, IP, and LP turbines driving one 3,600 rpm hydrogen-cooled
generator.

The turbine exhausts to a dual-pressure condenser operating at 1.5
and 2.0 inches Hga, low- and high-pressure shells, respectively, at
the nominal 100 percent load design point.

For the four-flow LP turbines, the last-stage bucket length is 30
inches, the pitch diameter is 85.0 inches, and the annulus area per
end is 55.6 square feet.

The feedwater train consists of seven closed feedwater heaters
(four low pressure and three high pressure), and one open
feedwater heater (deaerator).

Condensate is defined as fluid pumped from the condenser
hotwell to the deaerator inlet.

Feedwater is defined as fluid pumped from the deaerator
storage tank to the boiler inlet.
Extractions for feedwater heating, deaerating, and the boiler
feed pump are taken from the HP, IP, and LP turbine
cylinders, and from the cold reheat piping.

The net plant output power, after plant auxiliary power
requirements are deducted, is nominally 402 MWe.
The overall net plant efficiency is 39.9 percent.


Pulverized coal-Fired Ultra Supercritical
plant - 400 MWe - Double reheating
configuration

The steam cycle used for this case is based on a 31.6 MPa /593
C /593 C /593 C double reheat configuration. The very-high-
pressure (VHP) turbine uses 1564 kg/sec steam at 31.6 MPa and
593 C.
The first cold reheat flow is 1270 kg/sec of steam at 9.556 MPa
and 400C, which is reheated to 593C before entering the HP
turbine section.
The second cold reheat flow is 1058.22 kg/sec of steam at 2.661
MPa and 400C, which is reheated to 593C before entering the
IP turbine.
The turbine generator is a single machine comprised of tandem
VHP, HP, IP, and LP turbines driving one 3600 rpm hydrogen-
cooled generator. The turbine exhausts to a single-pressure
condenser operating at 2.0 inches Hga, at the nominal 100
percent load design point.

Most of these technologies, like the double reheat concept where the
steam expanding through the steam turbine is fed back to the boiler
and reheated for a second time as well as heat extraction from flue
gases have already been demonstrated. However, these technologies
are not in widespread use due to their cost.




FUTURE ULTRA SUPERCRITICAL
PLANT UNDER DEVELOPMENT
EFFICIENCY 55 %
Axial Flow Turbines
Euler Turbine Equation
V
tangential, in

V
tangential, out

Applying conservation of angular momentum,
the torque, T, must be equal to the time rate of change of angular
momentum in a stream tube that flows through the device
( )
in in t out out t
r V r V m T
, ,
=

This is true whether the blade row is rotating or not.

The sign matters:
Angular momentum is a vector
positive means it is spinning in one direction,

Negative means it is spinning in the other direction.
Depending on how things are defined,
There can be positive and negative torques,
And positive and negative angular momentum.
Torque is positive when V
tangential out
> V
tangential in

-- the same sense as the angular velocity.

If the blade row is moving,
then work is done on/by the fluid.
The work per unit time, or power, P, is the torque multiplied by the
angular velocity, e

( )
in in t out out t
r V r V m T P
, ,
= = e e

Axial Flow Fluid Machines
The power, P of a fluid Machine
( ) ( )
in out in t out t
h h m V V U m T P
, 0 , 0 , ,
= = =

e
Stage Loading and Flow Coefficient
Stage Loading Coefficient: Ratio of specific stage work output and
square of mean rotor speed.
( )
2
, 0
2
, 0
e

m
stage stage
r
h
U
h A
=
A
=
Flow Coefficient: Ratio of the axial velocity entering to the mean
rotor speed.
e
m
exit stage f exit stage f
r
V
U
V
, ,
= = u
u

Regions of Design
V
ri
= V
ai
- U
V
re
= -V
ri

U
V
ae
= V
re
+U
V
ai

Analysis of Simple Moving Impulse Blade
( ) U V V V V
ai ri re
= = A 2
( )
( ) U V m V m F
U V m V m F
ai R
ai A
= A =
= A =
- -
- -
2
2
( )U U V m P
V U m U F P
ai b
R b
=
A = =
-
-
2
Impulse Turbine
Classification of turbines
Impulse turbine
In impulse turbine, the drop in pressure of steam takes place in a
stationary nozzle.
The drop in pressure leads to conversion of enthalpy into kinetic
energy of a fluid.
Hence the velocity of the fluid increase at the expense of temperature
and pressure.
This high velocity fluid (Jet) is deflected by a curved blade.
A change in direction of a jet generates change in momentum of the
fluid.
A rate of change in momentum will generate a force on the blade.
A motive power is generated, when this force can move the blade.
The simple Impulse turbine
It primarily consists of:
a nozzle or a set of nozzles,
a rotor mounted on a shaft, one set of
moving blades attached to the rotor
Generally nozzles are attached to a
casing.
The absolute velocity of fluid
increases in the stationary nozzles at
the cost of absolute pressure
The absolute velocity of fluid
decreases in moving blades as some
kinetic energy is transferred from
fluid to the blade..
Example: de-Laval turbine.
Heros Aelopile : Newtons Third Law
Reaction Turbine
Analysis of Simple Stationary Impulse Blade
V
ai

V
ri

V
re
V
ae

U
U V V
ai ri
+ = U V V
re ae
=
Change in velocity : ri re
V V V = A
( )
( )
ri re R
ri re A
V V m F
V V m V m F
=
= A =
-
- -
Motive Power Generated:
( )U V V m F U P
ri re R
= =
-
( )U U V V m F U P
ai re R
= =
-
Classification of turbines
Reaction Turbine:
In a Reaction Turbine drop in pressure occurs in a movable nozzle.
The drop in pressure leads to conversion of enthalpy into kinetic
energy of a fluid.
Hence the velocity of the fluid increase at the expense of temperature
and pressure.
A high velocity jet leaving the moving nozzle will generate a reaction
on the nozzle.
A motive Power is generated, when this reaction can move the nozzle.

V
ai

V
ae

V
ri

V
re

Simple Impulse-Reaction Blade
Jet will lose power both by Impulse and Reaction.
One important and essential element in all these cases is a nozzle.
U
Impulse-Reaction turbine

This utilizes the principle of impulse and reaction.
There are a number of rows of moving blades attached
to the rotor and an equal number of fixed blades
attached to the casing.
The fixed blades are set in a reversed manner compared
to the moving blades, and act as nozzles.
Due to the row of fixed blades at the entrance, instead
of nozzles, steam is admitted for the whole
circumference and hence there is an all-round or
complete admission.


Need for Multi Staging
Temperature Pressure
Specific
Volume Enthalpy Entroypy Del h
Increse in
velocity
C Mpa cu. M kJ/kg kJ/kg K KJ/kg m/s
550 15 0.02293 3449 6.52
50 0.01235 9.492 2089 6.52 1360 2273

Mean Peripheral Speed of the Blade = 1136.5 m/s

General speed : 3000 rpm

Mean Diameter of the Wheel: 7.25 m
Strategy for Multi Staging
Temperature Pressure
Specific
Volume Enthalpy Entroypy Del h
Increse in
velocity
C Mpa cu. M kJ/kg kJ/kg K KJ/kg m/s
550 15 0.02293 3449 6.52 93 431.3
500 11.37 0.02845 3356 6.52 91 426.6
450 8.487 0.03575 3265 6.52 92 429.0
400 6.215 0.04559 3173 6.52 91 426.6
350 4.448 0.05914 3082 6.52 92 429.0
300 3.098 0.07832 2990 6.52 91 426.6
250 2.087 0.1063 2899 6.52 92 429.0
200 1.35 0.1489 2807 6.52 195 624.5
150 0.4759 0.3679 2612 6.52 248 704.3
100 0.1013 1.442 2364 6.52 275 741.6
50 0.01235 9.492 2089 6.52
Current Practice

Purely multistage impulse turbines are mainly preferred in
medium capacities of power generations.(30 60 MW units).
The main advantages are simplicity of construction,
reliability and convenience of operation.
The height of blades in last stages of multistage turbine
rapidly increase.
It is difficult to obtain tall, smooth and streamlined shape for
the turbine.
Turbines of compound impulse stages are considered
obsolete in power plant turbines at present.
It is current practice for multistage impulse turbines to allow
for some amount enthalpy drop to take place in the moving
blades as well.

Compound Impulse-Reaction turbine
Compound Impulse-Reaction turbine
The shape of the blade improves considerably.
The blade sizes varying at a uniform rate, thus
contributing to more economic designs.
This concept leads to leakage of steam through the
annular space between the moving blade and the
turbine casing and hence the efficiency decrease.
As a result of enthalpy drop occurring in the moving
blades, there is a considerable amount of pressure is
exerted on the rotor.
This is transmitted to thrust bearing
To void large axial thrust it is usual to allow:
Low degree of reaction in high pressure stages.
In large steam turbines (>300 MW), it is now usual to
allow 50 60% of degree of reaction in low pressure
stages.

Steam Path Diagram in Real Modern Power Plants
2200
2400
2600
2800
3000
3200
3400
3600
3800
6 6.2 6.4 6.6 6.8 7 7.2 7.4 7.6 7.8
Entropy
E
n
t
h
a
l
p
y
Turbine Outlet
Turbine Inlet
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
,

M
p
a
Enthalpy, h
Steam Path
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
0 10 20 30 40 50
Stage no.
P
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
(
M
P
a
)
IP TURBINE
LP TURBINE
HP TURBINE
PRESSURE VARIATION ALONG THE STAGES
Steam Path
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
2000 2200 2400 2600 2800 3000 3200 3400 3600 3800
Enthalpy, h
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
,
C
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
0 10 20 30 40 50
Stage No
T
e
m
p
e
r
a
t
u
r
e
(
K
)
Temperature variation along the stages