COMPOUNDING OF STEAM TURBINE

CHAPTER 1-INTRODUCTION

1.1GENERAL Steam Turbine is a type of turbomachine. Turbomachine are those devices in which energy is transferred either to or from, a continuously flowing fluid by the dynamic action of one or more moving blade rows. In steam turbine energy is transferred from fluid to blade rows and is decreasing along the flow directions. It is power producing thermodynamics device. Steam turbine converts heat energy of steam (at high pressure and temperature) into mechanical energy. The so utilised can be used in various filed of industry such as electricity generation, transport, in driving of pumps, fan and compressor etc. the basic cycle on which steam turbine works is Rankine Cycle. The reciprocating steam engine was still inefficient, cumbersome, had a very low power to weight ratio, and was a high maintenance piece of machinery. The development of the steam turbine was a vast improvement in all of these respects. A turbine consist of one set of stationary blades or nozzles and an adjacent set of moving blades or buckets. These stationary and rotating elements act together to allow the steam flow to do work on the rotor. The ork is transmitted to the load through the shaft or shafts.

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1.2 HISTORY

Steam turbines date back to 120 B.C. when the first steam turbine was developed by Hero of Alexandria. Subsequently number of steam turbines

came up but the practically successful steam turbine appeared at the end of nineteenth century when Gustaf De Laval designed a high speed turbine built on the principle of reaction turbine in 1883. Before this in 1629 G. Branca developed the first impulse turbine.

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Fig. 1.1 Hero and Brancas turbine. Brancas impulse turbine and Heros reaction turbine are shown in Fig. 1.1 . In nineteenth century some more steam turbines were developed by Sir Charles A. Parsons and C.G. Curtis which gave a filip to the development to the modern steam turbine. Over the period of time the modern steam turbines evolved with capacity from few kilowatts to 350,000 kW and in speed from 1000 rpm to 40,000 rpm. Steam turbines offer the advantages over other prime movers in terms of simplicity, reliability and low maintenance costs. Reciprocating steam engines use pressure energy of steam while steam turbines use dynamic action of the steam. Steam turbines require less space as compared to diesel engine or steam engine and also the absence of reciprocating parts & reciprocating motion in steam turbine results in lesser vibrations and lighter foundation. In steam turbine the expanding steam does not come into contact with lubricant and so exhaust steam leaves uncontaminated.

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1.3 PRINCIPLE

The basic principle on which steam turbine works is Newtons Second law of motion. The motive power of a high velocity jet impinging on a curved blade. The steam from boiler is expanded in a nozzle where due to fall in pressure of steam, thermal energy of steam is converted into kinetic energy of steam, resulting in the emission of a high velocity jet of steam which impinges on the moving vanes or blades, mounted on a shaft; here it undergoes a change in direction of motion which give rise to a change in momentum and therefore, a force. An ideal steam turbine is considered to be an isentropic process, or constant entropy process, in which the entropy of the steam entering the turbine is equal to the entropy of the steam leaving the turbine. Steam turbines are mostly 'axial flow' types; the steam flows over the blades in a direction Parallel to the axis of the wheel. 'Radial flow' types are rarely used.It should be noted that the blade obtains no motive force from the static pressure of the steam or from any impact of the jet, because the blade is designed such that

Fig 1.2 Working of steam turbine

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the steam jet will glide on and off the blade without and tendency to strike it.

1.3 CLASSIFICATION OF STEAM TURBINE

Steam turbines may be classified into different categories based on various attributes as given below.
1.3.1 BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF WORKING: i) IMPULSE TURBINE- If the flow of steam through the nozzles and

moving blades of a turbine takes place in such a manner that the steam is expanded only in nozzles, and pressure at the outlet side of blade is equal to that at the inlet side, i.e. drop in pressure of steam takes place only in nozzles and not in moving blades; such a turbine is termed as impulse turbine because it works on the principle of impulse. This is obtained by making the blade passage of constant cross-section area. In impulse turbine, the energy transformation takes place in nozzles while energy transfer takes place in moving

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blades. Simple impulse turbine is used where small output at very high speed is required or only a small pressure drop is available. These are not suited for applications requiring conversion of large thermal energy into work. ii) IMPULSE-REACTION TURBINE- The expansion of steam takes place in nozzle (fixed blades) as well as in moving blades. If the pressure of steam at the outlet from the moving blades of a turbine is less than that at the inlet side of blades; this pressure drop suffered steam while passing through the moving blades, giving rise to reaction and adds on the propelling force which is applied through the rotor to the turbine shaft. Such turbine is termed as impulse-and reaction both.

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This is achieved by varying the blade passage cross-section (converging type). Here energy transformation takes place in nozzles (fixed blade) while both energy transfer and transformation takes place in moving blades.

1.3.2 BASED ON THE DIRECTION OF FLOW: Steam turbines can be classified based on the direction of flow by which steam flows through turbine blading. Steam turbines can be:
a) AXIAL FLOW- In axial flow turbines steam flows along the axis of

turbine over blades. These axial flow turbines are well suited for large turbo generators and very commonly used presently.
b) RADIAL FLOW-Radial flow turbine incorporates two shafts end to end

and can be of suitably small sizes. Radial flow turbines can be started quickly and so well suited for peak load and used as stand by turbine or peak load turbines. These are also termed as Ljungstrom turbines.
Working of-Impulse and Steamflow turbine c) TANGENTIAL FLOW In tangential turbines the nozzle directs

steam tangentially into buckets at the periphery of single wheel and steam reverses back and re-enters other bucket at its periphery. This is repeated several times as steam follows the helical path. Tangential flow turbines are very robust but less efficient.

1.3.3 BASED ON THE SPEED OF TURBINE:

Steam turbines can be classified based upon the steam turbine as low speed, normal speed and high speed turbines as given below. a) LOW SPEED TURBINE- Low speed turbines are those steam turbines which run at speed below 3000 rpm.
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b) NORMAL SPEED TURBINE- Normal speed steam turbines are those turbines which run at speed of about 3000 rpm. c) HIGH SPEED TURBINE- High speed steam turbines are the one which run at more than 3000 rpm.

1.3.4 BASED ON THE APPLICATION OF TURBINE: Depending upon application the steam turbine can be classified as below: a) CONDENSING TURBINE-Condensing steam turbines are those in which steam leaving turbine enters into condenser. Such type of steam turbines permit for recirculation of condensate leaving condenser. Also the pressure at the end of expansion can be lowered much below atmospheric pressure as the expanded steam is rejected into condenser where vacuum can be maintained. Condensing turbines are frequently used in thermal power plants. b) NON CONDENSING TURBINE- Non-condensing steam turbines are those in which steam leaving turbine is rejected to atmosphere and not to condenser as in case of condensing turbine. c) BACK PRESSURE TURBINE- Back pressure turbines reject steam at a pressure much above the atmospheric pressure and steam leaving turbine with substantially high pressure can be used for some other purposes such as heating or running small condensing turbines . d) PASS OUT TURBINE- Pass out turbines are those in which certain quantity of steam is continuously extracted for the purpose of heating and allowing remaining steam to pass through pressure control valve into the low pressure section of turbine. Pressure control valve and control gear is required so as to keep the speeds of turbine and pressure of steam constant irrespective of variations of power and heating loads
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1.3.5 BASED ON THE PRESSURE IN STEAM TURBINE:

Steam turbines can also be classified based upon the inlet pressure of steam turbine as follows: a) LOW PRESSURE TURBINE- Low pressure steam turbines have pressure of inlet steam less than 20 kg/cm2. b) MEDIUM PRESSURE TURBINE- Medium pressure steam turbines have steam inlet pressure between 20 kg/cm2 to 40 kg/cm2. c) HIGH PRESSURE TURBINE- High pressure steam turbines have steam inlet pressure lying between 40 kg/cm2 to 170 kg/cm2. d) SUPER PRESSURE STEAM TURBINE- Turbines having inlet steam pressure more than 170 kg/cm2 are called super pressure steam turbines.

1.4 RANKINE CYCLE The Rankine cycle is a steam cycle for a steam plant operating under The best theoretical conditions for most efficient operation. This is an ideal imaginary cycle against which all other real steam working cycles can be compared. The theoretic cycle can be considered with reference to the figure below. There will no losses of energy by radiation, leakage of steam, or frictional losses in the mechanical components. The condenser cooling will condense the steam to water with only sensible heat (saturated water). The feed pump will add no energy to the water. The chimney gases would be at the same pressure as the atmosphere. Within the turbine the work done would be equal to the energy entering the turbine as steam (h1) minus the energy leaving the turbine as steam after perfect expansion (h2) this being isentropic (reversible adiabatic) i.e. (h1- h2).

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Fig. 2.1 Basic rankine cycle. The energy supplied by the steam by heat transfer from the combustion and flue gases in the furnace to the water and steam in the boiler will be the difference in the enthalpy of the steam leaving the boiler and the water entering the boiler = (h1 - h3).

The various energy streams flowing in a simple steam turbine system are as indicated in the diagram below. It is clear that the working fluid is in a closed circuit apart from the free surface of the hot well. Every time the working fluid flows at a uniform rate around the circuit it experiences a series of processes making up a thermodynamic cycle. The complete plant is enclosed in an outer boundary and the working fluid crosses inner boundaries (control surfaces). The inner boundaries defines a flow process.

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CHAPTER 2 SIMPLE IMPULSE TURBINE

This type of turbine works on the principle of impulse. It consist of a nozzles, a rotor mounted on the shaft, one set of moving blades attached to the rotor and a casting, etc. A set row of nozzles and moving blades constitutes a stage. The uppermost portion of the diagram (Fig. 2.1) shows a longitudinal section through the upper half of turbine. The middle portion shows the development of the nozzles and blading, i.e. the actual shape of nozzle and blading, and the bottom portion shows the variation of absolute pressure during flow of stream through passage of nozzles and blades.

Fig.2.1 Working of simple impulse turbine

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an example of this type of turbine is the de-Leval turbine. It has single-stage having a nozzle fitted in the casing followed by ring of moving blades mounted on the shaft. Variation of velocity and pressure along the axis of turbine is also shown in the figure.

It can be seen from the figure that the complete expansion of steam from steam chest pressure to the exhaust pressure of the condenser pressure takes place only in one set of nozzle i.e. the pressure drop takes place only in nozzles. It is assumed that the pressure in the recess between nozzles and blades remain the same. The steam at the condenser pressure or exhaust pressure enters the blades and comes out at the pressure i.e. the pressure of steam in the blade passages remain approximately constant and equal to the condenser pressure.

Generally, converging-diverging nozzle are used due to the relative large ratio of expansion of steam in the nozzles, the steam leaves the nozzles at very high velocity (supersonic) of about 1100m/s. It is assumed that the velocity remains constant in the recess between the nozzles and the blades. The steam at such high velocity enters the blades and comes out with a velocity that is appreciable.

Velocity diagrams for single stage of simple impulse turbine is shown in figure 2.1. Velocity diagram gives an account of velocity of fluid entering and leaving the turbine.

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Fig.2.1 Schematic diagram of an Impulse Trubine

Fig 2.1 Velocity diagram of an Impulse Turbine Figure 2.1 gives the inlet and outlet velocity diagrams at inlet edge and outlet edge of moving blade along with the combined inlet and outlet velocity diagram for a stage of simple impulse turbine. The notations used for denoting velocity angles and other parameters during calculations are explained as under, (SI system of units is used here). U=Linear velocity of blade.
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V1 and V2= Inlet and outlet absolute velocity. Vr1 and Vr2= Inlet and outlet relative velocity (Velocity relative to the rotor blades.) = Nozzle angle, = absolute fluid angle at outlet (It is to be

mentioned that all angles are with respect to the tangential velocity in the direction of U.) and and = Inlet and outlet blade angles. = Tangential or whirl component of absolute velocity at Inlet and outlet. and = Axial component of velocity at inlet and outlet.

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CHAPTER 3 COMPOUNDING OF STEAM TURBINE

3.1 WHY COMPOUNDING? The maximum force is develops when the blades is locked while the jet enters and leave with equal velocity. Since the blade velocity is zero, no mechanical work is done. As the blades is allowed to speed up, the velocity of jet from the blade reduces, which reduces the force. Due to blade velocity work is done and maximum work is done when the blade velocity is just half the steam velocity. Force and work done become zero when blade velocity is equal to the steam velocity. In this case, steam velocity from the blade is near about zero i.e. the trail of inert steam since all the kinetic energy of steam is converted into work.

We know that for economy or maximum work, the blade velocity should be one half of the steam velocity, blade velocity of about 500 m/s is deemed very high. This type of turbine is generally employed where relatively small power is required and where the rotor diameter is fairly small. The small rotor gives a very high rotational speed, reaching 30,000 rpm. Such high rotational speed can only be utilised to drive generators with large reduction gearing arrangements. In this turbine, the leaving velocity of steam is quite appreciable, resulting in an energy loss, called carry over loss or leaving velocity loss. This leaving loss is so high that it may be as much as 11 percent of the initial kinetic energy.
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Fig. 2.1 Carry over loss in impulse turbine. In this turbine, the leaving velocity of steam is quite appreciable, resulting in an energy loss, called carry over loss or leaving velocity loss. This leaving loss is so high that it may be as much as 11 percent of the initial in kinetic energy.

The diagram shows carry over loss or lost velocity that occurs the simple impulse turbine. This loss very high which result in the lower efficiency of the turbine result in the loss of the useful work. In order to prevent this velocity loss and to reduce the maximum speed of rotor under permissible limit compounding is employed.

3.2 COMPOUNDING OF IMPULSE TURBINE Compounding is employed for reducing the rotational speed of the impulse turbine to practical limits. We know that when high velocity of steam
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is allowed to flow through one row of the moving blades, it produces a rotor speed of about 30,000 rpm which is too high for practical use. Not only this, the leaving velocity loss is very high. It is therefore, essential to incorporate; such improvement in the impulse turbine as to make it more efficient and pragmatic. This is achieved by making use of more than one set of nozzles, blades, rotors, in series, keyed to a common shaft, so that either the steam pressure or the jet velocity is absorbed by the turbine in stages. This also reduces the leaving loss. This process is called compounding of steam turbine. There are three main types of compounding turbine. a) Pressure-compounded impulse turbine. b) Velocity-compounded impulse turbine. c) Pressure and velocity compounded impulse turbine.

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CHAPTER 4 PRESSURE COMPOUNDED IMPULSE TURBINE

In this type of turbine, the compounding is done for pressure of steam only i.e. to reduce the high rotational speed of the turbine the whole expansion of steam is arranged in a number of steps by employing a number of simple impulse turbine in a series on the same shaft. Each of the simple impulse turbine consist of one set (row) of nozzles and one row of moving blades; known as a stage of the turbine, and thus, this turbine consist os several stages. The exhaust from each row of moving blades enters the succeeding set of nozzles. Thus, we can say that this arrangement is nothing but splitting up of the whole pressure drop from the steam chest pressure to the condenser pressure into a series of smaller pressure drops across several stages of impulse turbine, and hence, this turbine is called pressurecompounded impulse turbine.

The pressure and velocity variation in pressure compounded impulse turbine is shown in figure (Fig.3.1). The nozzles are fitted in the diaphragm which is locked in the casting. This diaphragm separates one wheel chamber from another. All rotors are mounted on the same shaft and the blades are attached on the rotor. The expansion of steam only takes place in the nozzles while pressure remains constant in the moving blades because each stage is simple impulse turbine. It can be seen from the pressure curve that the space between any
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Fig 4.1 Diagrammatic Arrangement of Pressure-compounded Impulse turbine

two consecutive diaphragm is filled with steam at constant pressure, the pressure on either side of diaphragm is different. Since the diaphragm is a stationary part, there must be clearance between the rotating shaft and the diaphragm. The steam tends to leak through this clearance for which devices like labyrinth packing, etc. are used.

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Since drop in pressure of steam per stage is reduced, the steam velocity leaving the nozzles and entering the moving blades is reduced which in turn reduces the blade velocity. Hence for economy and maximum work shaft speed is significantly reduced to suit practical purpose. Thus, rotational speed may be reduced to suit practical purposes. Thus rotational speed may be reduced by increasing the number of stages according to ones need.

The leaving velocity of the last stage is much less compared to deLavel turbine and, the leaving loss is not more than 1 to 2 percent of the initial total available energy. This turbine was invented by the late Prof. L, Rateau and so it is called as Rateau Turbine.

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