Home CCJ ONsite Upcoming Webinars Recorded Webinars Current Issue User Groups Archives SEARCH

CCUG GENERATORS 7EA USERS GROUP 501 F&G USERS GROUP WTUI CTOTF 7F USERS GROUP D5-D5A USERS FRAME 6 HRSGS CONTROLS
Subscribe

ALERT: Steam can flow backwards and erode trailing edges of

last-stage turbine blades
Posted on December 18, 2013 by Team CCJ

Steam turbines (ST) often exhibit leading-edge erosion on the last-stage blades (LSB) of the low-pressure (LP)
section. This is from moisture forming as steam condenses prior to passing through the entire machine. The
micron-size water droplets impinge on rotating-blade surfaces and remove material—mostly from the leading
edge. It is a well-known problem and has been an engineering challenge for both OEMs and equipment owners
since about the time condensing steam turbines were introduced more than a century ago.

Combined-cycle steam turbines often operate at part load, introducing a new problem to the LSB row: Erosion of
the trailing edge (TE). Brent Gregory and Ryan Yamane of Creative Power Solutions (CPS), Fountain Hills
(Phoenix), Ariz, told the editors they are seeing cases where a flow condition, developed in the ST itself, has
caused TE erosion of LSBs. While last-stage steam-flow behavior at partial load may be well understood by
turbine OEMs, that may not be the case for condenser manufacturers, which play significant roles in determining
ST discharge conditions.

Integration of the ST with the condenser must be fully understood to maximize pressure recovery in the diffuser,
allowing for optimal flow behavior. Gregory said recent work performed by CPS explains, in part, how wet steam
in the condenser can re-enter the ST by being “pulled” into the LSB from a massive flow recirculation caused by
turbine and condenser architecture.

Gregory first saw the problem while designing LP turbines for aircraft engines. Turbine designers in that industry
sector have a particular problem when designing blade rows because the LPT has significant swings in its
operating point, depending on what the pilot is requesting as the engine duty—that is, take-off, cruise, taxi, etc.
Each duty demands a different air flow requirement on the fan; hence, the LPT does not have a set design point.

Usually, efficiency is optimized for the cruise condition because the airplane will spend a significant amount of
time there. What may happen under such scaled designs is the flow in the turbine may not have sufficient
capacity to fill the annulus and flow will migrate off the hub or inner walls of the flow path, due to the centrifugal
forces overtaking the momentum of the air flow, and be forced to the tip or outer walls.

Something similar happens in STs at no-load flow conditions or when steam flow is reduced to reduce shaft
power output. The ST, which is designed for base-load operation, experiences a flow separation at part load
inside the turbine flow path which extends downstream (Fig 1). The void that forms in the turbine extends into
the downstream hardware and impacts the performance and endurance of the last few stages of the LP turbine.

Click figures to enlarge

Recent Posts

LAST CALL FOR AERO USERS: Benefit from robust technical

program, training at WTUI
Automated collection assures accurate, actionable data to
support decision-making
WTUI, CCJ ONsite to collaborate on best practices
Special technical presentations highlight WTUI program
Tuesday afternoon
In aircraft engines, advanced design techniques within the blade rows can be applied to prevent this 2016 WTUI: Vendor fair features over 150 companies serving
aeros
phenomenon. In principle, the same technology could be applied to the last ST stage, but to Gregory’s
Complete your springtime aero ‘fix’ by attending CTOTF™
knowledge it has not been done. Another solution is required. TICA offers gas-turbine users complimentary membership
Deep dive on HRSG and cycle chemistry make AHUG meeting
While wet steam may be the main culprit for TE erosion, Gregory and Yamane pointed to multiple sources of special
water droplets in water-cooled combined cycles capable of exacerbating the erosion mechanism. Examples: How the ups and downs of fuel supply impact gas-turbine
operation
A tale of three plants: Issues facing power producers Down
Under and how they are coping
• Exhaust-hood sprays, designed to keep the exhaust diffuser and expansion joint from Planning and executing a long-term layup program (a/k/a cold
overheating, inject water into the steam flow immediately downstream of the LSBs. storage)
Water, steam sampling strategies for cycling plants
• Curtain-water spray systems for quenching high-enthalpy bypass steam introduced to the
condenser during startup, shutdown, and/or GT blending in combined cycles with multiple Categories
engines.
Categories Select Category

• Droplets, which may have small diameters at injection, impinge on condenser supports and
other parts, coalescing into larger droplets that can be drawn back towards the LSBs and
contribute to TE erosion.

The diffuser directing turbine steam to the condenser also is designed to operate at one condition. Because there
are no variable pieces of hardware in the flow path to accommodate the changing conditions of turbine flow at
partial load, the diffuser also is operating in a sub-optimal way. This degrades turbine performance and may even
cause structural damage.

Gregory said CPS recently had the opportunity to review such a setup with a customer. The arrangement was of
typical turbine/diffuser/condenser architecture, similar to that in Fig 2. Extensive CFD was performed, with the
OEM design team providing accurate turbine conditions at the plane of the turbine discharge.
The CFD model accurately predicted condenser and diffuser performance. Recirculating eddies caused by the
large separation of flow off the inner diffuser wall and again off the back side of the bearing housing enabled wet
steam to flow upstream and re-enter the turbine in the zone of separation. This can be seen in the CFD analysis
as reflected in Fig 3 (velocity vector) and Fig 4 (pressure).

Thus reverse-flow recirculation carries wet steam from the condenser into the last-stage blade row, causing
severe TE erosion on the suction side of the blade. The damage illustrated in Fig 5 is typical and eventually leads
to separation of the blade.

Gregory offered several recommendations on how to limit the phenomenon’s impact. Most obvious, he told the
editors, is to run the turbine at its continuous full-load rating. At that condition, LSB TE erosion is unlikely. If the
turbine must operate regularly at part load, he suggested regular inspection of the LSBs for erosion and of the
water injection systems mentioned earlier to verify their proper operation. Regarding the latter, it is important to
see that all nozzles are in place and in good condition and there is sufficient supply pressure to assure proper
droplet atomization.

CPS engineers have found that, in some cases, damage occurs during unit starts and may become visible after a
particularly busy production season involving daily starts. If you find erosion during a LSB condition assessment
consider conducting a root-cause analysis because erosion will likely get worse with part-load operation. Perhaps
only a change in operating procedures will deliver the desired result.

As the interview concluded, Gregory said that CPS has formulated unique solutions that could potentially address
the erosion issue for certain turbine back-end configurations. The upgrades, he continued, are competitive with
the costs associated with periodic replacement of LSBs to guard against the possibility of a catastrophic blade
failure and the significant financial impact of an unscheduled outage.

21

Posted in 501 F&G Users Group |

INDEPENDENT VOICE OF THE GAS-TURBINE-BASED GENERATION SECTOR

© 2014 CCJ Online, Inc. All rights reserved. | Published by PSI Media, Inc | 7628 Belmondo Lane | Las Vegas, NV 89128