Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 68

BHEL JOURNAL CONTENTS Page

Volume 27 No. 2 September 2006 ADVANCES IN MATERIALS FOR


ADVANCED STEAM CYCLE POWER PLANTS 1

SELF-EXCITATION IN 3-PHASE SQUIRREL


CAGE INDUCTION GENERATOR FOR
WINDMILL APPLICATION 20

Editorial Advisory Committee TURBO-GENERATOR INDUCED VOLTAGE


WAVEFORM COMPUTATION AND
TELEPHONE HARMONIC CAPABILITY
Ramji Rai PREDICTION 26
K. Ravikumar
D. Indran EFFECT OF PRELOAD FACTOR AND
S.K. Goyal WORN DEPTH ON THE DYNAMIC
COEFFICIENTS AND STABILITY OF A
LOADING ARC (WORN) TWO-LOBE
BEARING USED IN TURBO-GENERATOR 35

COLLECTION, HANDLING AND


Editor : R.K. Bhattacharya TREATMENT OF LIQUID EFFLUENTS
IN THERMAL POWER PLANT 45

Associate Editor : D. Roy INNOVATIONS — FROM BHEL 58

RECENT MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS OF BHEL


(during March'06-August'06) 62

BHEL JOURNAL is published quarterly.


All correspondence and enquiries are to be
addressed to :
Mr. R.K. Bhattacharya
Editor, BHEL Journal
Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited
BHEL House, Siri Fort,
New Delhi-110 049 4
1 3 Cover Photographs
The statements and views expressed in this 2

Journal are entirely those of the authors, and 1. 600MW Western Mountain Gas Turbine Power Plant,
not necessarily that of the Organisation. Libya.
2. Srisailam Hydro-electric Plant (7x110 MW).
Contents may be referred to or reproduced
partially with due acknowledgements. 3. NALCO Captive Power Plant (960 MW).
4. Advanced Control Room at 2x500 MW (Stage-II) Rihand
Copyright reserved. STPS.
ADVANCES IN MATERIALS FOR ADVANCED STEAM
CYCLE POWER PLANTS

Kulvir Singh

SYNOPSIS issues for both the boilers and the turbines in next-
generation ultra supercritical power plants.
The efficiency of conventional boiler or steam turbine
fossil fuel fired power plants is strongly based on steam
temperature and pressure. Since the energy crisis of the Key Words:
1970s, there have been efforts worldwide to increase
Power Plants; Creep-Resistant Steels; Rotors; Casings;
both : extensive research has been pursued worldwide.
Boiler; Superheater.
The need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions has provided
further impetus to improve efficiency. Development of
stronger high-temperature materials is the prime 1. INTRODUCTION
requirement. EPRI and many other organizations have
extensively reviewed the materials technology for ultra An enhanced ecological awareness in the industrialised
supercritical power plants. This article reviews the potential countries prompted increased initiatives world over
benefits, operational experiences, the present trend and to reduce CO2 emission levels in the power plants.
the advances in materials that require special attention, This is essentially achieved by improving the efficiency
in respect of power plants with supercritical steam of the plants. Figure-1 shows some possibilities of
conditions. This will serve as a basis for defining material increasing power plant efficiency [1]. In conventional

FIG. 1 : EFFICIENCY IMPROVING MEASURES FOR STEAM POWER PLANTS [1]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 1


power plants, a marked improvement of efficiency plants in Japan are shown in Fig.3. Steam conditions
can be achieved by advancing steam parameters. The were raised very rapidly during the 1950s and a
resulting developments of unit sizes and steam number of sets with supercritical steam conditions
parameters are illustrated in Fig.2 [1]. The power were installed in 1950s and 60s. Subsequently, the
plant efficiencies achieved and planned for new trend was reversed in respect of the steam conditions

FIG. 2 : DEVELOPMENT OF UNIT SIZES AND STEAM PARAMETERS IN JAPAN [1]

FIG. 3 : POWER PLANT EFFICIENCIES IN JAPAN [1]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 2


but the capacity of individual sets, however, continued records and the stock of accomplishments of
to increase till a limit with the existing fabrication supercritical plants show that their reliability is
and handling technologies has been reached. The comparable to the conventional units [3-5]. The two
reversal in steam conditions is primarily the result of oil crises in 1973 and 1978 which caused a drastic
experience in 1960s and 70s when several newly increase in fuel cost and the encouraging operational
commissioned plants with advanced steam conditions results now available from earlier supercritical units
did not live up to expectation in respect of availability prompted a renewed interest in supercritical
of sets caused by operational problems. conditions to make the best use of the heat rate
advantage provided by these advancements [6-9].
Initially, the performance of the supercritical plants
was so poor that many utilities experienced
considerable downtime and significant financial loss 1.1 Potential Benefits
[2]. Consequently, it created misconception that
improved efficiency sacrifices reliability and there Material development work over the past two
was rapid retrenchment to subcritical units on the decades has paved the way for large thermal power
assumption that they would be more reliable. plants to be built today with live steam temperatures
Therefore, plants with operating temperature of of 610°C, reheat temperatures of 625°C and
538°C received a wide favour in late 1960s and 70s. supercritical steam pressures. The likely potential for
However, the concerted efforts of designers in liaison reducing the heat rate by increasing the pressure and
with metallurgists and material scientists in temperature of the steam admitted to the turbine on
understanding of initial problems and taking the basis of single and double reheating is shown in
corrective steps led to a great deal of improvement Fig.4 [10]. At live steam conditions of 600°C and
in plant performance. Analysis of the historical 300 bar with double reheating, for example, the heat

FIG. 4 : NET HEAT RATE IMPROVEMENT FOR SINGLE AND DOUBLE REHEAT CYCLES [10]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 3


rate can be reduced by 8% compared with the heat blades and bolts, the objective was to employ and
rate of today's standard power stations featuring further develop existing high-temperature-resistant
steam parameters of 540°C/180 bar and single superalloys eg. Nim 80A and 90 etc.
reheat.
Further development of ferritic steels geared to inlet
This improvement in thermal efficiency helps steam temperatures up to approximately 625°C in the
considerably to conserve fuel resources and reduce context of COST 501 European research programme
CO2 emission by 20%. This is a substantial was spurred by research activities in USA and Japan.
contribution on the part of power generating Figure-5 gives an overview of the international research
industries towards achieving the Germany's target of programmes aimed at developing power plant
lowering CO2 emission by 25-30% by 2005 [10]. materials[10]. Today, 65 partners from 13 countries
This objective requires an ambitious development are involved in the European programme backed by
programme for advanced materials, which can a research budget of some DM31 million.
withstand such steam conditions. The research
programme has been undertaken simultaneously by In the case of pulverized-coal-fired boilers, even a
USA, Japan and European nations. It has focused on marginal improvement in plant efficiency, say from
developing further the existing high-temperature- 34 to 37%, is reported to bring a savings of at least
resistant ferritic martensitic 12% CrMoV Steels for $5 million a year for each 1000 MW of capacity [2].
the production of rotors, casings and chests, pipes However, in estimating the actual gains, the plant net
and headers capable of operating at 593°C, as well heat rate gain should be weighed against the increase
as further development of the existing high- in total plant cost. Increase in steam parameters
temperature austenitic steels suitable for inlet steam requires more expensive materials of construction as
temperatures up to 649°C. For smaller highly these advancements increase the severity of the service
stressed components such as first stage moving conditions the components must undergo.

FIG. 5 : INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH PROGRAMMES FOR DEVELOPING ADVANCED STEAM CYCLE PLANTS [10]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 4


A study funded by Electric Power Research Institute Environmental conditions in several cases have
(EPRI), USA, suggested 750 MW unit as optimal proved to be important in the availability of the
size for the advanced steam conditions offering a plant. Operational errors in the water treatment led
10% improvement in thermal efficiency, compared to stress corrosion cracking of austenitic stainless
with present commercial designs [2]. The technology steel tubes in some power stations [5]. Due to wide
promises a drop in heat rate of as much as 865 Btu/ spread deterioration of the quality of coals in several
kWh. Assuming a first year fuel cost of $1.38/865 countries, a number of power stations experienced
BTU/kWh, the study concluded that cost savings in fire side corrosion of tubes. In such places, new
operation could go as high as $160 million (1978 subcritical power units installed in the same period
value) over the plant's life time. Capital costs, on the also showed similar reduced availability [2].
other hand, are estimated to be 3 to 5% more than Supercritical units under those conditions required
those for conventional capacity ($800/kW versus a quite uneconomic purification of basic fuels [13].
$775/kW). Keeping in view the current high and In case of oil-fired or dual-fired boilers, austenitic
escalating level of fuel and capital costs, the potential stainless steel superheater tubes suffered from excessive
fuel savings, increasing environmental consciousness, corrosion problem.
the supercritical steam conditions with advanced
materials offer significant benefits that require serious
attention in selecting future capacity additions. 1.3 Present Trend
However, it is necessary to consider local conditions
Encouraging operational history of the earlier
such as grid size, expected annual utilisation period,
supercritical units, availability of more versatile
cycling duty requirements, fuel cost etc. to work out
materials at a reasonable cost, progress in design
optimal unit capacity and operational conditions
tools such as computer programmes, experience
including the number of reheats.
gained in the designing and manufacture of large
steam turbines and the continuously increasing trend
1.2 Service Experience of fuel cost, all together prompted several leading
power plant suppliers, in the recent past, to revive
Based on the operating data from supercritical their interest in units with advanced steam conditions.
double reheat units in the range from 600-825 MW To avoid any technical risk, the development
plant sizes, Westinghouse and GEC reported [2] that programmes have been planned in a phased manner.
they achieved average availability of 80%. This is Two such programmes were launched independently
higher than the average availability of 600-825 MW on similar lines by the EPRI [9] and Toshiba
units as a whole and is comparable to that of small Corporation, Japan [7].
units. A VGB evaluation also shows that the
operational availability of their supercritical plants is Since most of the conventional materials readily
approximately the same as with sub-critical units [5]. available are expected to meet at least for the first
Average forced outage rates for the period 1970-83 two phases, the developmental programmes mainly
for ABB turbine operating with supercritical main concentrated in rationalizing the designs through
steam pressures in several countries in Europe was computer-aided programmed and in perfecting the
only about 1% [8]. A 100 MW steam turbine has manufacturing technologies especially in the case of
been operating for several ten thousand hours in large-sized components. Having completed such
USSR, as a test unit under steam conditions of 29.4 exercises for the units of 700 MW capacity with
MPa and 630-650°C and reheat steam conditions of steam conditions of 566/566/566°C and 32.2 MPa,
3 MPa and 565°C. This unit was designed with both EPRI and Toshiba are expected to take up their
cooling of many elements of HP housing and the production, while the developmental activities to
operating experience shows that it is highly reliable meet the remaining two phases will continue to
[9]. progress. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Japan,

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 5


on the other hand, since they have already supplied 6. Ability to be fabricated with ease, as by
five out of the ten 450 MW steam turbines now in machining, forging, casting and welding.
operation in Japan with steam temperatures of
566°C, is already making proof tests of material and 7. Low coefficient of thermal expansion to
turbine elements, using an actual power plant, for resist the thermal stresses imposed by
steam temperatures of 590-650°C. A 50 MW differential temperatures and thermal cycling
prototype unit manufactured by Mitsubishi with or shocks during heat treatment, welding
steam temperature of 590-650°C was put into and operation.
operation in the year 1987 [6]. At present, many of 8. Good thermal conductivity for efficient heat
the units up to the sizes of 1000MW are operating transfer and to minimise thermal gradient
in Europe, USA and Japan with the steam parameters along the wall thickness of the thick walled
of 600/610/610°C temperature and 300 bar pressure. components so as to reduce thermal stresses
during start-up or quenching due to carry
over.
2. REQUIREMENTS OF MATERIALS
FOR HIGH-TEMPERATURE APPLI- 9. Low density to provide a high strength-to-
CATIONS weight ratio for applications such as the last
stage blading of the large capacity steam
When a unit has to be designed and built to a high turbines.
integrity, one of starting points is concerned with the
choice of materials. As shown by the experience 10. Availability in the desired size and shape.
gained, this assumes additional emphasis with the 11. Enough long-term test data to allow sufficient
supercritical sets as the equipment reliability and high-temperature analysis to validate the
availability otherwise may nullify the performance design to the satisfaction of the safety
benefits expected to accrue from the advancements regulations and licensing authorities.
in technology. Generally speaking, the proper material
for use at elevated temperatures is the one that best The power plants have depended mainly on the low-
meets the following requirements at the lowest cost: alloy steels for metal temperatures up to about
580°C. At temperatures above this level, their
1. Adequate strength to resist deformation and
resistance to creep is such that the resulting wall
rupture when exposed at the design conditions
thickness becomes uneconomical. Also, their
for the designed life, to the operating
oxidation resistance at higher temperatures is not
environment.
sufficient. With increased metal temperatures above
2. Adequate fatigue strength at the design 580°C, austenitic stainless steels were employed for
conditions and damping capacity when most of the power plant components designed in
vibratory stresses are involved. early 1950s. However, austenitic stainless steels,
though they are superior in high-temperature strength,
3. Sufficient ductility to accommodate have problems such as steam oxidation, and high-
cumulative plastic strain and notch strength temperature corrosion in oil-fired boilers. Further,
to resist stress concentrations during the they are very expensive, susceptible to stress corrosion
service life. cracking and give rise to weld problems. Ferritic
4. Good resistance to service environment to steels, on the other hand, offer several technological
withstand oxidation, corrosion and erosion. advantages such as better workability, high thermal
conductivity and lower coefficient of thermal
5. Structural stability to resist damaging expansion as compared to austenitic stainless steels.
metallurgical changes at operating conditions. As a result, to bridge the gap between the low-alloy

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 6


ferritic steels and austenitic stainless steels, several 600°C, austenitic stainless steels are required to be
high-alloy ferritic steels were developed during the used for high-temperature strength combined with
last three to four decades. These include 5CrMo, resistance to environmental attack. Simple austenitic
6CrMoVWTi, 7CrMoTi, 8CrMoTi, 9CrMo, steels of type AISI 304, 316 and 347 have been
9CrMoVNb, 9CrMoWVNb, 12CrMoV and extensively used for power plant components. But
12CrMoWVNb steels. Among these, 9Cr and 12Cr several complex austenitics of the type Essehete 1250,
class of steels were extensively studied and successfully Alloy 800 H, 17-14CuMo, A286 and NF709 have
employed in several power stations. In fact, there are been developed to give improved service performance
over two hundred grades of 12Cr steels with around 650°C. Based on the actual service conditions
different trade names cited in the literature, of which of a component, several higher alloys including nickel
a number of steels are generally used for different base alloys are also being considered as candidate
applications in gas turbines, and a few in thermal as materials for meeting exacting requirement to improve
well as nuclear power plants [14,15]. A brief list of reliability. In view of the above, the candidate materials
materials is given in Tables-1 and 2. for advanced steam cycles are suggested, and the
approaches to meet the higher steam cycles are
With the operating temperature around and above discussed, in the following sections.

TABLE-1 : CANDIDATE MATERIALS FOR BOILER TUBES, PIPES AND HEADERS

Sl. No. MATERIALS FOR BOILER TUBES AND PIPES


Sub Critical Super Critical
1. C-Mn Steel HCM2S (T23)
2. ½Mo (T1) 7 CrMoV TiB 10 10 (T24)
3. 1¼Cr½Mo¾Si (T11) X20 CrMoV 12 1
4. 2¼Cr1Mo (T22) X10CrMoVNb 91 (T 91)
5. X20 CrMoV 12 1 X10CrMoWVNb 911 (E911)
6. X10CrMoVNb 91 (T 91) X10CrMoWVNb 92 (T 92-NF616)
7. AISI 304 X10CrMoVNb 12 1 (T 122)
8. AISI 310 X10CrNiMoTiB 15 15
9. AISI 316 X8CrNiMoVNb 16 13
10. AISI 321 X3CrNiMoNb 16 16
11. AISI 347 NF 709
12. E1250 Alloy 800
13. 17-14CuMo HR 3C
14. X10CrNiMoTiB 15 15 HR6W
15. X8CrNiMoVnb 16 13 AC66

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 7


TABLE-2 : MATERIALS USED FOR THE ADVANCED STEAM TURBINES AT HIGH TEMPERATURES [47]

Component 566°C 620°C 700°C 760°C

Casings/shells Cr MoV (cast) 9-10%Cr (W) CF8C+ CCA617


(Valves; steam 10Cr MoVNb 12CrW (Co) CCA617 Inconel 740
chests; nozzle Inconel 625
box; cylinders) IN 718
Nimonic 263

Bolting 422 9-12%CrMo V Nimonic105 U700


9-12% CrMo V A286 Nimonic115 U710
Nimonic80A IN 718 Waspaloy U720
IN 718 Nimonic 105
Nimonic 115

Rotors/Discs 1 Cr MoV 9-12% CrWCo CCA617 CCA617


12 CrMoVNbN 12CrMoWVNbN CCA617 Inconel 740
26NiCrMoV11 5 Haynes 230
Inconel 740

Vanes/Blades 422 9-12% CrWCo Wrought Ni Base Wrought Ni Base


10 CrMoVNbN

Piping P22, P91 P91, P92 CCA617 Inconel 740

3. BOILER MATERIALS superheaters. Table-1 lists candidate materials for


superheater and reheater tubing for power plant
3.1 Superheater and Reheater Tubing applications. Figures-6 and 7 show their maximum

Superheater and reheater tubes operate in the creep


range since their main function is to provide heat
transfer between the hot flue gas and the Pressurised
steam carried within them. They are, therefore,
designed primarily based on the maximum allowable
stress to rupture in 100,000 hours, as specified by
the mandatory codes or standards. The other property
bases for their selection are a combination of
adequate corrosion resistance to both steam and the
flue gas and ease of fabrication, particularly in regard
to bending and welding. Reheaters receive partially
expanded steam from the turbine and serve to raise
its operating temperature to the required inlet level
of the Intermediate pressure turbine. Consequently,
they operate at lower pressure and are made of larger FIG. 6 : MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE STRESSES FOR VARIOUS
diameter but thinner walled tubes, as compared to BOILER GRADE STEELS [20]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 8


FIG. 7 : 1,00,000H STRESS RUPTURE STRENGTH FOR BOILER MATERIALS [10]

allowable stresses and 100,000h stress rupture steels can be used to some extent even at steam
strength, respectively [14-20]. temperatures slightly below 540°C. This solution
permits thickness of tubes less than those needed for
Carbon steels are suitable and economical up to the common low-alloy steels for the same operating
about 400 to 450°C metal temperature. Low-alloy conditions as shown in Fig. 8. This results in saving
steels ⏐ Mo (SA209 T1), 1...Cr ⏐ Mo—Si (SA213 of base material and welding filler material, reduces
T11) and 2...Cr1Mo (SA213 T22) are used widely thermal stresses and welding problems and also
for metal temperatures up to 480, 550 and 580°C improves the heat transfer efficiency.
respectively [21]. T22 steel which has been extensively
used for the final superheater for conventional units
operating at a main steam temperature of 540°C has
too low a creep strength to be accepted as a final 10CrMo9.10
stage superheater material for use with a steam
temperature of 565°C. Though these steels can still NF616
be used for the tube banks operating up to their
existing allowable temperatures in the boilers of
supercritical units, with the increase in steam pressure
their required wall thickness increases. There is a
strong incentive in using improved carbon steels now X20 T91/P91
available with higher allowable yield strength at
lower temperatures up to 450°C and in bringing
down the temperature range of application of the
FIG. 8 : COMPARISON OF THE SIZE OF THE WALL THICKNESS
low-alloy steels such that strong high-alloy ferritic OF P22, X20, P91 AND NF616 STEEL PIPES

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 9


As the boiler steam advances, the metal temperature P92 has an edge over the other two due to its high
of the last banks of the superheater tubes of the rupture strength.
565°C unit exceeds the maximum allowable limit of
the low-alloy steels. In these regions, high-alloy Austenitic steels would be required for final
ferritic steels are required to be used. 9Cr1MoVNb superheaters of 593°C units and for most of the
(SA213T91) steel has improved oxidation resistance. superheater and reheater of the 650°C units. The
The allowable stresses for 9Cr1MoVNb (SA213T91) design stress values derived by various boiler codes
are about 100% higher than T22 steel at temperatures differ based on the approaches adopted by them.
above 540°C and are even higher than X20 CrMoV Similarly, ranking of austenitic steels 304, 316, 347,
12 1 (DIN17175 - 1.4922) steel in the range of 500 based on their allowable stresses varies depending on
to 650°C. The other two high-alloy ferritic steels the code. However, 304, 316 and 347 type of tubes
9Cr1MoWVNb (SA213 T92) and are widely used for operation at higher steam
X12CrMoWVNbN 10 11 (E911) developed in USA temperatures. TP347H type of tubes are extensively
and Japan are much superior in their stress rupture used in USA, Japan and Germany [5, 22] due to its
strength as compared to all other ferritic steels superior properties such as resistance to fire-side
including the 12Cr steel (X20 CrMoV 12 1) upto corrosion, steam-side oxidation and higher thermal
about 650°C. Their allowable stresses are also higher fatigue strength, as compared to 316 type of steel.
than TP304H and TP321H at temperatures below Also, ASME Boilers code allows higher design stress
600°C. 9Cr1MoVNb steel, due to its low carbon for TP 347H as compared to TP316H type [15],
content exhibits good weldability and workability whereas in the case of BSI, the reverse is true [26].
and has been giving satisfactory service as superheaters Type 347 and 321 steels are prone to strain-induced
and reheaters, for over two decades in Japan [22]. embrittlement due to the formation of strong
X20 CrMoV 12 1 is also supplied with 0.4 to 0.6% carbides like NbC and TiC [26]. As a result, AISI
tungsten, which is then designated as X20 CrMoWV 316 steel is preferred in U.K. For superheaters
12 1 (DIN 17 175-1.4935) [15]. Addition of operating at the highest temperatures of the high-
tungsten is reported to give greater creep strength pressure units, stronger austenitic steels like Incoloy
than the steel without tungsten but, based on some 800H, 17-14 CuMo, Esshete 1250, NF616 and 15-
long-time investigations no effect of tungsten has 15N, X8CrNiMoNb 16 13 and X3CrNiMoN 17 13
been found for additions up to 1% [14]. It is, would be required for reliable operation. For most
however, reported to be beneficial for thick sections. exacting conditions, materials such as Inconel 617
Both X20 CrMoV 12 1 and X20 CrMoWV 12 1 which contains 12.5% Co, though very costly, may
were developed and extensively used in Europe for also have to be considered.
superheater and reheater tubes. These steels being
martensitic grade have a strong self-hardening 3.2 Steam Piping and Headers
property. Due to the formation of martensite, the
weld metal and the heat affected zone (HAZ) Ferritic steels are preferred because of their higher
become very brittle on cooling. For better results, thermal conductivities and lower coefficient of thermal
both preheat and post weld heat treatments are expansion coupled with their good fabricability.
mandatory. 9Cr1MoVNb steel has been extensively High-strength high-alloy ferritic steels such as
studied for over two decades in USA and its tube X20CrMoV 12 1, X20CrMoWV 12 1, 9Cr1MoVNb
samples are currently in service in the USA & UK and 9Cr1MoWVNb are, therefore, employed for
[18]. Of the two V and Nb bearing 9Cr steels, this temperatures up to 625°C. These steels are, however,
offers better rupture strength. Among the various subject to temper embrittlement in the temperature
high-alloy ferritic steels, X20 CrMoV 12 1, range of 540 to 595°C, where advanced supercritical
9Cr1MoVNb (T/P91) and 9Cr1MoWVNb (T/P92) steam power plants operate. Though the temper
are the three most promising candidates for tubing. embrittlement behaviour is not likely to have any

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 10


effect on their use for piping, it can be controlled most severe. Alkali sulphate corrosion rate decreases
by maintaining low levels of manganese and silicon with the increase in chromium content and a
contents [9]. Also low levels of sulphur should be superior resistance can be obtained with chromium
maintained, as the toughness of these steels is very contents of over 25% (Fig.9) [30]. Simulated liquid
sensitive to sulphur content. ash corrosion tests carried out on different superheater
tubing alloys show that their resistance vary widely
At 650°C steam condition, it is necessary to use as shown in Fig.10 [31]. Amongst the alloys tested,
higher-strength austenitic steels. Niobium stabilized
austenitic steels of the type 347 are preferred in
Germany because of their high fatigue strength and
superior steam-side oxidation as compared to niobium-
free steels [27]. Due to temperature-constrained
expansion during and after welding, niobium steels
should be used in the case of wall thickness up to
30mm, whereas niobium-free austenitic steels
X8CrNiMoNb 16 13 and X3 CrNiMoN 17 13 are
desirable for thick walled pipes. In case of 316
stainless steel, main steam pipe failure due to sigma
phase formation was reported [9]. Extensive database
up to about 100,000 hours available on Esshete 1250,
NF709, HR6W steels confirm their reliability for
steam pipe and header application [19, 46].

3.2.1 FIRE-SIDE CORROSION

In coal-fired boilers, the ash corrosion results from


FIG. 9 : COMPARISON OF FIRE-SIDE CORROSION
the formation of complex alkali iron sulphates in ash RESISTANCE OF VARIOUS ALLOYS [31]
deposits, which become aggressive in molten state.
The severity of liquid ash corrosion varies with
temperature and follows a bell-shaped curve [29].
Corrosion increases sharply from about 595°C to
700°C. Below 595°C, the corrodents in the ash
deposits will be in a fairly dry state and therefore do
not aggressively attack the tubes. As the temperature
is increased up to about 700°C, the corrodents
become molten and the corrosion rate increases.
With further increase in temperature, the molted
sulphates begin to vaporize and become unstable,
decreasing the corrosion rate.
Superheaters and reheaters of the supercritical plants
at 566°C operate close to the beginning of the bell-
shaped curve. 9Cr and 12Cr tubes should be good
enough to serve without experiencing any significant
fireside corrosion. But the final superheaters and
reheaters of the plants at 593°C and 649°C would
FIG. 10 : HOT-CORROSION WEIGHT-LOSS wrt Cr CONTENT
operate at the apex of the curve, where corrosion is FOR VARIOUS ALLOYS [30]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 11


the 17-14CuMo austenitic steel used for superheater economics of using composite tubes [19]. For
tubing in Eddystone unit [9] experienced the highest demanding environmental applications, it may
corrosion rate, while the Inconel 671 (50Cr-50Ni) sometimes be necessary to select even nickel or
alloy was practically immune to liquid ash corrosion. cobalt base alloys, provided economics permit.
It can also be seen that the 17-14 Cu Mo alloy, on
chromizing, exhibits liquid ash corrosion resistance 3.2.2 STEAM-SIDE OXIDATION
almost similar to Inconel 671. There are various
potential means of overcoming the coal ash corrosion General experience indicates that the oxidation
problem of superheater tubing such as bandage resistance of high-temperature steels in dry
shields of more corrosion-resistant materials, surface superheated steam is almost the same as their
coatings, grain refinement and composite tubes. oxidation resistance to air at the corresponding
Bandage shielding decreases heat transfer efficiency temperature [26]. The oxide scales formed on the
because of the insulating air gap, and it may also internal surface of superheater tubes, reheater tubes,
result in significant increase in corrosion rate of non- headers and piping spall off, or exfoliate, when the
bandaged tubing [32]. Surface coatings such as thermal stresses due to differential thermal expansion
chromizing [33], chromating [22], chromium plating between the oxide scale and the base metal exceed
[33] and calorizing [32] have been attempted. These the bond strength of oxide scale. 9Cr and 12Cr
methods require further detailed study for their steels, due to their low coefficient of thermal
effect on fabrication, ductility and high-temperature expansion, offer better resistance to oxide exfoliation
creep strength. However, studies carried out on a as compared to austenitic steels, in the temperature
chromized austenitic steel showed encouraging results range of their application. The spalled oxides can be
[33]. Since both outside surfaces can be chromized severe enough to clog the bends in superheater and
at the same time, it appears to be a promising reheater tubing, eventually leading to overheat failures.
approach to prevent corrosion of both the surfaces. At high steam pressures, these oxides from headers
Grain refinement promotes the grain boundary and steam pipes can be carried to the turbine at high
diffusion of chromium to the surface [22]. This velocities and cause turbine erosion. Turbine erosion
results in improved corrosion resistance [20] but it damage not only causes a loss in efficiency but also
has an adverse effect on the rupture strength of the is expensive to repair and increases the time of
material. For most advanced supercritical steam turbine overhaul outages [34]. It was reported that
conditions and under highly aggressive service the erosion damage had led to the destruction of a
conditions generated for combustion of coal with turbine. Since the rate of steam oxidation varies
high chlorine contents where a single material exponentially with temperature [35], exfoliation can
cannot provide an economically viable solution, be much more of a threat to advanced supercritical
technical advantage provided by two different steam plants. Amongst the conventional austenitic
materials can be utilised by employing composite stainless steels, TP347H provides better resistance to
tubes. Composite tubes are produced by co-extrusion both fire-side corrosion and steam oxidation,
of two different materials comprising a high-strength presumably due to its high chromium content.
inner material such as Essehete 1250, alloy 800H, Steam oxidation, as in the case of fire-side corrosion,
17-14 Cu Mo to provide the stress-bearing capacity is a function of chromium content in the inner
and an outer casing of material of high chromium surface of the tube. To overcome steam oxidation
content like TP310 or Inconel 671 for protection problem, several methods such as chromizing,
against corrosion. The problems expected from such chromating, grain size refinement and cold working
tubing are thermal fatigue, welding and sigma phase of the inner surface through shot peening/blasting,
formation in outer casing [28]. The service all of which increase the chromium content at the
performance for several years in a number of power surface, are applicable. Chromizing being a very
stations, however, confirms the integrity and high-temperature process, is applicable to only new

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 12


and replacement components. Chromating, on the start-up and shut-down periods, must also be taken
other hand, can be performed at lower temperatures into account. Figure-11 shows the temperature range
and even on assembled parts. Both grain refinement for application of different grades of steels [4]. It is
and surface shot peening methods aim at enhancing clear that the low-alloy ferritic steels are limited to
the chromium diffusion rate to the surface, but their use at temperatures up to about 550°C, and their
effect is lost during the process of welding or when range of application further decreases for rotating
stress relief annealing has to be carried out after components. Table-2 gives a list of candidate materials
bending. Combination of chromizing and chromating of interest, and Fig. 11 depicts their 100,000h
techniques seems to be the best choice to overcome rupture strength as a function of temperature [4, 5,
the environmental problems. 36, 37, 38]. For the sake of comparison and
completeness, some of the low-alloy ferritic steels are
also included.
4. TURBINE MATERIALS

In the case of turbine, the advancement in steam 4.1 HP/IP Rotors


conditions mainly affects its high pressure (HP) and
intermediate pressure (IP) sections. As a result, the As can be seen from Fig.11, 12Cr steel can be
associated rotations as well as stationary parts of employed for HP/IP turbine rotors at 566°C steam
these sections experience more severe service temperatures. X22 CrMoV 121 has been successfully
conditions than that of conventional sets. Since they used for rotors of the supercritical units for many
operate well within the creep range, their design is years. With rotor cooling, it can also be used up to
based primarily on the long-term creep strength of 595°C. Both EPRI [9] and Toshiba [9] have chosen
the material, but the stress levels during steady and 12Cr steel for HP and IP rotors of turbines for
non-steady operating conditions, particularly during operation at 566°C. Their advanced designs at

FIG. 11 : 1,00,000H CREEP STRENGTH FOR STEAM TURBINE APPLICATIONS [10]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 13


593°C contemplate the use of 12Cr steel rotor with variety of high-temperature blade materials with
steam cooling to bring the rotor temperature down proven service performance in large gas turbines are
to 566°C, where its creep strength is adequate to available, and they should be considered for more
meet the design pressure. However, presently several advanced steam conditions. These include super
super 12Cr steels with much superior creep resistance 12Cr steels, austenitic steels, Nimonic 80A, 90, 105,
are available and they should also be considered 115, In718 and precision casting alloys such as
before a final decision is taken. Above 593°C steam Udimet 500 and IN 738LC.
temperature, X12CrMoWVNbN 10 11 and austenitic
stainless steel must be considered. Amongst the
austenitic steels, A286 and X8CrNiMoBNb 16 16 4.3 LP Rotor
offer better creep strength for an HP rotor of
The principal requirements of material for low-
advanced sets operating at 649°C.
pressure (LP) rotor are high yield strength to
One of the rotor-related problems is the maximum withstand the high stress imposed on it by long
size that can be produced from the 12Cr and blades and high fracture toughness to minimize sub-
austenitic steels. Due to severe segregation in critical flaw growth so as to avoid the possibility of
conventional ingots, the size of the austenitic steel fast fracture. 3.5NiCrMoV steel is widely used for
rotors used in earlier supercritical units was limited LP rotor throughout the power industry. To avoid
to small size, as a result of which, it became temper embrittlement, the maximum operating
necessary to divide the HP turbine into two stages temperature of the LP rotor made of this steel is
[9]. It is estimated that a large advanced plant would generally limited to about 350°C [9]. The inlet
require a one-piece super-alloy HP rotor forging steam temperature to LP turbine of the supercritical
weighing 11,300 kg with a barrel diameter of units, on the other hand, is dictated by the exhaust
890mm. Similarly, a double-flow reheat rotor made steam from the second IP section. The IP-LP
of 12Cr steel is expected to be about 1150mm in crossover temperature from advanced supercritical
diameter and 31,750 kg in weight, which would units at steam temperatures of 593°C and above
require to start with an ingot size of 63,500 kg [9]. would be 400-455°C [9]. To maintain the inlet
Significant progress has been made, in recent years, steam temperature of LP turbine at its present
in increasing the size as well as the quality of the maximum allowable limit, it would be necessary to
forging by employing modern steel making techniques cool the steam either through cooling of the rotor
such as low sulfur silicon deoxidation (low S), or by adding an additional stage of expansion to the
vacuum oxygen decarburization (VOD), vacuum IP turbine. The latter approach would be a difficult
carbon deoxidation (VCD), central zone refining design task, as it requires usage of long blades at high
(CZR), electro slag hot topping (ESHT) and electro temperature, whereas the former approach has to
slag remelting (ESR). By employing these techniques, sacrifice a part of the thermal efficiency.
either individually or in combination, production
Another approach to the problem would be to
experience with low-alloy ferritic [39], 12Cr as well
render LP rotor material more resistant to temper
as austenitic steels [4, 40] demonstrate that the
embrittlement [41]. Efforts are, therefore, being
rotors of the candidates materials can be made to the
made to improve the fracture toughness of the IP
required size and quality without experiencing much
rotor steel by improved steel making technology and
problems.
closer control of chemical composition. The
interaction between Mn, Si, P and Sn was shown to
4.2 Blading have promoted the degree of temper embrittlement
[41]. Resistance to temper embrittlement of
Conventional 12CrMoV steel blades are adequate to 3.5NiCrMoV rotor steel with low Mn and low Si
meet the steam temperature at 566°C. But a wide contents was found to have greatly improved as

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 14


compared to conventional steel [9]. By utilising the rate gain achieved by elevating the steam parameters.
modern steel making technologies, it is now possible In addition, rotor cooling complicates the design of
to decrease both Mn and Si contents to levels of the turbine and its external piping, and calls for an
0.001 - 0.002%. overall economic justification in final selection of the
candidate materials.

4.4 Heavy Section Stationary Parts Since the outer casing is subjected to cooler and low-
pressure steam as compared to the other casing, this
High-pressure turbine requires a number of heavy could be still made of the conventional low-alloy
section static components such as the inner and outer ferritic steel.
casings, static components such as the inner and outer
casings, the steam valve, the nozzle box, and the inlet
pipe. Besides high temperature and pressure, these 4.5 Transition Weld Joints
parts are subject to thermal cycling. If the section
In cases where main steam piping and the outer
sizes are very high, there is a danger of experiencing
casing are made of austenitic and low-alloy ferritic
thermal cracking as a result of the heavy thermal
steels, respectively, the inlet piping to the turbine
stresses that might develop during start-up or carry-
will have to utilize transition joints. An approach
over. It is, therefore, desirable to minimize the section
suggested to this problem is to make the joint in
size by using high-strength steel so as to reduce
three sections, utilising a material of intermediate
thermal stresses. Depending on the stresses and the
thermal expansion coefficient such as Alloy 800H in
required wall thicknesses, it might be advisable to
between the pipe and the casing with nickel-based
employ 12Cr steel at temperatures lower than 566°C
filler metal for welding. Nickel-based filler metal
and austenitic steels at temperatures as low as 566°C.
improves the rupture life as much as five times more
This could be advantageous especially in the case of
than the austenitic filler metals. Due care must also
high-pressure units designed for 31 MPa and above.
be taken in design to minimize bending stresses, as
Given the choice, forgings are preferred as they allow
life of transition joints is greatly reduced if bending
thinner sections but it would be economical to use
stresses are superimposed upon stresses from thermal
castings. Toshiba [7] will be using a 12Cr cast steel
expansion.
(10CrMoVNbN) for these parts of the units at
566°C, whereas EPRI [9] intends to give preference
to forgings for the initial advanced units. 4.6 Bolting
In order to minimize differential thermal expansion, Bolts and studs are used in many joints of the
it is desirable to make the rotor and the stationary turbine, which need to be separated for maintenance
parts of the turbine of the same material. However, or repairs, as for example, castings and valves. The
for 593°C units, it is likely that the rotor would be bolts and studs differ from all other turbine
made of 12Cr steel, while the inner casing would be components in that they are notched, subjected to
made of austenitic steel. Under such circumstances, cold as well as hot stressing and a varying pattern
shaft seals must be used to accommodate the greater to stressing due to practice of tightening and
thermal expansion of the casing. Larger clearances retightening. The strain to which bolts are tightened
are required to be given, when austenitic steels are is based on both the properties of the materials and
employed for rotating and stationary parts, for most the design practice. The usual strain applied in UK
advanced steam conditions. Both the design is 0.15% [44], whilst it is 0.2% in Germany [36].
requirements, 12Cr rotor cooling at 593°C and The elastic strain produced by the initial tightening
larger clearance to be provided with austenitic steels of the bolts is progressively converted to creep strain,
at higher temperatures, adversely affect the cycle thereby reducing the effective load on the joint.
efficiency. This, in turn, partly reduces the net heat Bolts for turbine parts are required to possess

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 15


sufficient resistance to stress relaxation to maintain materials. For units at 649°C steam temperature,
flange toughness against internal steam pressure at nickel-based bolting materials are required to be
least for the period between overhauls and should be used, as the austenitic steel bolts are not strong
re-usable throughout the life of the plant. In enough to meet the requirement. Based on a critical
addition, bolting materials must have coefficient of survey of worldwide experience and stress relaxation
thermal expansion close to that of flange material, tests, Incoloy X750, Nimonic 80A, Nimonic 90,
high proof strength, good notch rupture ductility Refractaloy 26 and PER 2B have been identified as
and resistance to embrittlement. the best candidates for use up to 650°C.
The stress relaxation behaviour of bolting materials
that have already demonstrated their successful 5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
service performance in power stations is shown in
Fig.12 [36, 45]. 1Cr1Mo—VTiB steel, which is i) The quest for lower-cost power generation
extensively used in the conventional units led to a rapid progress in the steam conditions,
manufactured in the country, can still be used for reheat cycles and output capacity of the
outer casing joints of the supercritical units, but it power plants during 1950s and 60s.
is desirable to use 12Cr steel for inner casing flange Supercritical power plants offer considerable
bolts. At steam temperature of 566°C, the difference gain in heat rate.
in the stress relaxation behaviour of these two steels,
as shown in Fig.12, is as a result of the difference ii) During the last two decades, ferritic-
in their initial strain. But, at the same initial strain martensitic 9 to 12% Cr steels have been
level of 0.15%, 12Cr bolting steels possess better developed under international research
resistance to stress relaxation. In some of the earlier programmes, which permit (live) inlet steam
units, 12Cr bolts were also used at higher temperatures for thermal power stations up
temperatures through steam cooling [13]. Since the to approximately 610°C, pressures of up to
12Cr bolts undergo extensive stress relaxation at about 300 bar and reheat temperatures up to
593°C, consideration is being given by EPRI to a about 625°C. The results have been
number of high-strength nickel-based bolting improvements in efficiency of around 8%
versus conventional steam parameters.

iii) The newly developed 9-12% Cr steels are


already being used in 12 European and 34
Japanese power stations with inlet steam
temperatures of up to about 610°C. The
experience with the components made of
these steels has been decidedly positive.

iv) Advancements in steam parameters increase


the severity of the service conditions that
materials must undergo. The presently
available low and high alloy ferritic steels
with proven service experience can meet the
requirements of both boiler and steam turbine
components of units designed for steam
temperature at 600°C.
FIG. 12 : COMPARISON OF 30,000H RELAXED STRESS FOR v) For advanced steam plants of temperatures
BOLTING MATERIALS [20]

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 16


above 600°C, austenitic steels are required to 4. Haas, H., et al., Proc. Amer. Power Conf., 44,
be employed for final stages of super heaters 1982, 330
and static components of the steam turbine,
5. Schneider, A., VGB Kraftwerkstechnilk, 58,
such as inner casing, steam valve and nozzle
1978, 168
block. 12Cr steel can be used for HP/IP
rotors subject to reliable design for cooling 6. Kawai, T., Turbomachinery International, 25,
them so as to bring the material temperature March 1984, 34
down to 566°C.
7. Akiba, M. and Aizawa, K., Turbomachinery
vi) At steam temperatures of 649°C/621°C, International, 25, March 1984, 37
high-strength martensitic steels are required 8. Muhlhauser, H., Brown Boveri Review, 71,
for HP/IP steam turbine rotors and stationary 1984, 120
components. Preventive measures such as
application of composite or chromized tubes 9. Gold, M. and Jaffee, R.I., J. Materials for
to withstand fireside corrosion of superheater Energy Systems, 6, 1984, 138
and reheaters as well as steps to minimize 10. Mayer, K.H., et.al., 'New Materials for
steam-side oxidation should be taken. Improving the Efficiency of Fossil Fired Thermal
Power Stations', VGB Power Tech, Jan 1998,
vii) For steam turbine blading and bolting at 22-27
temperatures above 593°C, materials such as
Nimonics and Refractaloy 26 etc. should be 11. Trojanowskij, B.M., VGB Kraftwerkstechnik,
considered. 60 (1980) 525
12. Plastow, B., et al., Int. Conf. on Creep and
viii) To meet the IP-LP crossover temperature for
Fatigue in Elevated Temperature Applications,
units at steam temperatures of 593°C and
Instn. Mech. Engrs. Sheffield, 1974, Paper
above, it is necessary to improve the temper
C49/ 74
embrittlement of the existing 3.5NiCrMoV
LP rotors steel, by employing modern steel 13. Gemmill, M.G., ASTM Jl. Testing and
making techniques to eliminate elements Evaluation, 2, 1974, 3
such as Mn, Si, P and Sn. Alternatively, the
14. Briggs, J.Z. and Parker, T.D., 'Super 12% Cr
steam should be cooled in the IP turbine to
Steels' Climax Molybdenum company, New
limit the LP inlet steam temperature to the
York, NY, 1965
existing maximum allowable level of about
350°C. 15. Section I, Power Boilers, ASME Boiler and
Pressure Vessel Code, ASME, New York, 1983
SI Edition, 176-227
References 16. Characteristics of HCM9M Steel Tubings for
Boiler application, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
1. Husemann, R.U., et.al., 'Processing and
Ltd. (MHI) and Sumitomo Metal Industries
Practical Application of New Materials in
Ltd. (SMI). July 1979.
Power Plant Constructions', VGB
Kraftwerkstechnik, 75(3), 1995, 241-255 17. Sumitomo, High Strength Boiler Tubes, SMI,
80-F-No.1081
2. EPRI Journal, September 1981, 22
18. Canonico, D.A., The factors that Influence the
3. Spencer, R.C., Proc. Amer. Power Conf. 42, Selection of High Temperature Materials,
1980, 225 presented at the National Symposium on Creep

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 17


Resistant Steels for Power Plants, BHEL R&D, 33. Sumitomo, Chromized stainless steel tubes,
Hyderabad (India), January 1983 SMI 803-F-No. 1079, Jun 1983
19. Orr, J. and Nileswar, V.B., Stainless Steels-84, 34. Haberman, J.A., and Keyton, H., Proc. Amer.
The Institute of Metals, London 1985, 533 Power conf., 44, 1982, 1970
20. Viswanathan, R., 'Damage Mechanisms and 35. Rehn, I.M., et al., NACE corrosion 80, Chicago,
Life Assessment of High Temperature IL, March 1980, Paper No. 192
Components,' ASM Intl., 1989
36. Warmfeste Hochwarmfeste Werkstoffe Fur
21. Ranganathan, S., et al., National Symposium
Schrauben and Mattern, Gutevorschriften, DIN
on Creep Resistant Steels for Power Plants,
17240, July 1976
BHEL R&D, Hyderabad (India), January
1983, Paper No. 1.03 37. Wegst, G.W., Stahlschlussel, Verlag Stahlschlussel
Wegst GmbH, 1983
22. Inoue, M., et al., The Sumitomo Search no. 29
Nov 1984, 64 38. Warmfester Ferritischer Stahlgu?, Tecchnische
23. Fricker, H. and Walser, B., Ferritic Steels for Lieferbedingungen, DIN17245, October, 1977
Fast Reactor Steam Generators, BNES, London, 39. Swaminathan, V.P. and Jaffee, R.I., Metal
1978,35 Progress, 128, December 1985, 52
24. Properties of 9Cr steel tubes and pipes, SIM, 40. Manufacturing of Trial A 286 Rotor Forging,
804-f-No. 1194, February 1984 Kobe Steel, TKE 83-57, January 1984
25. Caubo, M., Improved ferritic steels for super
41. Todeu, H., et al., Mitsubishi Power Systems
heater tubing, ASME paper No. 63-WA-246,
Bulletin MBB-82113E, November 1982
1963
26. Gemmill, M.G., The technology and properties 42. Watanabe, J. and Murakami, Y., Proc. Amer.
and ferrous alloys for high temperature use, Petroleum Inst., 1981, 216
George Newnes Ltd., London, 1966 43. Viswanathan, R., et al., 'Dissimilar Metal
27. Wyatt, L.M., Materials of construction for Welds in Power Plants', Presented at AWS-
steam power plants, applied science publisher EPRI Conf. on Joining Dissimilar Metals,
Ltd., London, 1976 Pittsburgh, PA, August 1982
28. Wyatt, L.M., Mat. Sci. and Engg., 1, 1971, 44. Branch, G.D., et al., Int. Conf. on Creep and
273 fracture in Elevated Temperature Applications,
Sheffield, 1974, Paper C192/73
29. Koopman, J.G., et al., Proc. American Power
Conf., 21, 1959, 236 45. British Steel Corporation's Data Sheets on
30. Sumitomo, High alloy composite tubes for Durehete 900 and Durehete 1055 Steels
pulverized coal fired boiler application, SMI, 46. Oakey, J.E., Pinder, L.W., Vanstone, R.,
803-F-No. 1006 Henderson, M. and Osgerby S, 'Review of
31. Ohtomo, A., et al., 'High temperature corrosion status of advanced materials for power
characteristicsof superheater tubes', IHI Engg. generation', Report no. COAL R224, DTI/
Rev., 16(4), October 1983 URN 02/1509, 2003
32. Flatly, T., and Lathom, E., Materials in power 47. Wright, I.G., Maziasz, P.J., Ellis, F.V., Gibbons,
plants, spring residential course Instn. of T.B. and Woodford, D.A., 'Materials issues for
Metallurgists, Chamelon press, London, 1975, turbines for operation in ultra supercritical
63 steam', ORNL report, USA.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 18


creep crack growth behaviour of power plant
steels. He has also carried out extensive studies on
the creep-rupture behaviour of P91 and X20
steels, their weldments and simulated heat-affected
zones. He is actively involved in residual life
assessment of steam and gas turbine components.
He is also working in the area of indigenous
development of gas turbine buckets and heat
Mr. Kulvir Singh graduated in Metallurgical treatment of steels by microwaves. His other
Engineering from University of Roorkee, (now activities include many important failure
IIT, Roorkee) in the year 1981. He completed investigations of boiler, steam and gas turbine
M.Tech. (Metallurgy) from IIT, Kanpur, in components and process industry equipment. He
1983. is currently working as Dy. General Manager and
heading Creep Lab of the Metallurgy Department.
Thereafter, Mr. Singh joined Metallurgy
Department of Corporate R&D, BHEL, Mr. Singh has published/presented over 50
Hyderabad. Since the beginning, he was involved technical papers in various national and
in indigenization of creep-resistant steels for steam international journals and conferences. He has
turbine and boiler applications. Subsequently, he also received BHEL Excel Award in the best
also studied structure property correlation and Technical Paper category for the year 2003.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 19


SELF-EXCITATION IN 3-PHASE SQUIRREL CAGE
INDUCTION GENERATOR FOR WINDMILL APPLICATION

P.K. Khanna

SYNOPSIS functioning as a generator. In this type, it is


always necessary that the machine runs above
In India, there are certain areas where plenty of energy its synchronous speed and it should remain
is available but it remains untapped. Wind energy is connected to power supply for excitation.
one such area. Also, it is well known that Induction
Generators are best suited for power generation through (ii) In the second type, when a squirrel cage
windmill due to their simple construction. In this paper, motor running near to its synchronous speed
an attempt has been made to describe how an Induction is switched off and simultaneously a capacitor
Generator can be made to get self-excitation and thus bank is connected across the motor terminals,
be used in any stand-alone situation, especially for it starts functioning as a generator. This type
windmill application. is characterised by self-excitation.

Key Words: In this article, the second type of generator only


(self-excitation type) has been discussed in detail.
Induction Generator; Self-Excitation; Stand-Alone.

3. PRINCIPLE OF WORKING OF THE


1. INTRODUCTION
SELF-EXCITATION TYPE
With the advancement of technology, a need is
When an Induction motor is running under steady
always felt to have as much simplification as is
state condition, an e.m.f. (E) exists across its stator
possible but with high reliability of operation.
winding. Now, if the speed of motor is maintained
Induction Generator is one such category of machine,
through a prime mover and supply to induction
which is most simple in its construction, as well as
motor is switched off, simultaneously connecting it
in operation. As the name implies, the Induction
across a capacitor bank, there is a flow of excitation
Generator has a squirrel cage rotor. This obviates
current in the stator winding as per the load line of
brush gear assembly, brushless excitation system or
capacitor (Fig. 1). This current produces rotating
permanent magnet etc. as is necessary for other kind
flux, which, in turn, induces e.m.f. in the stator
of generators. For excitation of the induction
winding. Under steady state conditions, the e.m.f.
generator, a capacitor bank is used across the stator
induced in the winding has a magnitude and
terminals. The main advantage of such generators is
direction the same as that of the original e.m.f.(E).
simple construction, low cost and high reliability.
Thus, the voltage E continues to be sustained.

2. TYPES OF SQUIRREL CAGE


INDUCTION GENERATOR 4. PHENOMENON OF SELF-
EXCITATION
These are of two types:
(i) In the first type, when a squirrel cage motor The most important condition for self-excitation to
is run above its synchronous speed, it starts take place is that there should be presence of residual

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 20


load line of capacitance is tangent to the critical
slope and, thus, self-excitation does not take place.

This phenomenon can be observed in a laboratory


also by connecting three-phase supply to an Induction
machine driven by a prime mover, At the rated
speed, when the supply to the motor is switched off
and simultaneously a capacitor bank is connected
across it, a steady state voltage is generated at the
motor terminals.

The value of capacitance in the capacitor bank


FIG. 1 : LOAD LINE OF CAPACITANCE CUTTING should neither be too low nor too high. If the value
THE MAGNETISING CURVE
of capacitance is too low, self-excitation will not take
place. If the value of capacitance is too high, there
flux in the rotor. When a capacitor bank is connected
will be inadequate build-up of steady state voltage
across the stator winding after switching off its
due to saturation of flux paths. Hence, there is a
supply, capacitive current flows in the stator winding.
need to use optimum size of capacitor for proper
Then the flux produced by this current aids the
build-up of voltage and also for keeping the cost of
residual flux. The increase in flux increases the
capacitor bank low.
induced e.m.f. in the winding and this cycle continues
till there is saturation. Under this condition, the
steady state e.m.f. is given by the intersection of the 5. CONFIGURATIONS OF STATOR
magnetizing curve of motor with the capacitive load WINDING AND CAPACITOR BANK
line. If the residual flux in the rotor is not sufficient,
the self-excitation fails to occur and therefore, the There are various configurations of stator winding
voltage at the terminals does not build up. and capacitor bank, which are possible for the
purpose of self-excitation, e.g.:
The slope of the motor magnetizing curve is called
the critical slope. The size of the capacitors in the (i) Star-connected stator winding and Star-
capacitor bank is chosen in such a way that its connected capacitor bank (Fig. 3)
capacitive reactance is less than the critical slope of (ii) Star-connected stator winding and Delta-
the magnetizing curve, otherwise self-excitation will connected capacitor bank.(Fig. 4)
not take place. Figure-2 shows the case in which the

STAR-CONNECTED STAR-CONNECTED
FIG. 2 : LOAD LINE OF CAPACITANCE TANGENT STATOR WINDING CAPACITOR BANK
TO THE MAGNETISING CURVE FIG. 3

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 21


In all the above four cases, whenever the capacitors
are connected in Delta, the value of capacitance
required in each phase reduces to one third of its
corresponding value in Star, but the Peak Inverse
Voltage (PIV) of the capacitors required becomes √3
times its corresponding value in Star connected
capacitor bank. As far as performance of the Induction
Generator is concerned, both Star and Delta
connected capacitor banks are equivalent for a given
connection of stator winding, and give the same
STAR-CONNECTED DELTA-CONNECTED performance.
STATOR WINDING CAPACITOR BANK
FIG. 4

6. INDUCTION GENERATOR ON
(iii) Delta-connected stator winding and Star- LOAD (Fig. 7)
connected capacitor bank (Fig. 5)
Under no-load condition, since only the magnetizing
(iv) Delta-connected stator winding and Delta- current is flowing through stator winding, voltage
connected capacitor bank (Fig. 6) drop in stator winding is very small, and therefore
the voltage at the generator terminals is almost equal
to the induced e.m.f. in stator winding.

When the Induction Generator is connected to a


pure resistive load and current flows through stator
winding, there is a voltage drop in the stator
winding, which is usually less than 5% of the
induced e.m.f. Now, if the load current is increased
further, then at a certain point, where the critical
slope of magnetizing curve coincides with the load
line of capacitor, the Induction Generator stops

DELTA-CONNECTED STAR-CONNECTED
STATOR WINDING CAPACITOR BANK
FIG. 5

DELTA-CONNECTED DELTA-CONNECTED
STATOR WINDING CAPACITOR BANK
FIG. 6 FIG. 7 : GENERATOR WITH LOAD

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 22


generating any voltage. Thus, in an Induction To calculate the capacitance under full-load condition,
Generator with a resistive load, there is no possibility the following procedure may be adopted:
of overheating of the Induction Generator due to
over-load / over-current. There will be a voltage drop of approx. 5% in
terminal voltage due to resistive load. Inductive load
When there is an inductive load put across the current will have to be provided by capacitance.
generator, a part of the capacitive current due to Hence, load line of capacitance with inductive load
capacitor bank will get neutralized by the inductive is drawn accordingly, as shown in Fig. 8. From this,
load current. Thus, the magnetizing current available back calculate the value of capacitance required
to the generator will get reduced. Therefore, more under full-load condition.
capacitance will be required to be added in the
Generators of this type are best suited for resistive
capacitor bank for maintaining the terminal voltage
loads.
of the Induction Generator.

8. CIRCUIT TO ENSURE SELF-


7. DETERMINATION OF CAPACI- EXCITATION
TANCE VALUE
Due to any reason, if there is no residual flux in the
The following procedure can be adopted for motor, the process of self-excitation can be initiated
determining the value of capacitance required in the by connecting a battery momentarily across one of
capacitor bank under no-load condition - the capacitors of the capacitor bank (Fig. 9). With
this, the capacitor bank gets charged and when it
Draw the no-load characteristic of Induction Motor. discharges through the stator winding, a flux is
Calculate the critical slope of the magnetizing produced in the rotor of Induction Machine.
current (Fig. 8). Draw a load line of capacitors
having a slope less than the critical slope of
magnetizing current. From this, back calculate the
value of capacitance required under no-load
condition.

FIG. 9 : SELF-EXCITATION WITH THE AID OF BATTERY

9. VOLTAGE REGULATION
Though in the above paragraphs, it has been
presumed that at rated voltage the rotor core gets
fully saturated, but practically the core is never
saturated fully and thus, it would always result in
large variation of the terminal voltage with respect
FIG. 8 : DETERMINATION OF CAPACITANCE VALUE to load current. This problem of drop in voltage

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 23


with load can be overcome in the following two load line of generator under fully-loaded
ways: condition. In this case, while starting, the
generator operation must be started with
(i) Manual Voltage Regulator lower value of capacitance across the terminals.
In this case, the variable capacitors are used
(ii) Automatic Voltage Regulator
in the capacitor bank in place of fixed
capacitors. By manually varying the In this case, there is a main capacitor bank,
capacitance with respect to load, the terminal which is used for no-load operation of the
voltage can be maintained. While selecting generator. Then, a provision is kept for
the range for the variable capacitor, it should adding another capacitor bank in parallel to
be ensured that the lower value of capacitance the first one when there is a dip in voltage
corresponds to load line of generator under at the terminals. Connection of another
no-load condition, and that the higher value capacitor bank in parallel is achieved through
of capacitance in the range corresponds to an electronic circuit (Fig.10).

FIG. 10 : AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE REGULATION OF INDUCTION GENERATOR

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 24


10. CONCLUSION Bibliography

The Induction Machine when operated as a Generator 1. S.S. Murthy, C.S. Jha and P.S. Nagendrarao,
always requires its excitation from outside. Either it "Analysis of grid connected induction generators
remains connected to the supply if it is to feed power driven by hydro/wind turbine under realistic
to grid or its excitation can be provided through a system constraints," in IEEE Trans. Energy
capacitor bank if it is feeding power to a stand-alone Conversion, vol. 5, pp. 1-7, Mar. 1990.
system. In stand-alone system like wind mill installed 2. L. Shridhar, B. Singh, C.S. Jha and B.P.
in a remote area having no grid power supply, there Singh, "Analysis of self-excited induction
are various options available for providing the generator feeding induction motor," in IEEE
necessary excitation to Induction Generator and also Power Eng. Soc., Summer Meetings, 1994, pp.
for maintaining a constant terminal voltage at 1-7.
different loads.
3. L. Shridhar, B.Singh, C.S. Jha, B.P. Singh and
S.S. Murthy, "Selection of capacitors for the self
Acknowledgement regulated short shunt self-excited induction
generator," in IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion,
The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to vol. 10, pp. 10-17, Mar. 1995.
Sh S.K. Goyal, GGM, Corp. R & D, BHEL,
Hyderabad, for his continuous encouragement and 4. S.P. Singh, Sanjay K. Jain and J. Sharma,
guidance in writing this paper. Thanks are also due "Voltage regulation optimization of compensated
to Sh M.S. Dhami, AGM (EME) & Sh S.C. Goel, self-excited induction generator with dynamic
SDGM (MM) for their support and help in load," in IEEE Trans. Energy Conversion, vol.
completing this paper. 19, pp. 724-732, Dec. 2004.

he has been involved in the electrical & mechanical


design of various capacities of tailor-made AC
motors for Thermal Power Station, Irrigation,
Cement, Petrochemical and other Industries. He
has also undertaken retrofit jobs to develop complete
design of AC motors to replace non-BHEL-make
AC motors for various customers. At present, he is
working as Deputy General Manager in Electrical
Mr. P.K. Khanna graduated in Electrical Machines Engineering at Haridwar and is involved
Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, in design and development of 300 MVA TARI Air
New Delhi, in the year 1979. Cooled Generator.

Mr. Khanna joined BHEL, Haridwar, as an Engineer Prior to this paper, Mr. Khanna has contributed
Trainee in 1979 and was posted in AC Machines one technical paper in an International Conference
Engineering Department. For more than 24 years, held at IIT, Roorkee, recently.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 25


TURBOGENERATOR INDUCED VOLTAGE WAVEFORM
COMPUTATION AND TELEPHONE HARMONIC
CAPABILITY PREDICTION

C. Prem Kumar

SYNOPSIS the air gap. Therefore, only a sinusoidal wave of the


airgap flux density can result in a sine-wave induced
The Finite Element method has enabled accurate voltage. Several factors such as rotor saturation,
estimation of the magnetic field in electrical machines shape of the rotor core and the style of field coil
and devices. The approach has therefore made possible disposition render realisation of a sinusoidal airgap
the accurate estimation of the various flux-related flux wave impossible.
parameters — the induced voltage magnitude being one
among them. Though the machine characteristic curve This article details an approach to the evaluation of
or the open-circuit characteristic is readily deducible, induced voltage waveform in a turbogenerator,
the induced voltage waveform, however, is not. This quantification of harmonic voltage magnitudes and
paper presents details of a method for the computation computation of Telephone Harmonic capability of
of turbogenerator induced voltage waveform, its harmonic the machine — all at design stage.
content and machine Telephone Harmonic Factor or the
Telephone Interference Factor — all at design stage.
2. FE ANALYSIS
Of the several approaches propagated, the FE method
Key Words: has found increasing acceptance from industry. The
formulation of the FEM and its application to
Voltage Waveform; Harmonics; Synchronous
magnetic field analysis has been adequately detailed
Machines; Telephone Harmonic Capability.
elsewhere[1 to 8]. The FE approach is the cheapest,
fastest and certainly the surest way to the prediction
1. INTRODUCTION of machine parameters at design stage. The field
solution is only the first step in the analysis process.
Accurate evaluation of the magnetic field distributions More important and relevant in industry are the
in electrical machines has been made possible by the machine parameters derivable from the field solutions.
Finite Element method. Magnetic field-related The availability of affordable desk-top computing
machine parameters such as inductances, induced power and the arrival of powerful menu-driven
voltage magnitudes & waveforms, useful & stray software have largely contributed to the acceptance
fluxes, leakage co-efficients, induction-related losses, of such methods in design offices[1,2].
saturation effects etc, in turn, stand accurately
evaluated. Though the open-circuit characteristic is
2.1 Turbogenerator Magnetic Field at No-
readily deducible from the magnetic field mapping,
load
the induced voltage waveform, however, is not. The
time variation of the induced e.m.f in a conductor Prediction of the induced voltage waveform in a
of the stator in a synchronous machine has the same turbogenerator necessitates estimation of the no-load
form as the space distribution of the flux density in magnetic field distribution in the machine. At no-

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 26


load, the singly excited magnetic circuit of the 3. AIR-GAP INDUCTION PROFILE
turbogenerator presents a picture of symmetry both
along the direct and quadrature axis. A symmetric The airgap flux density profile can be extracted from
quarter region of the machine cross-section extending the flux density plot by mapping the flux density on
from the direct axis to the adjacent quadrature axis is to an arc at the mean radius of the machine airgap.
sufficient to evaluate the no-load parameters of a two- Figure-3 shows the radial component and the flux
pole turbogenerator. However, in the case of density magnitude mapped along a mean airgap line
hydrogenerators, the region for analysis must also of the machine. As can be seen from the graph, the
ensure symmetry of the stator slots. Figure-1 shows the normal component of the flux density is equal to the
flux distribution in a symmetric quarter section of a magnitude of the flux density for a large portion of
two-pole turbogenerator. The corresponding flux the curve except at the quadrature axis where the
density distribution is shown in Fig. 2. tangential component contributes significantly to
the flux density magnitude. Of the two components
of the airgap flux density, only the radial component
contributes to the induced stator voltage while the
peripheral component does not. In reality, the radial
component of the airgap induction is very nearly
equal to the total induction at every point in the
airgap of the machine.

FIG. 1 : FLUX DISTRIBUTION AT NO-LOAD

FIG. 3 : AIRGAP FLUX DENSITY PROFILE AT NO-LOAD

3.1 Evaluating the Voltage Inducing Flux

The useful flux is defined as the flux linking the


stator winding and causing the induced voltage. This
flux is lesser than the total flux by the amount of
leakage flux. The useful flux in a turbogenerator can
be arrived at by integrating the radial component of
the airgap induction along the afore-mentioned
FIG. 2 : FLUX DENSITY DISTRIBUTION AT NO-LOAD airgap line.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 27


The expression for the useful flux per pole is given Non-sinusoidal airgap inductions such as the one
by - shown in Fig.3 can be resolved into a fundamental
and higher-order components using Fourier Analysis.
ϕu = {∫Β.dl}*LI*Sf*Mf (wb) (1) The symmetric airgap flux density wave results in
the cancellation of even harmonics, leaving a space
where distribution comprising a fundamental and harmonics
ϕu is the useful flux per pole in webers which are odd multiples of the fundamental
B is the radial component of the airgap [9,10,11]-
induction in Tesla
B = B1sin(θ) + B3sin(3θ) + B5sin(5θ) + …. …. +
LI is the nett length of iron in meters Bnsin(nθ) (3)
Sf is the stacking factor(typically around 0.94)
where B1 is the fundamental component of the
Mf is the model factor airgap flux density and B3, B5 etc. are the third
harmonic and fifth harmonic components respectively.
Typical harmonic spectrum of the airgap induction
4. INDUCED E.M.F COMPUTATION
for a turbogenerator is shown in Fig. 4.
The induced phase voltage in a 3-phase synchronous The decomposed representation of the airgap flux
machine can readily be arrived at from the useful density distribution enables consideration of the
flux per pole computed earlier, together with certain machine as having 2p pairs of fundamental
stator winding details. poles(fictitious), 6p pairs of poles contributing to
third harmonic, 10p pairs of poles contributing to
The induced e.m.f per phase is given by [9,13,14]-
fifth harmonic component and, in general, 2np poles
Eph = 4.44*kd*kp*f*Tph*[ϕu] (Volts) (2) contributing to the nth harmonic component of the
field form. The fundamental as well as the harmonic
where pole fluxes generate e.m.fs of corresponding frequency
in the conductors, but the proportion of harmonics
kd is the stator winding distribution factor
in the phase and line e.m.f waveform is reduced due
kp is the stator winding pitch factor to grouping and factors related to the stator winding
f is the frequency in Hertz disposition.
Tph is the number of series turns per phase of the
stator winding
ϕu is the useful flux per pole in webers.

5. HARMONIC ANALYSIS

The time variation of the induced e.m.f in a


conductor of the stator winding in a turbogenerator
has the same form as the space distribution of the
flux density in the airgap. Therefore, only a sinusoidal
wave of the airgap flux density can result in a sine-
wave induced voltage. Several factors such as rotor
saturation, shape of the rotor core and the style of
field coil disposition render realisation of a sinusoidal
airgap flux wave impossible. FIG. 4 : AIRGAP INDUCTION HARMONIC SPECTRUM

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 28


6. INDUCED VOLTAGE WAVEFORM and
σ = phase-belt angular width in elec. radian
The r.m.s induced voltage per phase due to the nth
α = coil-pitch in elec. radian
harmonic component of the flux density is given by
[9,11,13,14,15] - Bn r.m.s = r.m.s value of the nth harmonic flux
density
Eph n = 4.44 kdn kpn fn φn Tph (Volts) (4) Li = active length of iron
τ = pole-pitch in air-gap
where
Eph n = r.m.s induced phase voltage due to the nth The magnitude of the induced r.m.s voltage due to
harmonic each of the harmonics can be evaluated using the
kdn = sin(nσ/2) / (nσ/2) is the distribution above expression.
factor for nth harmonic
The variation in time of the fundamental, harmonic
kpn = sin(nσ/2) is the pitch factor for nth
and cumulative voltage computed using the procedure
harmonic
described above is shown in Fig. 5 for a synchronous
fn = nth harmonic frequency generator whose line-to-line voltage is 11kV.
φn = (Bn r.m.s*Li* τ/n) is the nth harmonic flux
n = harmonic number And finally, the r.m.s value of the resultant phase
Tph = number of series turns per phase voltage is given by [11,12,13] -

FIG. 5 : TYPICAL COMPUTED HARMONIC VOLTAGE PROFILES FOR A 11kV GENERATOR

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 29


Eph = √[(Eph 1)2 + (Eph 3)2 + (Eph 5)2 + … +(Eph n)2] where
En is the r.m.s value of the nth harmonic of the
(Volts)… (5)
line-to-line terminal voltage
Eph = Eph 1*√[1 + (Eph 3 / Eph 1)2 + … +(Eph n/Eph 1)2] U is the r.m.s value of the line-to-line terminal
(Volts)… (5.a) voltage of the machine
λ is the weighting factor for frequency
The value in the radical is very nearly unity, leading corresponding to nth harmonic
to the phase voltage being equal to fundamental
alone since the harmonic magnitudes are small in
comparison to the fundamental. 8. "WAVE"—THE SPREAD-SHEET
CODE
The procedures detailed in the article have been
7. TELEPHONE HARMONIC FACTOR
coded into a design office utility package by name
Telephone/Communication lines running parallel to "WAVE". Exclusively developed for synchronous
power grid lines can experience severe interference machines, the Microsoft Excel spread-sheet utility
by induction, resulting in hum and high pitch noise code computes and displays graphically the
because of the presence of harmful frequencies in the information on harmonic voltage magnitudes/
grid. It is, therefore, necessary to limit the harmonic waveforms, cumulative voltage waveform and machine
content in the output voltage waveform of every Telephone Harmonic Factor (THF) for each harmonic
generator likely to be connected to the grid. and cumulative value up to the 100th harmonic.
The program has built-in logic to account for triplen
The IEC test procedure and recommendations on harmonics and even harmonics from the computed
the tolerable limits of telephone harmonic factor values for line and phase quantities.
(THF) for synchronous machines is reproduced The code is structured in two levels and spread over
below - 12 sheets and can be tailored to suit individual
design office requirements. An overview of the code
8.9.2 Limits : When tested on open circuit and at rated
follows :
speed and voltage, the telephone harmonic factor(THF)
of the line-to-line terminal voltage as measured according The Machine ID Section of the utility is an
to the methods laid down in 8.9.3 shall not exceed the identifier section for design office documentation/
following values: records and contains information on customer name,
order number and machine nominal rating particulars.
Rated output of the machine % THF The program uses colour coding to distinguish
unlocked input cells from locked coded cells.
300kW(orKVA)< PN < 1000kW(orkVA) 5.0%
1000kW(orKVA)< PN < 5000kW(orkVA) 3.0% The Inputs Section seeks machine dimensional
information such as gross length, number of radial
5000kW(orKVA)< PN 1.5% ventilating ducts & their width, rotor diameter,
stator inner diameter, coil-throw, bars per slot etc.
The section 8.9.3 of IEC details the tests and the These input details are made use of in the
approach to be adopted for the measurement of computation through formulae embedded in the
synchronous machine THF. The THF capability of cells (Fig. 6).
a machine is given by -
The Computation Section uses the input data to
THF(%) = 100.√(E12.λ2+E22.λ2+E32.λ2+…… En2.λ2) compute harmonic winding factors, pole-pitch value
U for each harmonic, harmonic flux magnitudes,

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 30


FIG. 6 : THE INPUTS SHEET IN "WAVE"—SPREAD-SHEET UTILITY

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 31


induced phase e.m.f due to each harmonic etc for provided together with a zoom of significant
the fundamental and harmonics up to the 100th. The harmonics. The IEC:1996 recommendations on the
program can detect and display the type of winding weighting factor for various frequencies to be used
employed. The program can tackle both integral-slot for the computation of Telephone Harmonic Factor
and fractional-slot chorded winding which are very (THF) have been built into the program. The airgap
common with practical synchronous machines with flux density harmonic magnitudes are used to
two-pole cylindrical rotor constructions and multiple reconstruct and compare with the original airgap
salient-pole low-speed hydrogenerators. induction curve.

The THF Section uses the embedded harmonic


weighting factors to compute the individual and 9. CONCLUSION
cumulative THF due to each harmonic up to
predefined significant harmonic. This section also The Finite Element approach has been used for the
generates a plot of the %THF versus harmonic accurate estimation of the magnetic field in a
number, as shown in Fig. 7. turbogenerator at no-load. Harmonic components of
the airgap induction computed from the airgap
Other Features : Graphical comparison of the induction profile have been used to arrive at the
relative magnitudes of fundamental and significant harmonic voltage magnitudes and the cumulative
harmonics (up to13th) and its variation in time are induced voltage waveform using a code specifically

FIG. 7 : THF CONTRIBUTION FROM INDIVIDUAL HARMONICS AND CUMULATIVE VARIATION WITH INCREASING HARMONIC NUMBER

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 32


developed. The analysis indicates that for a "n" slot Electromagnetic Devices", IEEE Trans. on
machine, the (n-1)th harmonic and the (n+1)th Magnetics, Vol. MAG-12, No.5, Sept1976,
harmonic are predominant[11]. The Telephone pp.575 to 578.
Harmonic Factor or the Telephone Interference
Factor have been computed for the machine analysed. (7) Mulukutla S.Sarma, "Magnetostatic Field
The harmonic levels of the airgap induction are Computation by Finite Element Formulation",
dictated by the airgap induction profile which, in IEEE. Trans. on Magnetics, Vol.MAG-12, No.6,
turn, reflects the radial airgap permeance presented Nov1976, pp1050 to 1052.
by the magnetic boundaries constituted by the stator
and rotor iron. A separate study investigating the (8) J.R. Brauer, E.A. Aronson et al,"Three
dependance of THF on saturation in the machine Dimensional Finite Element Calculation of
is under way. Saturable Magnetic Fluxes and Torques of an
Actuator", IEEE. Trans. on Magnetics,
Vol.MAG-24, No.1, January 1988, pp455 to
References 458.

(1) M.V.K. Chari, P.Silvester, "Analysis of (9) M.G. Say, "The Performance and Design of
Turboalternator Magnetic Fields by Finite Alternating Current Machines", Sir Isaac
Elements", IEEE Trans. on PAS, Vol-PAS-90, Pitman & Sons, London.
No:2, March-April 1971, pp.454 to 464.
(10) Ralph R.Lawrence & Henry E. Richards,
(2) M.V.K. Chari "Finite Element Analysis of "Principles of Alternating Current Machinery",
Electrical Machinery and Devices", IEEE Trans. McGraw-Hill Book Company, USA.
on Magnetics, Vol.MAG-16, No.5, Sept.1980,
pp. 1014 to 1019. (11) Alexander S. Langsdorf, "Theory of Alternating-
Current Machinery", McGraw-Hill Book
(3) M.V.K. Chari, "Nonlinear Finite Element Company, USA.
Solution of Electrical Machines Under No-load
and Full-Load Conditions", pp.686 to 689. (12) Robert L.Ames, "A.C. Generators: Design and
Application",John Wiley & Sons, USA.
(4) P.Silvester and M.V.K. Chari, "Finite Element
solution of Saturable Magnetic Field Problems", (13) Mulukutla S. Sarma, "Synchronous Machines
IEEE. Trans. on PAS, Vol.PAS-89, No.7, Sept- - Their Theory, Stability and Excitation
Oct 1970, pp.1642 to 1651. Systems", Gordon & Breach Science Publishers,
New York.
(5) P. Silvester, H.S. Cabayan and B.T. Browne,
"Efficient Techniques for Finite Element analysis (14) Essam S. Hamdi, "Design of Small Electrical
of Electric Machines", IEEE Trans. on PAS, Machines", John Wiley & Sons, USA.
Vol.PAS-92 1971,pp.1274 to 1281.
(15) Brian Chalmers & Alan Williamson, "A.C.
(6) Parviz Rafinejad et al,"Finite Element Machines - Electromagnetics and Design", John
Computer Programs in Design of Wiley & Sons Inc, USA.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 33


R&D Division, Hyderabad, after a brief stint with
M/s Oblum Electrical Industries, Hyderabad.
Currently, he is working at the Electrical Machines
Lab in the R&D Complex, as Senior Deputy
General Manager. He specializes in the modelling
and analysis of large rotating electrical machines
using the Finite Element approach.

Mr. C. Prem Kumar obtained his Engineering Mr. Prem Kumar has several papers to his credit,
degree from Bangalore University in the year published & presented in national & international
1975. forums.

Mr. Prem Kumar joined BHEL at the Corporate

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 34


EFFECT OF PRELOAD FACTOR AND WORN DEPTH ON
THE DYNAMIC COEFFICIENTS AND STABILITY OF A
LOADING ARC (WORN) TWO-LOBE BEARING USED
IN TURBO-GENERATOR

K. Dargaiah and P. Kamalam

SYNOPSIS depths (Aδo) = 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2, which are of practical
importance in the design of turbo-generator bearing.
This paper is the extension of an earlier paper published The results presented in this paper helps the designer in
in BHEL Journal, (Vol. 26 No.1 February 2005), selecting a suitable combination of preload factor and
wherein it was concluded that the load capacity of a worn depth in order to obtain the desired bearing
loading arc (worn) two-lobe bearing used in turbo- performance in terms of Sommerfeld number (1/load
generator is found higher and that the stability zone is capacity), dynamic coefficients and stability. The bearing
limited when compared to a normal two-lobe bearing dynamic coefficients are useful for rotor dynamic
without loading arc (δo=0.0) used in steam turbine. In analysis.
the present paper, the stability (whirl onset/threshold
speed) of a worn two-lobe bearing L/D=0.82 of
Siemens design used in turbo-generator was studied at Key Words:
different preload factors and worn depths. Bearing
performance data was obtained at preload factors Two-lobe Bearing; Loading Arc (worn region); Wear
(delta) = 0.5, 0.6 and 0.75 and non-dimensional worn Depth (wear dent); Whirl Onset (Threshold) Speed.

NOMENCLATURE
Ch = side clearance (m) or Cp = pad radial clearance
Cv = top clearance/2 (m) or Cb = bearing radial clearance
D = bearing diameter (m)
Delta = Pre load factor = (Ch-Cv)/Ch
e = eccentricity (m)
g = gravitational constant (m/sec2)
h = film thickness (m)
L = bearing length (m)
N = rotating speed (rps)
R = D/2 (m)
W = load on the bearing (N)
punit = W/LD, unit pressure on the bearing (Mpa)
ω = Angular speed of journal (rad/sec)

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 35


ε = eccentricity ratio (e/Ch)
δ = wear depth (mm)
δo = maximum wear depth (mm)
μ = lubricant viscosity (N sec/m2)
Kij, where i=x,y & j=x,y = stiffness coefficients (N/m)
Cij, where i=x,y & j=x,y = damping coefficients (N sec/m)

Non-dimensional quantities:
S = Sommerfeld number = (μNLD/W)(R/Ch)2
Aδo = non-dimensional maximum wear depth = δo/Ch
γ = non-dimensional whirl onset (threshold) speed = ω(Ch/g)1/2
AKij…, = non-dimensional stiffness coefficients = Kij (Ch/W)
ACij…, = non-dimensional damping coefficients = Cij (Chω/W)

1. INTRODUCTION used in steam turbine. The loading arc of a two-


lobe bearing is similar to lemon type bearing
Loading arc (worn) two-lobe journal bearings are with a cylindrical surface 60 deg. arc machined
used in supporting the heavy rotors of turbo- at the bottom half of the bearing (Fig.1). The
generators. These bearings are originally designed maximum depth (wear depth) of a loading arc is
by Siemens. Load per unit area on this type of also a critical parameter in addition to preload
bearing is high (around 2.5 MPa) when compared factor, which affects the bearing performance
to a normal two-lobe bearing without loading arc considerably.

FIG. 1 : NOMENCLATURE OF A LOADING ARC (WORN) TWO-LOBE BEARING

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 36


Dufrane et al [1] have established wear profile where the worn profile [1] is governed by:
models from actual measured data and modified
the film thickness equation as a function of wear Aδ(θ) = Aδo - (1 + cos θ)Aδ > 0
depth (Fig.1). Hashimoto et al [2,3] studied the = 0, otherwise (4)
steady state and dynamic characteristics of worn
cylindrical journal bearing (L/D=1) in both laminar Equation (1) is solved for p (pressure) by finite
and turbulent regimes. They concluded that the element method (FEM) with Reynolds boundary
threshold speed (whirl onset) for worn journal conditions for non-worn and worn region [7]. Two
bearing ofAδo < 0.3 is lower, and that forAδo > 0.3 components of oil film force, Fx and Fy, are
is higher, than that of non-worn bearing. Tanaka obtained by integrating the calculated pressure
and Hori [4] and Tanaka and Suzuki [5] made distribution. The equilibrium position of the journal
theoretical and experimental studies respectively on centre is obtained by making Fx = 0 by changing the
a lightly loaded high-speed two-lobe journal bearing attitude angle. The load capacity of the bearing is Fy
with wear dent, and concluded that the linear at the equilibrium position. S, Sommerfeld number,
stability is found to worsen drastically due to wear is 1/Fy. The steady state performance characteristics,
dent. The authors of this paper earlier presented [6] like oil flow rate, power loss, temperature-rise and
the analysis and performance data of a heavily minimum oil film thickness, is obtained at
loaded worn two-lobe bearing (L/D=0.82, preload equilibrium position for different eccentricity ratios.
factor = 0.673) at different non-dimensional wear Stiffness and damping coefficients are obtained using
depths from 0.0 to 0.2. In the present paper, the the method given by Shang and Dien [6]. This
bearing non-dimensional data, which include steady method helps to obtain eight dynamic coefficients
state, dynamic coefficients and whirl onset by solving Reynolds equation only once. In the
(threshold) speed of a rigid rotor, is presented in present paper, the finite element method used is the
graphical form at different wear depths from 0 to same as in [7]. Four stiffness and four damping
0.2. Effect of preload factor and wear depth on the coefficients are used for computing the whirl onset
bearing performance is discussed. This paper is the (threshold) speed. Routh-Hurwitz criterion was used
extension of an earlier work [6] and it helps the for stability analysis assuming a rigid rotor supported
designer in selecting a suitable combination of on two identical symmetrically aligned bearing [3].
preload factor and worn depth in order to obtain In the present paper, the non-dimensional results of
the desired bearing performance in terms of four stiffness and four damping coefficients and
Sommerfeld number (1/load capacity), dynamic threshold speed are presented as a function of
coefficients and stability. Sommerfeld number at different preload factors and
worn depths.

2. HYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The non-dimensional hydrodynamic equation for
Figures 2-4 show the variation of oil film stiffness
bearing lubrication [7] is given by:
coefficients (AKii) at worn depths (Aδo=0.0-0.2) and
∂/∂θ (Ah≥∂Ap/∂θ) + r"∂/∂z (Ah≥∂Ap/∂z) preload factors (delta) 0.5, 0.6 and 0,75 with
= -3ε sin θ + 6 (Au sin α1 +Av cos α1) (1) Sommerfeld number (S). It can be seen from the
graph thatAKyy i.e. vertical stiffness is increasing
Film thickness equation is given by: with increase in delta at all S. However, these
coefficients are non-linear w.r.t S. AKxx, i.e. horizontal
Ah(θ) = 1+ε cosθ, for non-worn region (2) stiffness, is decreasing with increase in delta at all
S for non-worn bearing (Aδo=0.0), whereas for other
Ah(θ) =1+εcosθ +Aδ(θ), for worn region (3) worn bearings (δo=0.1 and 0.2), it is slightly

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 37


FIG. 2 : VARIATION OF STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kii) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.0
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 3 : VARIATION OF STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kii) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.1
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 4 : VARIATION OF STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kii) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.2
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 38


increasing. Figures 5-7 show the variation of the Siemens design, and the following conclusions are
cross stiffness coefficients (AKij) at worn depths drawn.
(Aδo=0.0-0.2) and preload factors (delta) 0.5, 0.6
and 0.75 with Sommerfeld number (S). It is I. Preload Factor:
observed that these coefficients are non-linear. AKxy
Stiffness coefficients: Vertical oil film stiffness (AKyy)
is negative for all values of S for worn bearings and
is increasing and horizontal oil film stiffness (AKxx)
some values of S for non-worn bearing. Figures 8-
is decreasing with increase in preload factor for non-
10 show the variation of damping coefficients (ACij)
worn bearing (Aδo=0.0), whereas vertical stiffness is
with Sommerfeld number (S), at worn depths
increasing at higher rate than horizontal stiffness for
(Aδo=0.0-0.2) and preload factors (delta) 0.5, 0,6
worn bearings (Aδo=0.1and 0.2) at all Sommerfeld
and 0.75. It can be seen from the graphs that ACxx
numbers. Cross stiffness coefficients (AKyx) is
and ACyy are increasing with increase in delta, and
increasing and (AKxy) is decreasing with increase in
cross damping coefficients (ACxy=ACyx) are found
delta at all values of S. These coefficients are non-
to be negative after certain value of S, and damping
linear.
coefficients are also higly non-linear. Figures 11-
13 show the whirl onset (threshold) speed (γ) with Damping coefficients: Vertical (ACyy) and horizontal
S at preload factors (0.5, 0.6 and 0.75) and worn (ACxx) damping coefficients are increasing and cross
depths (0.0-0.2). For non-worn bearing (Fig. 11), damping coefficients (ACxy=ACyx) are decreasing
the bearing is always stable at delta=0.5 from with increase in delta at all values of S and they are
S=0.0217 to 0.3586, at delta=0.6 from S=0.05309 non-linear.
to 0.2556, and at delta=0.75 from S=0.0345 to
0.1369. It can be observed from results that stability Whirl onset (threshold) speed (γγ): Stability parameter
parameter is decreasing with increase in preload is decreasing with increase in preload factor for non-
factor for non-worn bearing (Aδo=0.0). Similar worn and worn bearings (Aδo=0.0 to 0.2), Similar
trends can be seen for worn bearings (Figs. 12-13) trends can be seen for worn bearings (Figs. 12-13)
with different stable regions of operation. with different stable regions of operation.

II. Worn Depth: Stability range of Sommerfeld


4. CONCLUSIONS numbers for different preload factors and
worn depths is given in Table-1.
A theoretical study has been carried out at different
preload factors (0.5,0.6 and 0.75) and worn depths The above Table is very useful for checking the
(0.0, 0.1, and 0.2) on the loading arc (worn) two- stability of existing bearing and for designing a new
lobe bearing (L/D =0.82)used in turbo generator of bearing of L/D = 0.82, heavily loaded TG bearings.

TABLE-I : STABILITY RANGE OF SOMMERFELD NUMBERS

Preload Factors (delta)

δo)
Worn Depth (Aδ 0.5 0.6 0.75

0.00 0.0217 - 0.3586 0.0531 - 0.2556 0.0345 - 0.1369


0.10 0.0215 - 0.1526 0.0181 - 0.1291 0.0173 - 0.0373
0.20 0.0663 - 0.1494 0.0452 - 0.1204 0.0199 - 0.0798

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 39


FIG. 5 : VARIATION OF CROSS STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.0
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 6 : VARIATION OF CROSS STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.1
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 7 : VARIATION OF CROSS STIFFNESS COEFFICIENT (Kij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.2
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 40


FIG. 8 : VARIATION OF DAMPING COEFFICIENT (Cij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.0
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 9 : VARIATION OF DAMPING COEFFICIENT (Cij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.1
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 10 : VARIATION OF DAMPING COEFFICIENT (Cij) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT PRELOAD
δo=0.2
FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 41


FIG. 11 : VARIATION OF THRESHOLD SPEED (WHIRL ONSET) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.00
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 12 : VARIATION OF THRESHOLD SPEED (WHIRL ONSET) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.1
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

FIG. 13 : VARIATION OF THRESHOLD SPEED (WHIRL ONSET) WITH SOMMERFELD NUMBER(S) AT DIFFERENT
δo=0.2
PRELOAD FACTORS (DELTA) FOR L/D = 0.82,Aδ

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 42


The designer should select an optimum wear depth Regimes. Part II: Dynamic Characteristics",
and preload factor which should satisfy both load- ASLE Vol. 29,1986, 4, 572-577.
carrying capacity (1/S) and stability limit speed
while designing a loading arc two-lobe journal 4. Tanaka, M., and Hori, Y., "Stability
bearing. The results i.e., steady state, dynamic Characteristics of Worn Journal Bearings",
coefficients and threshold speed data, presented in Proc. 3rd IFTOMM Rotor dynamic conference,
this paper, can be used for performance evaluation Lyon,1996,93-97.
of loading arc two-lobe bearing for different load,
speeds and lubricant conditions. Also, the bearing 5. Tanaka, M., and Suzuki, K., "Experimental
dynamic coefficients data can be used for rotor Verification of Stability Characteristics of Two-
dynamic analysis. Lobe Journal Bearings with Surface Wear
Dent", ImechE, 1996, pp. 143-150.

References 6. Dargaiah,K., and Kamalam,P., "Analysis and


Performance Data of a Loading Arc(worn)
1. Dufrane, K.F., Kannel, J.W., and McCloskey, two-lobe bearing used in Turbo-Generator",
T.H., "Wear of Steam Turbine Journal Bearings BHEL journal, vol. 25 No.2, February 2005.
at Low Operating Speeds", ASME Trans.,
Journal of Lubrication Technology, Vol. 105, 7. Shang, L., and Dien, I.K., " A matrix
July 1983, pp. 313-317. Method for Computing the Stiffness and
2. Hashimoto , H., Wada , S.,and Nojima, K., Damping Coefficients of Multi-Arc Journal
"Performance Characteristics of Worn Journal Bearings", STLE Tribology Trans., Vol.32,
Bearings in Both Laminar and Turbulent 1989,pp.397-404
Regimes". Part I: Steady State characteristics",
8. Dargaiah, K., Kamalam, P., and Prabhu, B.S.,
ASLE Trans. Vol. 29,1986, 4, 565-571.
"A Finite Element Method for Computing
3. Hashimoto , H, Wada , S., and Nojima, K., Dynamic Coefficients of Multi-Lobe Journal
"Performance characteristics of Worn Journal Bearings", STLE, Tribology Transactions, Vol.
Bearings in Both Laminar and Turbulent 36,1993, No.1., pp. 73-83.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 43


of BHEL, Hyderabad, in 1977. He was actively
involved in setting up the Tribology Laboratory in
this R&D Complex. He has developed a journal
bearing test rig and carried out a number of
experimental and analytical investigations on
cylindrical, ring-lubricated, multi-lobe and tilting
pad hydrodynamic journal bearings. At present,
he is working as Deputy General Manager in the
Mr. K. Dargaiah graduated in Mechanical Machine Dynamics Laboratory of the R&D
Engineering from the Osmania Engineering Complex.
College, Hyderabad, in 1976, and completed
M.S. from the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Dr. Dargaiah has presented & published a number
University, Hyderabad, in 1984. He obtained his of papers in the area of hydrodynamic journal
Ph.D. degree from IIT-Madras in 1994. bearings, in national as well as international
conferences and journals on Tribology.
Dr. Dargaiah joined the Corporate R&D Division

BHEL, Hyderabad, in 1977. Here, she has been


actively involved in research in the fields of Heat
Transfer, Electro Magnetism and Tribology. She
developed FEM program in the areas of cylindrical,
multi-lobe and tilting pad bearings. She also
developed FEM program in the field of
electromagnetics for transformer. At present, she
is working as Senior Deputy General Manager in
Ms. P. Kamalam did her Post-graduation in Electrical Machines Laboratory of the R&D
Mathematics from the Madras University and Complex.
completed her doctorate from Indian Institute of
Science, Bangalore, in 1975. Dr. Kamalam has presented & published a number
of papers in the area of bearings, in international
Dr. Kamalam joined Corporate R&D Division of conferences and journals on Tribology.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 44


COLLECTION, HANDLING AND TREATMENT OF
LIQUID EFFLUENTS IN THERMAL POWER PLANT

P. Shandilya, S.S. Phogat, G.S. Mahal, S. Balaji and Sudhir Bhartiya

SYNOPSIS Key Words:


Power plants use fuel, air and water inputs and Effluents; Pollution; Emissions; pH Value; Blow-
generate electric power. Liquid, solid and gaseous down; Combined-cycle; Turbidity; Dissolved Solids;
effluents are also generated in the process of power Alkaline; COC; Sludge; Make-up; Thickener;
generation. Centrifuge; HVAC; Back-wash; Zero-discharge;
CCPP; ppm.
Ash is the major solid waste. It is generally pumped to
ash pond, as ash slurry. As per the current pollution
norms, ash is to be 100% utilized and hence disposed 1. INTRODUCTION
of as dry ash.
Thermal power plants can be broadly classified in
Gaseous emissions are SOX, NOX, CO2, and particulate two groups viz. Coal-fired power plants and
matter in the flue gases. These are currently controlled Combined-cycle power plants. Both these types of
by ESP and provision of tall chimneys to meet pollution Power plants use fuel (coal, oil and gas), air and
norms. water inputs, and generate electric power. Lubricating
oil and chemicals are also used in the power plants.
The liquid effluents may contain one or more of the
Solid, gaseous and liquid effluents are generated
contaminants like high suspended solids, oil, high
along with power generation. Ash, produced from
dissolved solids, high residual chlorine, pH value outside
coal combustion, is the major solid waste. It is
the permitted range etc. The acceptable limits of these
handled and disposed of in the Ash handling system.
pollutants are specified by the pollution control
The other solid effluent can be sludge from centrifuge.
authorities.
ESP, APH and chimney design are major provisions
Generation of effluents depends on the input quantities, for handling flue gas (gaseous effluent).
process used and nature of plant operation, which may
This paper deals with the liquid effluents only.
be continuous, intermittent or very infrequent.
Liquid effluents, from power plants, can be classified
The provisions for collection, treatment and disposal of in the following three categories:
liquid effluents needs to be viewed in the context of ● High-turbidity effluents.
practical aspects of liquid handling, including equipment ● High-dissolved-solids effluents, including
selection for rated flow and frequency / duration of acidic / alkaline effluents.
equipment / system operation.
● Oily effluents.
This paper deals with the nature and frequency of
liquid effluents generated in coal-fired / combined-cycle The distribution of water supply, in the plant, is
projects, and their handling & treatment, giving due shown in Schematic-1 "Plant water system". This
consideration to the operating practices, installation cost scheme also shows the effluents generated from
and code requirements. various processes.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 45


BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 46
Schematic-2 "Waste water management system based 3. HIGH-TURBIDITY LIQUID
on zero-discharge philosophy" shows only the EFFLUENTS
effluents generated from different processes, and
their handling / disposal systems. There is no well-accepted borderline of high turbidity.
We can consider high turbidity referring to those
effluent streams which have suspended solids of
2. GENERATION OF LIQUID approximately 100 ppm or greater, since the effluent
EFFLUENTS DUE TO NATURE OF turbidity above 100 ppm is not permitted. This
PLANT OPERATION category will typically include the following effluents:

The major liquid effluents generated due to nature ● Sludge from raw water Pre-Treatment Plant
of plant operation, are given below: (PTP) and from Effluent Treatment Plant
(ETP) equipment such as lamella clarifiers
● Seasonal changes in raw water quality affect and thickeners.
the following:
● CW blow-down generally falls in this category,
 Pre-treatment plant sludge flow rate, depending on the make-up water suspended
solids content and the operating Cycles of
 Cooling water system blow-down flow
Concentration (COC).
rate,
● Filter backwashes (from gravity / pressure /
 Cooling water system blow-own quality.
side stream filters).
● Storm water drain is also of seasonal nature. ● Wastewater from routine floor washing.
Its flow rate is very large with short duration. ● Ash slurry water.
● Intermittent operations produce intermittent ● Coal pile run-off.
effluents. Following are the common examples
of such effluents:
3.1 Pre-Treatment Plant (PTP) and ETP
 DM plant regeneration leads to
Sludge
intermittent flow rate from the
neutralizing pit. Sludge is produced from clarifiers, from the turbidity
 Service water from floor washing of raw water supply to the plant. The raw water supply
operation is generated in a short span to the plant is primarily for meeting the requirements
of 2 to 3 hours. of clarified water and direct raw-water make-up to
consumers like fire water system, ash handling plant,
● Plant mal-operation or failure may result in service water system etc. Raw water requirement
effluents with flow rates of variable nature. generally does not vary much during plant operation.
Time span for such flows is failure-specific. In the event of ash water recovery from the ash pond,
Alarm system, with or without auto operation, which may take 2-3 years after initial plant
is generally provided for such effluents. commissioning, there may be a need to cut down on
raw water requirement. Reduced raw water requirement
● Maintenance effluents can be handled in a leads to reduction in sludge generation also.
planned way since their quantities and
qualities are fairly well known in advance. Raw water turbidity is a major variable (in addition
to raw water flow rate), which decides the quantum
● Sewage effluent is mostly discharged during of sludge generation. Turbidity in the source of raw
daytime. It is treated and disposed of water supply is likely to have the variations as given
independent of the other process effluents. in Table-I.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 47


BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 48
TABLE-I : TURBIDITY VARIATIONS IN THE RIVER WATER SUPPLY TO PLANTS

Source of Raw Water Supply Typical Turbidity Levels

Raw water supply from sea. Turbidity is low (typically 10-50 ppm).

Raw water supply from bore-well. Turbidity is low (typically 5-10 ppm).

Raw water supply from reservoir. Turbidity is generally low (typically 10-100 ppm). Depending
on site location and reservoir size, it can however rise to about
200 ppm in monsoon months.

Raw water supply from rivers/canals. Generally lower than supply from reservoirs, but
variations during monsoon months can be 200-500 ppm.

The variations in turbidity from reservoir and river/ authorities as the water streams which receive
canal source, is site-specific and depends on the size this effluent also have very high suspended
of reservoir, source of river, time / period related to solids in monsoon, and since the suspended
rainy season etc. solids generally consist of clay, they are not
a health hazard.
PTP sludge up to approximately 60 m3/h can be
effectively discharged from the plant through ash ii) Processing of the total sludge in thickener
disposal system, and this practice is prevalent in the and centrifuge. This alternative has the
existing plants. advantages of water recovery (and reuse)
from the sludge. However, it is an expensive
It is recommended to adopt this practice, as a first provision, if intended to be used in monsoon
preference, for PTP sludge disposal. It may be season only.
appreciated that the normal ash consistency, as
discharged from ash slurry sump, is about 20-30%.
The PTP sludge, with 2-3 % consistency, practically 3.2 Cooling Water (CW) System Blow-Down
behaves like make-up water to ash slurry sump,
where ash slurry disposal system is envisaged. In CW system temperature rises by 8-10°C. It is cooled
certain plants, where slurry disposal system is not by the same extent in cooling tower. The cooling
envisaged and only dry disposal system is specified, effect is achieved by loss of CW, by evaporation.
separate sludge disposal / treatment would have to About 1.8% of CW flow rate is lost by evaporation,
be considered. for every 100 C cooling effect.

The turbidity levels are not uniform throughout the Cooling water system blow-down is practised to
year. In the event of the sludge generation rate maintain concentration of suspended / dissolved
exceeding the maximum limit acceptable to ash solids in the circulating water, so that the scaling /
handling system, the following methods can be used corrosion of the wetted surfaces is minimized. The
for its disposal. blow-down quantity is a function of circulating flow
rate and the cycles of concentration (COC) adopted.
i) Disposal of sludge (during high-turbidity
period) through plant drainage system. This Acid dosing and side stream filtration can be
may be acceptable to pollution control judiciously used for the selected COC and make-up

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 49


water quality, to maintain the permitted limits of shall install cooling towers irrespective of
scale and corrosion. location and capacity. For thermal power
plants which will use seawater for cooling
The quality of cooling tower blow-down water purposes, the condition below will apply.
depends on the water chemistry in the CW system,
CW treatment provided, COC and rate of blow- ● New projects in coastal areas using sea
down. Typical details are given in Table-II. water:
The thermal power plants using sea water
TABLE-II: TYPICAL COOLING TOWER BLOW– should adopt suitable system to reduce water
DOWN QUALITY temperature at the final discharge point so
that the resultant rise in the temperature of
Constituent Quantity
receiving water does not exceed 7°C over and
Total dissolved solids 350-800 mg/l above the ambient temperature of the
receiving water bodies.
pH 7.8-8.8
Suspended solids 100 mg/l ● Existing thermal power plants:
Oil and grease 5 mg/l Rise in temperature of condenser cooling
Free available Chlorine 0.3 mg/l water from inlet to the outlet of condenser
shall not be more than 10°C.

Permissible limits of Cooling tower blow-down ● Discharge point guidelines:


effluents, if disposed of separately, are given in The discharge point shall preferably be located
Table-III. at the bottom of the water body at mid-
stream for proper dispersion of thermal
TABLE-III: PERMISSIBLE LIMITS OF discharge. In case of discharge of cooling
COOLING TOWER BLOW-DOWN
AS PER CPCB NORMS water into sea, proper marine outfall shall be
designed to achieve the prescribed standards.
Constituent Quantity The point of discharge may be selected in
consultation with the concerned State
Total Chromium 0.2 mg/l Authorities. No cooling water discharge shall
Zinc 1 mg/l be permitted in estuaries or near ecologically
sensitive areas such as mangroves, coral reefs/
Phosphate 5.0 mg/l spanning and breeding grounds of aquatic
Free available Chlorine 0.5 mg/l flora and fauna.
Other corrosion Limits to be
inhibiting materials established on 3.2.2 DISPOSAL OF COOLING WATER
case-to-case basis
● CW blow-down should preferably be used
for ash disposal in coal-fired plants. Its use
3.2.1 PERMISSIBLE LIMITS FOR TEMPERATURE-
RISE (OF COOLING WATER IN THE for ash disposal will lead to reduced make-
CONDENSER) AS PER CPCB NORMS up water requirement for AHP and
consequently lower demand of raw water.
● New thermal power plants commissioned
after June 1, 1999: ● Cooling tower blow-down is normally
New thermal power plants, which will be contaminated with treatment chemicals. It
using water from rivers / lakes / reservoirs, generally has high hardness / dissolved solids.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 50


The flow quantities being very high, it can 3.3 Wash Water Effluents
be effectively used to dilute other
contaminants like oil and pH, in Central Some of the utilities have a practice of using service
Monitoring Basin (CMB). water for washing dust from boiler area and TG hall
to improve house keeping. The following areas of
● In case wet ash disposal is not practised (and the plants are generally provided with washing
also in case of combined-cycle plants, where facilities:
ash disposal is not applicable), the CW blow-
down, being of huge quantity, cannot be i) Boiler area
fully utilized without treatment. In such a
The wash water discharge is likely to be
situation, CW blow-down needs to be
applicable for a period of 2-3 hours in the
disposed of directly from the plant.
general shift. This wash water is contaminated
● Alternatively (if zero-discharge is envisaged with ash. Wash water is collected in local
in the strict sense), CW blow-down water sump and subsequently pumped to ETP
(after mixing with other effluents in the sump for further treatment in Lamella / Tube
CMB) needs to be treated for recycle. The type clarifiers. The clarifier supernatant is
following treatment is required: discharged to the CMB.

Clarification and subsequent use of clarified ii) Turbine hall ground floor
water for the following applications:
The wash water discharge is likely to be
 For dust suppression in coal handling applicable for a period of 2-3 hours in the
plant. general shift. This wash water is contaminated
 Service water applications. with suspended matter. Oil content in the
 Boiler blow-down cooling. wash water is minor depending on the area
 Supply to other consumers of the to be washed. It is reduced to negligible value
clarified water (except DM Plant, Potable after dilution effect of other effluents.
water).
Wash water is collected in local sumps and
 Fire protection system make-up. subsequently pumped to Lamella / Tube type
Treatment of clarified water in RO system clarifiers. The clarifier supernatant is
and further use of the permeate in the discharged to the CMB.
following systems:
The sludge generated in the lamella, provided
 Supply to DM Plant to remove suspended matter from wash
 CW make-up water effluent, is very little. Layout permitting,
 HVAC system make-up it is recommended to drain it to the pre-
treatment plant sludge sump, to simplify its
Since the CW blow-down flow rate is very disposal. Alternatively, the sludge quantity
high, its treatment by RO is a very costly being little, it can be disposed of manually
proposal, and should be avoided as far as in an acceptable way.
possible, unless the additional cost can be
justified. iii) Wash water from buildings
The RO concentrate, in this option of zero- It is of minor nature. It drains to respective
discharge, requires to be evaporated in building drain system and does not join the
evaporation pond, to be specifically provided Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) for the
for this purpose. processes described in this paper.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 51


3.4 Filter Back-Wash 4. LIQUID-EFFLUENTS HAVING
HIGH-DISSOLVED-SOLIDS
Back-wash water from the gravity or pressure filters
has up to 1500 ppm suspended solids. The back- High-dissolved-solids-content liquid effluents refer
wash water may be recirculated back to the clarifier to effluent streams having high ionic loads. In power
to minimize wastage of water. plants, this category of effluents will typically include
the following:
3.5 Ash Slurry Water ● Waste from DM / CPU neutralization pit.

Ash slurry water is generally disposed of from the ash ● Boiler / HRSG blow-down
pond. About 80% of water supply to ash slurry ● CW blow-down.
sump may also be recovered from ash pond, for reuse
in the plant Ash disposal system. Ash water recovery
is generally delayed, after plant commissioning. The 4.1 Recommendations for DM Plant / CPU
delay period can be from 6 months to 2 years. The neutralization waste / chemical waste
recovered water has significant quantity of suspended
and dissolved solids. It can be, however, used for DM Plant regeneration waste (as well as CPU
make-up to the ash water sump for ash disposal regeneration wastes if CPU has been provided) is
collected in the neutralization pit (NP). It is normally
If cooling water blow-down has been used for make- self-neutralized. Dosing system is also provided for
up to the ash handling system, the situation changes NP, to neutralize the regeneration waste, in case it
after AHP recovery starts. CW treatment system is not self-neutralized. The NP effluent is pumped
capability permitting, the COC can be further to CMB. Typical analysis of DM-regeneration waste
increased, leading to reduced raw water demand for is given in Table-V.
the plant. The discharge standards of ash pond
effluents are given in Table-IV. TABLE-V: TYPICAL ANALYSIS OF DM-
REGENERATION WASTE
TABLE-IV: DISCHARGE STANDARDS OF ASH POND
EFFLUENT AS PER CPCB NORMS Constituent Quantity
Total Dissolved Solids 4400-6000 ppm
Parameter Limit
pH 6.5-7.5
pH Valve 6.5-8.5, preferably > 7 Suspended solids 100 ppm
Suspended Solids 100 mg/l
Oil & Greases 20 mg/l
5. OILY EFFLUENTS
3.6 Coal Pile Run-off In normal operations, oily effluents are not expected
from areas of the power plant other than the fuel oil
Coal pile run-off quantity is site-specific, primarily
handling area. Oily water effluents with oil content
depending on the rainfall and the coal yard
greater than 20 ppm may arise from transformer
topography. If site conditions suggest significant coal
areas during abnormal conditions such as fires /
pile run-off, it needs to be collected in a below-grade
accidents etc.
pond. Coal pile run-off may have significant quantity
of suspended matter. After a reasonable period for The major sources of oily effluents are:
settlement of the suspended matter, the effluent
(consequent to the rain) will be discharged to the i) Oily Effluent from fuel oil storage area.
plant drain system. This effluent should be collected in local

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 52


sump. Oil is separated (up to 10 ppm ) in rate of boiler blow-down. Typical details are given in
the oil/water separator. The treated water can Table-VI.
be pumped to CMB for further disposal.
TABLE-VI: TYPICAL DETAILS OF BOILER BLOW-
ii) Floor wash water effluent from fuel oil DOWN FOR 250 MW UNIT
unloading, storage and pumping areas.
Constituent Quantity
iii) Oil leakage / spillage from the turbine / BFP
lube oil system and workshop. Suspended solids 166 ppm
This effluent, if any, is insignificant and TDS 100 ppm
requires to be collected in local trays / wiped pH 8.9
with cotton waste.
Oil and grease 0.2 ppm
iv) Generator Transformer area effluent. Silica 0.2 ppm as SiO2
The effluent from the generator transformer
area originates either from rain or consequent Permissible limits of boiler blow-down effluents, if
to the operation of fire protection system. A disposed of separately, are given in Table-VII.
sump is provided to collect this water from
transformer area. Experience shows that TABLE-VII: PERMISSIBLE LIMITS OF BOILER
normally there is no oil leakage from the BLOW-DOWN EFFLUENTS IF
transformers. DISPOSED OF SEPARATELY

In case of fire, water is sprayed in the transformer Constituent Quantity


area. This water drains to the sump. In the event of
Suspended solids 100 mg/l
oil leakage during fire, both oil and water drain to
the sump. The following is recommended for disposal Oil and grease 20 mg/l
of the effluents from the generator transformer Copper total 1.0 mg/l
sump: Iron total 1.0 mg/l
a) If there is no oil leakage, pump the sump Free available chlorine 0.5 mg/l
water to plant drain system.
b) In case of oil discharge consequent to the Boiler blow-down does not require any treatment,
failure of the oil system of the transformer, and it can be directly pumped to CMB.
the water is first discharged to the plant
drain system. When the oil starts coming, oil
7. SEWAGE / CANTEEN WASTE
being above water, it should be collected in
the drums. The sewage from the plant buildings and canteen is
generally led to sewage treatment plant. The treated
water can be used for horticulture. It is recommended
6. BOILER BLOW-DOWN
that this effluent not be mixed with process effluents.
Boiler blow-down rate is a function of boiler feed
water system water chemistry program. Blow-down
rates of 1-3% (of main steam flow rate) have been 8. EFFLUENTS GENERATED DURING
used. A value of ½ % for modern high-pressure COMMISSIONING AND MAINT-
boilers is not unusual these days. ENANCE ACTIVITIES
The quality of boiler blow-down water depends on Cleaning effluents from boiler auxiliaries are likely
the water chemistry of power cycle system and the during commissioning and maintenance stages. This

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 53


is a planned commissioning/maintenance activity, The suspended solids, oil / grease and residual
and it is done only when the plant is under shut- chlorine parameters of the CMB effluents, are
down. generally stable, whereas pH may have marginal
fluctuation, thereby requiring its correction. To take
The maximum frequency of washing for Air-pre- care of this aspect, on-line pH indicator is provided
heater and Electrostatic precipitator could be once a in the CMB discharge piping. Other parameters viz.
year. The acid cleaning activity and alkali-boil-out suspended solids, conductivity, oil / grease and
operation are commissioning activities. residual chlorine, are tested in the laboratory.
It is not advisable to provide permanent installations
for collection of these effluents. The effluent
10. EFFLUENTS FROM COMBINED-
characteristics for the above operations being uncertain,
predefined treatment, if provided, may not work
CYCLE POWER PLANTS (CCPP)
efficiently. Temporary arrangement for effluent The pollution control requirement for CCPP is
collection and disposal is considered appropriate and similar to that for coal-fired plant except for the
justifiable. It is recommended that temporary following:
arrangements be provided for disposal of these effluents.
i) Since coal handling and ash handling packages
are not applicable, the following effluents are
9. COLLECTION AND FINAL not generated in CCPPs:
DISPOSAL OF LIQUID EFFLUENTS ● Coal pile run-off.
Each category of effluents is generally treated ● Ash-pond effluent.
individually for removing oil, suspended solids and ● Boiler-area floor washing effluent (since
pH correction, if these parameters cannot be managed the washing requirement is insignificant).
to meet the final disposal limits. All effluents are
collected in the Central Monitoring Basin (CMB) ii) In the absence of Ash Handling plant, the
before disposal from the plant. sludge from clarifiers cannot be disposed of
with the ash slurry. Thickener and centrifuge
The CMB is generally in two compartments. While will be required if the sludge quantity is
effluents of one compartment are under disposal, significant.
after final pH correction, the other compartment is
under filling. Each compartment is generally sized iii) The permissible limits for effluents:
for 2 hours inflow capacity. Discharge pumps are The following limits have been specified by
provided in the common compartment. Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for
Gas / Naphtha based power plants:
Acceptable limiting parameters of specific effluents
have been specified above for CW blow-down, boiler Parameter Limit
blow-down and ash-pond effluents. However for the
effluents collected in the CMB, no specific effluent pH = 6.5-8.5
limits have been given for power plants. The Temperature = As applicable to
following limits are generally specified by plant coal-fired plants
owners for coal-fired power plants: Copper total = 1 ppm
Iron total = 1 ppm
Parameter Limit Zinc = 1 ppm
Suspended solids : 100 ppm Chromium total = 0.2 ppm
Oil and grease : 10 ppm Phosphate = 5 ppm
Residual chlorine : 0.5 ppm Total suspended solids = 100 ppm max
pH : 6.5 to 8.5 Free chlorine = 0.5 ppm max

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 54


Oil and grease = For discharge to 12. CONCLUSION
inland surface
water: not The provision of ETP for power plants is a
exceeding 10 ppm. relatively new requirement. For earlier plants, the
For discharge to general requirement was plant design to meet
marine coastal limiting parameters of the liquid effluents from
areas: not the plant. Recent statutory changes include revised
exceeding 20 ppm limitations on the condenser cooling water return
temperature.
11. ZERO-DISCHARGE ETP Permanent provisions for handling and treatment
of effluents, which are maintenance /
11.1 Classification of Effluents
commissioning related, is not economically justified.
The effluents from the plant can be classified in the It is our view that such facilities should be of
following two broad categories: temporary nature and activity-specific. Also if the
quantity of some effluent is insignificant, permanent
i) Process effluents, as from CW system, boiler installations for treatment and disposal of such
blow-down, water treatment systems, floor effluents will only increase the initial cost of the
washing, building effluents etc. These effluents plant, and may not be available for use (due to
have bearing on the size and operating inadequate maintenance) when really needed. For
conditions of the systems concerned. such cases, mobile tankers could be provided to
ii) Effluents such as storm water drain. This collect the wastewater and treat in the ETP
type of effluent is site-specific. It is generated located elsewhere.
in large flow volumes in a short time.
The supply of raw water to power plants, is
becoming more and more restricted. In view of this,
11.2 Considerations for Applying Zero- some of the projects are being cleared based on
Discharge Concept provision of zero liquid discharge from the plant.
This requirement needs a re-look in view of the need
The following aspect of practical nature needs to be for consequential provisions, if it is to be followed
considered when applying this concept to the power literally.
plants:

In case of CCPPs and coal-fired plants with dry ash Bibliography


disposal (and also in case of coal-fired plants with
a low value of condenser cooling water COC), the 1. htpp://www.cpcb.nic.in/standard63.htm
liquid effluents from the plant become surplus even
after all justifiable reuse in the plant. In such a 2. http://envfor.nic.in/legis/legis.html
situation, the zero discharge can be attempted only
at a very high cost. 3. Minimal National Standards (MINAS).

In view of the above, it is the considered view of the 4. P. Shandilya and S S Phogat, "Environment
authors that the need for zero discharge should be management in power plants", 3rd International
specified with the considerations in respect of return Conference, World Council of Power Utilities,
on investment. New Delhi, 21-24 Nov. 2001.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 55


Plant as a process engineer for 1 year. He joined
BHEL in 1976 and has been responsible for
design & execution of BOP (Balance of Plants)
for various thermal power stations. His core
competence is in the area of water & wastewater
treatment for power stations. He was trained
abroad with KWU Germany for one year. He
retired as General Manager & Head (MAX) from
Mr. Prabhakar Shandilya obtained his B.Tech PEM, New Delhi, in May 2005.
(Chemical Engg.) degree in 1966 from I.I.T
Kanpur. Mr. Shandilya is currently working as Vice
President (Engg) with LMZEIL, Delhi, and is
Mr. Shandilya worked with BIRD & Co. Ltd in responsible for the execution of BOP for NTPC
their sales, design, installation departments for Sipat / Barh 3 X 660 MW Power Stations, and
water treatment equipment for 8 years before contract closing of HIL Dahej 60 MW Captive
joining JK Synthetics Kota in their Acrylic Fibre Power Station.

PEM) in 1974. He underwent on-the-job training


with M/s Siemens, Germany, for one year.
Presently, he is working as Addl. General Manager
and Department Head of Mechanical Auxiliary
Department in PEM, and is responsible for
Project Engineering of Balance of Plants.

Mr. Phogat has been actively involved in the


Mr. S.S. Phogat obtained his B.Sc. (Engg) degree Project Engineering of Power Cycle Systems,
with Honours in Mechanical Engg., from the Plant Layout and BOPs. He has authored several
Punjab University. technical papers on Air-Cooled Condesers,
Thermal Insulation, Tube-Cleaning and Debris
Mr. Phogat joined BHEL-Bhopal, in Power Station Systems, Cathode Protection, Piping and Pumping
Engg Dept., in the year 1970 and was transferred Systems, Effluent Treatment Plants, Water
to erstwhile Consultancy Services Division (now Treatment etc.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 56


Mr. Mahal joined BHEL in 1975 as E.T in the
erstwhile Consultancy Services Division (now
PEM). He has been responsible for Design &
Engineering of Material Handling Systems of
Thermal Power Stations and has more than three
decades of experience in the related fields of
Material Handling Systems. He is presently
working as Addl. General Manager in PEM.
Mr. G.S. Mahal obtained his B.Sc. (Engg.) degree
with Ist Class Honours in Mechanical Engg from Mr. Mahal is a member of the national level BIS
the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh in subcommittee ME 7 on Material Handling
1972. Thereafter he obtained his M.E degree from Systems.
the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani
in the year 1974.

(Chemsitry) from the Univ. of Madras in 1980.


He was trained abroad under the Colombo plan
to acquire a P. G. Diploma in Management of
Envrionment from the Maastricht School of
Management, The Netherlands in the year 2000.

Mr. Balaji joined BHEL as E.T in 1983 at Trichy.


Since then he has been working in various
Mr. S. Balaji obtained his Engineering degree in functions such as Lab, QC, Quality Management,
Metallurgy from the Indian Institute of Science, Health, Safety & Environment. At present, he is
Bangalore, in 1983, winning the Prof. Brahm working as Dy. General Manager in the Engg
Prakash Medal. Earlier he had graduated in B.Sc. function in Water Chemistry section of PEM.

Before joining BHEL in 1998 as E.T, Mr.


Bhartiya worked in the field of power plant
operations in Bihar State Electricity Board. Since
1998, he has been working in the field of water
chemistry and has been mainly dealing with
pretreatment plant, effluent treatment plant,
condensate polishing unit and Demineralization
plant for different power plants. He is currently
Mr. Sudhir Bhartiya graduated in Mechanical working as Sr. Engineer in Engg function in the
Engineering from MM Engg College, Gorakhpur, Water Chemistry section of PEM.
in the year 1995, and went on to obtain a P.G.
Diploma in Thermal Power Plant Engg from
NTPI Delhi.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 57


INNOVATIONS — FROM BHEL

DESIGN AUTOMATION OF 500 MW


CONDENSER USING KNOWLEDGE BASED
ENGINEERING — AN MOU PROJECT

Knowledge Management has been identified as one


of the key corporate strategies to automate total
process of product design including release of
manufacturing drawings and all engineering
documents,with a view to meeting the demand for
shorter deliveries and tight commissioning schedules
of power projects. In order to meet this objective,
an MOU project "Design Automation of 500 MW
Condenser Using Knowledge-Based Engineering"
was taken up by BHEL- HEEP, Haridwar, to begin
3-D Model of 500MW Condenser Assembly
with. The project has now been successfully
completed.
Datasheets and Cost Estimations have also been
Steam surface condenser is one of the major key covered.
equipment in a thermal power plant. The design
With the completion of this project, the knowledge
solely depends on the site conditions vis-à-vis the
of design codes, handbooks, knowledge assimilated
plant layout, cooling water chemistry and the type
through collaborators, in-house R&D developments,
of cooling water system.
design improvements, competitor's practices including
In this project,the total automation of condenser rich experience of work-force in condenser area—all
design has been done capturing design inputs right these have been integrated using proper logistics so
from the tendering stage up to the contract execution as to avoid (or to keep at bare minimum) human
stage. A software tool kit has been developed based intervention during total process of design, in order
on custom-made program logics and Knowledge to evolve various design alternatives and select
Fusion tools to help design condenser in an automated optimum design.
fashion. A wizard has been developed incorporating The effective use of this project will yield optimized
developed Graphic User Interfaces (GUIs), integrated condenser designs with reduction in design cycle
legacy software to perform thermo-hydraulic design time & cost and improvement in quality & delivery
and for generation of performance curves, detailed by way of use of modern IT tools.
design calculations, 3-D parametric models of
condenser with 30 manufacturing groups comprising
nearly 1000 parts, preparation of engineering DEVELOPMENT OF HYDRO TURBINE
documents comprising 2-D manufacturing drawings BLADE/RUNNER MODEL THROUGH RAPID
for the 30 manufacturing groups, 14 erection PROTOTYPING TECHNIQUE
drawings, 3 customer drawings and 1 tender drawing
(equivalent to nearly 3000 A4 drawings). All 2-D BHEL is the largest manufacturer of hydro turbines
drawings are in AutoCAD format. Weight in the country. At present, scaled models of each and
calculations, generation of BOM, generation of every new machine is made to demonstrate the

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 58


hydraulic efficiency and related parameters, prior to making crown and lower ring, savings in time and
the manufacturing process. These models are being cost were achieved. A common 3D solid model can
made through a lengthy and time-consuming process. be used for manufacturing and CFD analysis,
Rapid Prototyping technique is widely being adopted thereby minimizing discrepancy in the theoretical
internationally by major manufacturers for cycle and experimental results.
time reduction in engineering especially when new
products are introduced. In line with this trend, the
feasibility of adopting the Rapid Prototyping (RP) 11kV / 750 MVA (0.25 SECONDS)
technique for making metallic models of Hydro WITHSTANDING EPOXY TERMINAL
Turbines Blades/Runners was takenup in BHEL. BUSHINGS FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE AC
MOTORS DEVELOPED
The Runner blade being the most critical component,
Epoxy terminal bushings are one of the critical items
was modeled through the RP technique. Crown &
of a high-voltage ac motor, as they carry high voltage
lower ring were made by conventional machining.
and high current. Current level withstanding
Section profiles and solid model of the hydro turbine
requirements of these high-voltage bushings are
blade were generated from the drawings using
increasing day by day from customers. BHEL, a
IDEAS software. Solid models of the matching
leading supplier of high-voltage ac motors in the
crown and the lower ring were also generated for
country, has been, hitherto, importing these bushings.
assembly checks.
In order to indigenise these bushings; BHEL has
Using the solid model of the Hydro Turbine blade, now developed 750 MVA (0.25 seconds) fault level
RP master of the blade was made by the withstanding epoxy terminal bushings for 11kV
Stereolithography technique. This was inspected by high-voltage ac motors so as to meet the market
profile checking templates and also by 3D co- demands.
ordinate measurement equipment. A silicone rubber A number of designs were made with different
mould was made, using the RP master as the variants, and finally two designs, viz. (a) circular
pattern, and wax patterns were made using this collar type and (b) elliptical collar type, were
mould. Stainless steel blades were made using these finalized to meet the requirements of existing terminal
wax patterns by investment casting. box manufactured at BHEL. An optimum process
By adopting Rapid Prototyping technique for making cycle was established to process and manufacture
the blades and using conventional method for sample bushings.
Routine and type tests were conducted on these
bushings at ERDA, Vadodara ,and Corporate R&D
Division of BHEL. The bushings successfully

Circular Collar Type Bushing

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 59


Elliptical Collar Type Bushing

withstood the following specified tests to meet the


requirements of 11 kV insulation system—impulse,
partial discharge, power frequency, breakdown voltage,
tan delta, capacitance and short-time current rating
(at 44 kA for 0.25 second).
Capacitor undergoing Discharge Current Test
With this indigenous development of expoxy-based
terminal bushings, BHEL would be able to use these developing for conducting special tests in-house, in
bushings in all the non-flameproof high-voltage ac accordance with International Standards.
motors of 11 kV/1200 A rating, and thereby save in
foreign exchange.
EVALUATION OF INHIBITORS FOR SS 304
AND ADMIRALTY BRASS CONDENSER TUBE
DISCHARGE CURRENT TEST ON HV SERIES MATERIALS IN CONTACT WITH RIVER
CAPACITOR — FACILITY ESTABLISHED IN WATER
BHEL
Due to increase in industrialization, there is
BHEL has developed HV series capacitors for 400 deterioration in the quality of surface water, but there
kV series compensation project, for the first time in is no alternative except to use the naturally available
the country. IEC 60143 standard calls for some water for cooling purposes. Natural water contains
special tests like Discharge Current Test for HV dissolved solids, gases and sometimes colloidal or
series capacitors used in long transmission lines. suspended matter. All these impurities affect the
This test facility is not available indigenously, and scaling / corrosion properties of the water in relation
even getting this test conducted at reputed to the metals with which it is in contact. This leads
International Testing agencies is beset with problems. to many operational problems like corrosion, erosion,
In view of this, BHEL undertook and implemented scaling, fouling etc. Where the available source of
establishing of this test facility in-house for the first cooling water is from a river, either SS 304 or copper
time in the country, to meet Discharge Current Test alloys is used as tube materials in power plant
requirement of our esteemed customer, M/s Power Condenser. However, due to bad quality of water,
Grid Corporation. This test facility was established these materials, though resistant to corrosion, are also
with internal resources mobilized within BHEL- prone to corrosion attack. In order to minimize the
Bhopal. corrosion, commercially available inhibitors are dosed
into the cooling water. Addition of these inhibitors
The testing was completed successfully in the presence substantially reduces the corrosion rate of the tube
of the representative of the Customer. materials, thus increasing the life of the condensers.
Performance evaluation of various inhibitors for SS
Thus, BHEL has added one more new test facility 304 and admiralty brass was recently taken up at
to the series of new test facilities it has been Corporate R&D Division of BHEL.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 60


Three commercial inhibitors were evaluated for 250 LPD SOLAR WATER HEATING SYSTEM
admiralty brass and cupro-nickel (90/10) in river WITH HEAT PIPE COLLECTORS DEVELOPED
medium, in static as well as dynamic conditions.
Electrochemical experiments were conducted to assess Based on the successful development of 100 LPD
the corrosion rates of these tube materials with and Solar Geyers (as already reported in the December
without the addition of inhibitors. The optimum 2004 issue), and also from the market study, there
concentration of the inhibitor was found to be was a need to develop higher-capacity Domestic
0.1%. In order to carry out the corrosion experiments Solar Water Heating System to cater to the different
under dynamic conditions, special probes were used segments of customers. Hence, development of 250
in the dynamic corrosion test rig to evaluate the LPD Solar Water Heating System with heat pipe
performance of the inhibitors through linear collectors was taken up. As a result, two prototypes
polarization technique. The corrosion current was have been developed and installed for long-term
continuously measured and recorded in the data testing at the Corporate R&D Division. The system
acquisition system. delivers 250 litres of hot water per day at a
temperature of 60 to 700C, depending on the solar
Results : intensity.

All the inhibitors performed well under dynamic The 250 LPD system based on heat pipe collector
condition and reduced the corrosion current largely, is much more efficient as compared to a standard
exhibiting an efficiency of nearly 99% on Copper thermo-syphon system, as there is no heat loss due
alloys. In river water medium, SS 304 has high to reverse circulation during the night, since the heat
corrosion resistance compared to copper alloys, and pipe acts as a thermal diode,. Further, the system
hence addition of inhibitors is not required. For developed does not require interconnecting insulated
copper alloys, any one of the three inhibitors tested pipeline between storage tank and the collector array.
can be used, based on the economic considerations.
The 250 LPD System developed will meet the
The studies conducted and the data collected, shall demand of the higher-end domestic customers as
be useful to diagnose, analyse and interpret various well as Large Solar Water Heating Systems. These
cooling water chemistry related problems in systems can be connected in series and parallel
condensers. Appropriate inhibitor can also be combination to meet the required capacity of Large
recommended to minimize the corrosion of condenser Solar Water Heating System, i.e. four systems of
tube materials. 250 LPD can be supplied for a 1000 LPD system.
The system can be installed close to the utility point,
thereby reducing hot water loss in the pipelines.

Dynamic Corrosion Test Rig 250 LPD Solar Water Heating System

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 61


RECENT MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS OF BHEL
(during March'06-August'06)

ORDERS BAGGED ● Secured two prestigious contracts in


Afghanistan as part of the company's
Overseas aggressive plans for increasing business in
● Achieved yet another breakthrough in the South Asia. This also marks BHEL's foray in
international market by winning its second Afghanistan, which is a potential market.
consecutive order from Ethiopia for 230 kV The two turnkey contracts have been secured
substations on EPC basis from Ethiopian by BHEL from Power Grid Corporation of
Electric Power Corporation (EEPCO). Last India for setting up a 220 kV substation at
year, BHEL won a similar contract, funded Kabul, and from Water & Power Consultancy
by the World Bank, for substations, making Services (WAPCOS), India, for supply and
inroads in Ethiopia. BHEL has won the installation of Electromechanical Packages
contract outbidding Chinese and other for 42 MW Salma Hydroelectric Power Plant
multinational companies. The project is in Afghanistan.
funded by the Kuwait Fund. The contract ● Achieved a breakthrough in the international
agreement for this project, signed between market for transformers by securing a
BHEL and EEPCO, is part of an prestigious export order from Egypt. Won in
electrification programme initiated by the the face of stiff international competition,
Ethiopian Government in the Afar State of the order has been placed on BHEL by the
Ethiopia. BHEL's scope of work in the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co.
project includes design, supply, erection, civil (EETC). This is the single-largest order for
construction and commissioning of 230 kV transformers ever received by BHEL and the
Semera and Dichoto substations. The maiden order for transformers from Egypt.
substations are to be completed in a schedule This order is expected to give a fillip to
of 18 months. BHEL's efforts at playing a more prominent
role in the large Power Projects planned in
● Won a prestigious contract for setting up 230
Egypt — one of the largest countries in
kV substations on EPC basis in Bangladesh.
African continent. A wholly owned
Outbidding Chinese, Malaysian and Indian
Government organization under the Ministry
Companies, BHEL has won the contract for
of Electricity and Energy, Egypt, EETC is
supply and installation of a 230 kV substation
responsible for Management, Operation and
at Baghabari Power Plant and extension of a
Maintenance of High and Ultra high Voltage
230 kV substation at Ishurdi. The Asian
Electric Power Transmission grids, all over
Development Bank (ADB) funded contract
the country.
has been placed on BHEL by Power Grid
Company of Bangladesh. This is the first Domestic
order for BHEL for substations in Bangladesh.
BHEL's scope of work in the project includes ● Secured contract for setting up a 500 MW
design, supply, erection, civil construction thermal power plant (2x250 MW) in Uttar
and commissioning of a 230 kV substation at Pradesh. Reposing confidence in BHEL's
Baghabari and expansion of Ishurdi substation. capability and technological excellence, Uttar

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 62


Pradesh Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Rs.842 Crore, for setting up a 250 MW unit
Limited (UPRVUNL) has placed orders for at Suratgarh TPS and a 195 MW unit at
setting up 2 units of 250 MW each (Units Kota TPS. The units are slated for
5&6) at Parichha TPS Extn. The project is commissioning in fiscal 2008-09, following
slated for commissioning in fiscal 2009-10. which power situation in the state will ease
With this, BHEL has maingtained its track considerably. With these contracts, BHEL
record of bagging most of the orders placed has maintained its track record of bagging all
by UPRUVNL for power generating the orders placed by RVUNL for power
equipment in Uttar Pradesh. So far, BHEL generating equipment in Rajasthan. BHEL
has commissioned over 9,000 MW of power has so far commissioned over 2400 MW of
generating sets in the state. These include power generating sets in Rajasthan.
thermal, gas-based, nuclear and hydro units
of various ratings. ● Secured contracts for the supply and erection
of Electromechanical equipment for two
● Secured contract from India's largest Power separate Hydro Electric Projects (HEP) in
Utility, NTPC, for setting up the first unit Andhra Pradesh, won in the face of intense
of 490MW capacity, at its National Capital competition from European and Chinese
Thermal Power Project (NCTPP) Stage-II, at multinational companies. The order was
Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. With this, NTPC bagged by BHEL under International
has once again reposed confidence in BHEL's Competitive Bidding (ICB), as its offer was
proven technological excellence and capability found techno-economically the best.
in executing projects of this magnitude. The Cumulatively valued at nearly Rs.82 Crore,
project is slated for commissioning in fiscal the orders for Nagarjunasagar Tail Pond
2009-10. Dam (2x25 MW) and Sriramsagar HEP
Extn. (1x9 MW), have been placed on
● Achieved a major success in the form of a BHEL by Andhra Pradesh Power Generation
prestigious contract for a 250 MW Thermal Corporation (APGenco) and are a measure
Power Station (TPS), bagged in the face of of the customer's confidence in BHEL's
stiff competition from Chinese and Korean proven capabilities in execution of hydel
equipment suppliers. The contract has been power projects.
won from Tata Power Company (TPC)
under competitive bidding. Notably, this is ● Secured order for setting up a Lift Irrigation
the first order secured by BHEL where the Scheme in Andhra Pradesh. The scheme will
boiler will be designed to suit firing of benefit thousands of farmers of the state by
imported coal. TPC has reposed its confidence irrigating 2.75 Lakh hectares of parched land
in BHEL by placing the order for design, and making it arable. Won against stiff
engineering, manufacture, supply, erection, competition, the order for the 5x30 MW
testing and commissioning of main plant Kalwakurthy Lift Irrigation Scheme, has
package for Unit-8 of Trombay TPS in been placed on BHEL by Gammon India,
Maharashtra. who secured the EPC contract for the project
from the AP Govt. BHEL is already executing
● Secured contracts for setting up two thermal Stage-I of the Scheme, the order for which
power projects in Rajasthan. Reposing was placed on the company by Patel
confidence in BHEL's technological excellence Engineering.
and project execution capabilities, Rajasthan
Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Limited (RVUNL) ● BHEL is to set up on turnkey basis, another
has placed orders, cumulatively valued at lignite-based power project in Gujarat for

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 63


GIPCL. The power plant will be equipped (STPS) Stage-III, in Madhya Pradesh, has
with an eco-friendly, state-of-the-art been commissioned. With the synchronization
Circulating Fluidised Bed Combustion of the unit, 12 million units of electricity
(CFBC) Boiler, specifically designed to utilize will be added to the grid of the power-deficit
low-grade fuels like lignite, high ash coal, state, every day. Valued at Rs.2125 Crore,
washery rejects etc. To this effect, GIPCL has NTPC had placed the Main Plant Package
once again reposed confidence in BHEL's contract for the 2x500MW Vindhyachal
proven technological excellence and capability STPS - Stage III on BHEL, once again
by placing an order valued at Rs.1200 Crore reposing confidence in BHEL's technological
for setting up 2 units of 125 MW each excellence & capability in executing projects
(Units 3&4) for Surat Lignite Thermal Power of this magnitude. With the commissioning
Station Expansion project. The two units of this unit, the cumulative generating
will be commissioned in a tight schedule of capacity of the power station has gone up to
33 and 37 months respectively. 2760 MW. The second unit is also targeted
for commissioning by BHEL in fiscal 2006-
● Secured order for a captive power plant to be 07. On completion of Stage-III, the
installed in a steel plant in Gujarat. Reposing generating capacity of Vindhyachal STPS
confidence in BHEL's capabilities, the Essar will be enhanced to 3260 MW, making it
Group has placed an order for a 110.6 MW India's largest power generating station.
Gas Turbine Generator Set for an open-cycle
captive power plant for the expansion of the AWARDS
existing captive power plant at Essar Group's
Hazira project. The supplies for the project ● For outstanding export performance, BHEL
are slated for completion in a very tight has won the Engineering Export Promotion
schedule of just 14 months. For Essar, BHEL Council (EEPC)'s award, for the 16th year
is already executing an order for a captive in succession. Conferred on BHEL in the
power plant of similar rating at Hazira. The category 'Star Performer in 2004-05: Power
project is in an advanced stage and is Generation Equipment and Parts — Large
expected to be commissioned shortly. The Enterprises', the award was presented by the
synchronization of these units will ensure Hon'ble Union Minister for Commerce &
continuous supply of 216 MW of quality Industry, Mr. Kamal Nath, on August 10,
power to the steel plant, which will be highly 2006. Overseas business has been identified
cost-effective for the customer, making the as a major thrust area by the company. In
end product economical. this direction, short-term and long-term
plans have been chalked out which are
COMMISSIONING HIGHLIGHTS yielding rich dividends. During the last
fiscal, BHEL booked the highest-ever physical
● The first 500 MW unit at NTPC's export orders of Rs.3,348 Crore — a six-fold
Vindhyachal Super Thermal Power Station increase over the previous year.

BHEL JOURNAL, September 2006 64


Rihand STPS—BHEL has supplied 2x500 MW sets.

Kayamkulam CCPP (350 MW).


Registration No. RN-27700/76

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited


BHEL House, Siri Fort, New Delhi-110 049

Visit our Website at : http://www.bhel.com

Published by Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., and printed at VIBA PRESS PVT. LTD.,
C-66/3, Okhla Indl. Area, Phase-II, New Delhi-110020. Tel. : 41611300, Telefax : 26386500

Вам также может понравиться