Low pressure steam turbine thermal performance improvements

Technical Report · Wed May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:269603

McCloskey, T ^[1]; Dewey, R; Hesler, S ^[2]

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1. Electric Power Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA (United States)
2. Stress Technology Inc., Rochester, NY (United States); and others

The turbine thermal performance improvement program represents a pioneering effort by the Electric Power Research Institute to find practical, cost effective means to improve the heat rate of nuclear and fossil units by optimizing the blading elements and exhaust region of the turbine flowpath. Utilities who operate with worn or eroded flowpath components can now seek to offset a portion of the capital expense of purchasing new blade rows or diaphragms by replacing them with designs of improved efficiency. The approach developed as part of the EPRI-sponsored program is to analyze in detail the internal flow in stages and exhaust hoods with advanced 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) programs, and use this analysis as a basis for redesign of these components. These computational tools were not available to the turbine manufacturers when these units were originally designed. This paper outlines the approach currently being applied in EPRI Program RP3648-1 titled {open_quotes}Technology Development for Reducing Exhaust Hood Losses and Improving the Performance of Turbine Blades.{open_quotes} The approach is based on the combined application of full-scale field traverse tests with state-of-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The program goal is to develop the means for selecting practical strategies to improve blading efficiency and recover a portion of the exhaust energy within several commonly used exhaust hood designs. In each application, the CFD analysis is used to assess the potential payback versus cost of specific hood and/or blading modifications.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Encor-America, Inc., Mountain View, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 269603
• Report Number(s): EPRI-TR--106529; CONF-960524--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
EPRI
HYDRODYNAMICS
IMAGES
OPTIMIZATION
PERFORMANCE
STEAM TURBINES
T CODES
THERMAL EFFICIENCY