Steam turbine

Chapter one
Introduction of steam turbine
1.1 principle of steam turbine
1.2 type of steam turbine
1.3 construction of steam turbine

introduction of steam turbine

Steam turbines are heart of power plant, steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy
from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern
manifestation was invented by Sir Charles Parsons in 1884.
In a power plant, the steam turbine is attached to a generator to produce electrical power. The
turbine acts as the more mechanical side of the system by providing the rotary motion for the
generator, while the generator acts as the electrical side by employing the laws of electricity and
magnetism to produce electrical power.

Steam turbines are made in a variety of sizes ranging from small 0.75 kW units used as
mechanical drives for pumps, compressors and other shaft driven equipment, to
1,500,000kW turbines used to generate electricity. Steam turbines are widely used for
marine applications for vessel propulsion systems. In recent times gas turbines , as
developed for aerospace applications, are being used more and more in the field of
power generation once dominated by steam turbines.

1.1 principle of steam turbine

Steam is first heated in a boiler, where it reaches a temperature of

approximately 1,000 F. It enters the turbine at a speed greater than
1,000 mph. The first valve that the steam encounters as it goes from the
boiler to the turbine is the Main Stop Valve (MSV), which is either fully
open or fully closed. The MSV does not control the steam flow other
than to completely stop it. The terms "throttle pressure" and "throttle
conditions" refer to steam as it is entering the MSV. The steam hits the
first row of blades at elevated pressure. Its pressure is so high, in fact,
that it can produce a torque with just a small surface area. The steam's
impact causes the rotor to begin turning. As the turbine stages progress,
however, the steam loses density, thus requiring increasingly large
surface areas. For this reason, the size of the blades increases with each
stage. When the steam leaves the turbine, it has dropped over 900 F and
has lost almost all of its elevated pressure. Most of the pressure drop
occurs across the diaphragm, which is a component between the outer
wall and inner web. Its partitions direct the steam at the rotating blades.

The steam must strike the blades at a specific angle that will maximize
the useful work of the steam's high pressure. This is where nozzles come
into play. Stationary rings of nozzles are placed between blade wheels to
"turn" the steam at the optimal angle for striking the blades. A thrust
bearing is mounted at one end of the main shaft to maintain its axial
position and keep the moving parts from colliding with stationary parts.
The journal bearing supports the main shaft and restricts it from
springing out of its casing at high speeds.
The exhaust hood guides steam from the last stage of the turbine, and it
is designed to minimize pressure loss, which would decrease the thermal
efficiency of the turbine. After the steam leaves the exhaust section of
the turbine, it enters a condenser, where it is cooled to its liquid state.
The process of condensing the steam creates a vacuum, which then
brings in more steam from the turbine. The water is returned to the
boiler, reheated, and used again.
The governor is a device that controls the speed of the turbine. Modern
turbines have an electronic governor that uses a sensor to monitor the
turbine speed by "looking" at the rotor teeth. The Ventilator Valve (VV)
also aids in controlling the turbine's speed. The VV is normally closed,
but in an overspeed situation, it drains steam. This steam comes from the
reheat section, which is forcing steam back through the turbine, and is
used to cool the high-pressure section.
On large output turbines the duty too large for one turbine and a number
of turbine casing/rotor units are combined to achieve the duty. These are
generally arranged on a common centre line (tandem mounted) but
parallel systems can be used called cross compound systems.

1.2 Types of Steam Turbines

There are complicated methods to properly harness steam power that give rise
to the two primary turbine designs: impulse and reaction turbines. These
different designs engage the steam in a different method so as to turn the
rotor. As water converts into steam, the molecules grow further apart. While
steam can exert pressure, it cannot exert the correct pressure needed to spin
the rotor quickly enough to generate electricity. Thus, a special design of rotor
is required to properly harness the steam and spin.
In an impulse turbine, nozzles direct the steam towards the rotors, which
are equipped with concave panels called buckets. The nozzles are able to
project a jet of steam that spins the rotor at a loss of roughly 10 percent
energy. As the jets change their position, they can increase or decrease the rate
of rotor spin.
A reaction turbine works opposite the impulse turbine. The steam nozzles
are attached to the rotor blades on opposite sides. The nozzles are so
positioned that when they release jets of stream, they propel the rotor in a
spinning motion that keeps it rotating as long as steam is being expelled. It
can reach high speeds because the nozzle designs focus the steam into a thin
stream, although the initial warm up period may take several moments.

1.3 construction of steam turbine :

As the latter is a development of the former, especially suited for handling

large volumes of steam, but having the same elements of construction such as
rotor, cylinder, governor, etc., and is operated in practically the same manner,
it is treated as a special case and the details of design such as direction and
regulation of flow of steam are discussed in a separate pamphlet.
The principal elements of construction are taken up as follows :