Experimental steam turbine T10MW cold end cooling by water spraying

Abstract

The paper deals with steam flow in experimental turbine T10MW, located in Škoda laboratory. The flow was examined for low or negative outputs of the turbine, i.e. for the so called last stages ventilation. The flow path of the turbine was in the Boiler Feed Pump Turbine (BFPT) version. It had all together 4 stages out of which two were last stages with the outlet to the condenser. In the area of each of the two outlets cooling nozzles were located with water for cooling the outlet steam flow and the area of last blades root cross-sections. Cooling of these areas is necessary due to the compression heat that occurs in the off design (ventilation) regimes. Various proportional amounts of cooling water and flowing steam were tested experimentally in constant pressure behind both last stages. Due to the fact that the flow path and the exhaust hood were fitted with many static pressure taps, thermometers and with the possibility of probing the temperature field along the outlet cross-section height, a number of results were achieved. These were mainly the turbine outputs, steam flows through the blades and cooling nozzles, determination of saturation limits in individual places at the outlet as well as temperature differences measured by the probe and stable thermometers. It was found out that the amount of cooling water was oversized for blade roots cooling, while the flow at the tip was cooled only minimally. The results are beneficial both in terms of further research of steam turbines in low regimes because this is how most newly produced machines are operated and for the designers of these machines.