MECH7350 Rotating Machinery 1.

Introduction

1. INTRODUCTION

(This section is based largely on Black and Veatch)

Fig. 1.1 is a diagram of a typical pulverised coal-fuelled electrical generating facility. In this
section the main components are identified and an overview of the course is presented.
Throughout the course typical rotating machinery is explained. It is left to students to
identify features of particular plant in their situations.

Fig. 1.1 Typical pulverised coal fuelled electrical generating facility (from Black and Veatch)

1.1 Coal Handling and Pulverising

Coal is usually delivered to the facility by trains or long conveyor belts. The coal handling
system unloads the coal, then stacks, reclaims, crushes and conveys it to a storage silo. Coal
is fed from the storage silos, pulverised to a powder, and blown into the steam generator.

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MECH7350 Rotating Machinery 1. Introduction

There is rotating machinery in the coal handling and pulverising systems but it will not be
considered explicitly in this course. There are electric motors, gearboxes and mills that have,
for example, generic bearing and vibration issues but such issues will be addressed when
other parts of the overall facility are addressed.

1.2 Steam Generator

Pulverised coal is mixed with air in the steam generator and combusted, and the combustion
energy is used to produce, to superheat and to reheat steam. The only parts of the steam
generator that will be addressed are the forced draft fans.

1.3 Turbine
The steam turbine converts the thermal energy of the steam to rotating mechanical energy,
and the generator which is coupled to the turbine, converts the mechanical energy to
electrical energy. Aspects that are addressed include:
• Configurations
• Speed of rotation
• Design features
• Casings
• Couplings
• Alignment
• Rotors
• Balancing
• Blading
o Types of blade; impulse and reaction stages
o Materials
o Losses
o Blade attachment
o Blade vibration
o Blade erosion
• Bearings
• Bearing vibration
• Instrumentation
• Condition monitoring

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MECH7350 Rotating Machinery 1. Introduction

1.4 Generator
Aspects addressed include:
• Basics of synchronous generator theory
• Three-phase windings
• Rotor design features
• Bearings
• Rotor winding
• Sliprings, brushgear and shaft earthing
• Stator design features
• Stator winding
• Cooling
• Excitation systems
• Vibration
• Balancing
• Instrumentation
• Condition monitoring

1.5 Condenser and Cooling Towers

Steam exhausted from the low-pressure section of the steam turbine is condensed to liquid in
the condenser. The condensed water is moved from the condenser by condensate pumps
through low-pressure regenerative feedwater heaters to a deaerator. Boiler feed pumps move
the deaerated water through high pressure regenerative heaters to the steam generator. Other
pumps are used for circulating water through the cooling towers, and for oil lubrication.
Aspects of pumps that will be addressed include:
• Design features
• Performance
• Configurations
• Operating characteristics
• Cavitation

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MECH7350 Rotating Machinery 1. Introduction

1.6 Forced Draft, Primary Air and Induced Draft Fans

Combustion air is supplied to the steam generator by forced draft fans. Primary air fans
transport pulverised coal into the steam generator. Induced draft fans remove the flue gases
from the steam generator and exhaust them to the stack. Aspects of fans to be addressed
include:
• Design features
• Performance
• Configurations
• Operating characteristics

1.7 Electric Motors

The generator is the largest rotating electrical machine in a power generation plant.
However, many electric motors, large and small, are used. Issues to be addressed include:
• Rolling element bearings
• Balancing

1.8 Gearboxes
There are a number of large gearboxes in a modern power station, e.g. on the coal pulveriser.
Issues to be addressed include:
• Design of gear trains
• Rolling element bearings
• Fatigue
• Lubrication
• Condition monitoring

1.9 Other Types of Rotating Plant

Other types of rotating plant to be addressed are:
• Gas turbines, current and future
• Wind turbines
• Hydraulic turbines

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MECH7350 Rotating Machinery 1. Introduction

1.10 Fundamentals
Rotating machinery can fail catastrophically or wear to such an extent that performance is
degraded or there is a risk of catastrophic failure. To enable an appreciation of failure modes,
the course includes an introduction to the phenomena of wear and fracture mechanics of
materials.

Component failures are often caused by the cyclic forces that can develop in rotating
machinery. A fundamental understanding of the following is presented:
• Newtonian dynamics in rotating machinery
• Vibration theory
• Balancing
• Vibration measurement
• Condition monitoring
• Signal processing
• Fault diagnosis using vibration analysis

Basic understanding of the design, performance and behaviour of turbines, fans, pumps and
hydrodynamic lubrication requires some knowledge of fundamentals of fluid mechanics.
This is presented.

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