Introduction

 Turbine is a rotary engine that converts the energy of a

moving stream of water, steam, or gas into mechanical
energy
 A Turbine is a device which converts the heat energy of
steam into the kinetic energy & then to rotational
energy.
Classifications of Turbines
 Steam turbines
 Hydraulic, or water turbines,
 Gas turbines
 Steam turbine
 A steam turbine is a mechanical device that extracts
thermal energy from pressurized steam, and converts
it into useful mechanical work.
 A steam turbine converts stored energy of high pressure
and high temperature steam into rotating energy
 The Motive Power in a steam turbine is obtained by the
rate of change in momentum of a high velocity jet of
steam impinging on a curved blade which is free to
rotate
Working principle
 Steam from the boiler is expanded in the nozzle blade
passages to produce high velocity jets, which impinge on
the rotor blades mounted on a disc and shaft.
 The rate of change of momentum of steam flow across
the rotor blades produces the required torque for the
shaft to rotate. The conversion of energy across the blade
rows takes place by impulse, reaction or impulse
reaction principle.
There are two principles through which turbine operate.
They are
 Impulse principle
 Reaction principle.
Impulse principle
 Thermal energy of steam is converted to kinetic energy
in turbine nozzle. Kinetic energy to be converted to blade
become mechanical energy and transferred through rotor,
shaft and coupling to the load.
Impulse turbines: Fluid is sent through a nozzle
that then impinges on the rotating blades, called
buckets.
Reaction turbines: Instead of using water jets,
reaction turbines fill a volute with swirling water
that rotates the runner blades.
 The steam passes through the stationary nozzles and is directed at
high velocity against the rotor buckets causing the rotor to rotate at
high speed.
 If steam at high pressure is allowed to expand through a stationary
nozzle, the result will be a drop in the steam pressure and an
increase in steam velocity.
 If this high velocity steam is applied to a properly shaped turbine
blade, the steam will change in direction due to the shape of the
blade.
 The effect of this change in direction of the steam flow will be to
produce an impulse force on the blade causing it to move.
 If the blade is attached to the rotor of a turbine, then the rotor will
revolve.
Reaction principle:
 In reaction turbine, there is no nozzle to convert steam
energy to mechanical energy. Moving blades work due to
differential pressure of steam between front and at
behind of moving blades.
Steam Turbine Stage
A turbine stage consists of stationary stator row(guide
vanes or nozzle ring) and rotating rotor row
 In the guide vanes high pressure, high temperature
steam is expanded resulting in high velocity.
 The guide vanes direct the flow to the rotor blades at an
appropriate angle.
 In the rotor, the flow direction is changed and kinetic
energy of the working fluid is absorbed by the rotor shaft
producing mechanical energy
 The distinguishing feature of the reaction turbine is the fact that the
pressure does drop across the moving blades.
 In other words there is a pressure difference between the inlet to
the moving blades and the outlet from the moving blades
Application of Steam Turbines
 Power generation
 Petrochemical refineries
 Pharmaceuticals
 Food processing
 Petroleum / gas processing
 Paper mills
 Sugar industry
 Waste-to-energ
 Classifications of Steam Turbine
Steam turbines can be classified in several different ways:
By details of stage design
Impulse or reaction
By steam supply and exhaust conditions
 Condensing or non-condensing
 Automatic or controlled extraction
 Mixed pressure
 Reheat
By casing or shaft arrangement
Single casing, tandem compound or cross compound
By number of exhaust stages in parallel
Two flow, four flow or six flow
By direction of steam flow
Axial flow, radial flow or tangential flow
 Selection of steam Turbine
In all fields of application the competitiveness of a
steam turbine is a combination of several factors:
Efficiency
Life
 Power density (power to weight ratio)
Direct operation cost
Manufacturing and maintenance costs
Losses in Steam Turbines
Profile Loss: Due to development of boundary layers on blade surfaces. It
is influenced by the factors like Reynolds number, surface roughness, exit
Mach number and trailing edge thickness.

Secondary Loss: Due to development of boundary layers on the casing and

hub walls. The influence factors are similar to those for the profile loss.
Tip Leakage Loss: Due to clearance between rotor blades and casing wall
as well as between stator blades and rotating hub. The extent of tip leakage
depends on whether the turbine is impulse or reaction. Due to pressure drop
across the moving blades of reaction turbine, they are more prone to tip
leakages.

Disc Windage Loss: Due to fluid friction on the turbine disc surfaces as
they rotate in a steam atmosphere. The result is a reduction in shaft power and an
increase in kinetic energy and heat energy of steam.
Lacing Wire Loss: Due to flow blockage created by the presence of lacing
wires in long blade of LP stages.

Wetness Loss: Due to moisture entrained in the low pressure steam at the
exit of LP turbine. The loss manifests in: firstly, a reduction in turbine
efficiency due to energy absorption by the water droplets, and secondly,
erosion of rotor blade leading edges in last stags

Annulus Loss: Due to significant amount of diffusion between adjacent

stages or where wall cavities occur between the fixed and moving blades.
The extent of loss is greatly reduced at high annulus area ratios if the
expansion of steam is controlled by a flared casing wall.

Leaving Loss: Due to kinetic energy of steam leaving the last stage of LP
turbine. In practice, the steam slows down a bit after leaving the last blade,
due to frictional losses.
 GOVERNING OF STEAM TURBINE
Functions:
 To maintain constant shaft speed at all loads
 To maintain constant steam flow through turbine
 To maintain constant pass out and inlet/outlet steam pressures at all
flows
Methods of governing:
 Throttle governing
 Nozzle control governing
 By-pass governing
 Fly ball speed governing etc
Protection Requirements
 Over speed
 Low Lube oil pressure
 Low vacuum
 Axial shift
 High Vibration
 Bearing temperature
 High/low extraction pressure
 Exhaust temperature
 Generator / Compressor protections
 Merit and demerits of steam turbine
Merits
 Ability to utilize high pressure and high temperature
steam.
 High component efficiency.
 High rotational speed.
 High capacity/weight ratio.
 Smooth, nearly vibration-free operation.
 No internal lubrication.
 Oil free exhaust steam.
Can be built in small or very large units (up to 1200 MW).
Demerits
 For slow speed application reduction gears are required.
 The steam turbine cannot be made reversible.
 The efficiency of small simple steam turbines is poor.
 Velocity diagram of an impulse turbine
 Let the steam jet is coming from nozzle. After that it entering a
curved blade and leaving the nozzle .
 The jet glides over the inside surface and leaves the blade . Let us
draw the steam turbine velocity diagram. Assume, it creates at an
angle a to the tangent of the wheel with a velocity V1 which is the
absolute velocity of steam. This absolute velocity V1 has two
components.
 One tangential component Vw1 and another axial component
Vf1.Here Vw1 denotes the velocity of whirl at entry of moving
blades and since it is the same direction of the motion of moving
blades so it is the actual component which does work on blades.
 Vf1 is the velocity of flow at entrance, so it is perpendicular to the
direction of blade. Motion and it does not any work, but this is the
component which is fully responsible for flow of steam through
the turbine
Combined velocity diagram for Delawal steam turbine
where
V1andV2 = Inlet and outlet absolute velocity
Vr1and Vr2= Inlet and outlet relative velocity (Velocity relative
to the rotor blades.)
U = mean blade speed
α1= nozzle angle, α2= absolute fluid angle at outlet
It is to be mentioned that all angles are with respect to the tangential
velocity ( in the direction of U )
β1 and β2 = Inlet and outlet blade angles
Vw1 and Vw2 = Tangential or whirl component of absolute velocity
at inlet and outlet
Vf1and Vf2= Axial component of velocity at inlet and outlet