Steam turbines

Steam turbines are devices which convert the energy stored in steam into rotational mechanical energy. The machines are widely used for the generation of electricity in a number of different cycles, such as: Rankine cycle Reheat cycle Regenerative cycle Combined cycle The steam turbine may consists of several stages. Each stage can be described by analysing the expansion of steam from a higher pressure to a lower pressure. The steam may be wet, dry saturated or superheated.

Considering the steam turbine s=cycle shown above. The output Power of the turbine at steady flow condition is; P = m (h1-h2) Where m is the mass flow of the steam through the turbine and h1 and h2 are specific enthalpy of the steam at inlet respective outlet of the turbine

The efficiency of the steam turbines is often described by the isentropic efficiency for expansion process. The presence of water droplets in the steam will reduce the efficiency of the turbine and cause physical erosion of the blades. Therefore the dryness fraction of the stream at the outlet of the turbine should not be less than 0.9

How a steam turbines operate.

In a steam turbine the high-pressure steam from the boiler expands in a set of Stationary blades or vanes (or nozzles). The high-velocity steam from the nozzles Strikes the set of moving blades .The kinetic energy of the steam is used to produce work on the turbine rotor. And Low-pressure steam then exhausts to the condenser. There are two classical types of turbine stage designs: the impulse stage the reaction stage. Steam turbines can be noncondensing or condensing. In noncondensing turbines (or backpressure turbines) steam exhausts at a pressure greater than atmospheric. Steam then leaves the turbine and is utilized in other parts of the plant that use the heat of the steam for other processes. The backpressure turbines have very high efciencies (range from 67% to 75%). A multi-stage condensing turbine is a turbine in which steam exhausts to a condenser and is condensed by air-cooled condensers. The exhaust pressure from the turbine is less than the atmospheric. In this turbine, cycle efciency is low because a large part of the steam energy is lost in the condenser.