Operating Instructions

Deposition of Steam-path Section and Cleaning 4-0600-01-01

Deposition of Steam-path Section and Cleaning

The steam admitted into the turbine always carries, more or less, some impurities, which will adhere to and settle on the blade surface to form a deposit during flowing with the steam. The layer of the deposit will greaten surface roughness of the blade, alter the blade profile, narrow the steam path and consequently decrease the turbine output due to reduced steam flow and efficiency. Besides an increase in the axial thrust, the deposit on the blade not only increases the flexure and centrifugal stresses of the blade but also corrode the blade resulting in blade service life shortened. Meanwhile, the deposit on the valve stem spindle is likely to cause the emergency stop valve and control valve stuck. A great deal of turbines operating experience has shown that the deposition of the steam-path section impairs not only the economical operation but also the safety and reliability of the turbine. Therefore, it must pay enough attention to the control of steam quality. The steam quality will be affected by various factors. It is mainly related with the treatment of the boiler water and feed water and the operation of the boiler with the given boiler type and inner devices. The steam quality can be enhanced through perfectly treating the water and properly operating the boiler. Of course, the perfect treatment of the feed water requires a certain cost, especially for the turbine that needs a large amount of the supplement water. However, if only the turbine output is sought for but the control of the steam quality omitted, the result should be not worth the candle. The increase of the steam quality may prolong the efficient operation duration of the turbine. However, the in the turbine is unavoidable. The extent of deposition of the steam-path section can be judged though monitoring the chamber pressure (see 3-2010for details). When the chamber pressure exceeds the permitted value, the cleaning should be carried out in time. Based on the deposit components, which are related with the feed water quality and treatment equipment and technics, various methods may be adopted in leaning the steam-path section. In the most cases, the deposition includes salt and silicon deposits. The salt deposit mainly contains NaCl, Na2So4, silicate and etc, which are soluble in water, while the silicate deposit contains insoluble SiO2SiO2 with different crystal structures and very strong depositing potency. Its deposited layer is very hard. Usually, the method of manual cleaning, flushing with wet steam or chemical flushing is used in cleaning the deposition. When the manual cleaning method is used during turbine overhaul, lift out the rotor and place it on the supports prepared. Firstly, flush the rotor with high-pressure water or solvent, and then remove the deposit manually with scraper and sand paper. It should be careful so as not to damage the blade when doing so. Flushing with wet steam is one of the common cleaning methods. The saturated steam
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Operating Instructions
Deposition of Steam-path Section and Cleaning 4-0600-01-01

produced by the cleaning device (temperature-decreased pressure reducer) is led in the turbine under operation state for flushing the deposits. The salt deposit will be removed by the condensate in the wet steam. For the deposit formed by the compound of salt and SiO2, after the soluble compound has been flushed off, the layer of insoluble SiO2 deposit will be consequently disintegrated and removed. In some cases when the flushing with wet steam cannot clean the silicon deposit efficiently, the chemical flushing should be used. With this method, the chemical, such as NaOH solution, is added in the flushing steam. Owing to the generation of Na2Si2O5 resulted from the reaction of the NaOH and SiO2, the silicon deposit can be removed. Since the chemical will corrodes the turbine components, the concentration of the additive and flushing temperature should be strictly controlled. Furthermore, the turbine should be flushed with pure wet steam again after chemical flushing to avoid the residual additive corroding the blade. In order to prevent the deformation of the casing, the casing temperature should be reduced to the temperature of the flushing steam before flushing. If the operation condition permitted, reduced the inlet steam parameters gradually in the process of unloading and stopping to decrease the casing temperature. This may shorten the cooling time of the casing before flushing. In order to reach the good effect n flushing, the saturated steam admitted into the turbine should not be throttled, namely the nozzle controlling valves should be fully opened (the valves 1st to 4th are nozzle controlling valves for most of the turbines). The turbine speed when flushing is decided based on the actual condition. It may be any speed between the rated and governor lower limit speeds. During flushing, regularly sample the condensate for chemist analysis, sampling at the drain port of the exhaust piping for backpressure turbine and the discharge of the condensate pump for condensing turbine. In order to keep the validity of the flushing, it is required to adjust the parameter of the flushing steam continually. This is because when the temperature in the steam-path section reached the temperature of the saturated steam, the steam cannot be condensed to generate the condensate on the blade surface so that the flushing action is weakened. Therefore the temperature and pressure of the flushing steam should be adjusted in time during flushing based on the analysis result of the condensate. The draining in the process of flushing must be thorough, closely monitor the turbine speed, listen in the sound from the turbine, preventing water hammer. After flushing, the turbine interior should be kept dry and start the turbine as early as possible to prevent the corrosion during shutdown.
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Operating Instructions
Deposition of Steam-path Section and Cleaning 4-0600-01-01

After the turbine has been put into operation again, assess the flushing effect based on the chamber pressure. The flushing under load for the turbine driving the generator may be carried out according to the turbine operation procedure prepared by ministry of electric power. For the turbine driving the machine, it is recommended to flush the turbine after the driven machine is separated from the process. For the user lacking of the experience in turbine flushing, especially for the chemical cleaning, it is better to flush the turbine together with the professional cleaning company.

Hangzhou Steam Turbine Company Limited

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