DESIGN OF 20-30 MW RADIAL INFLOW STEAM TURBINE FOR POWER GENERATION
Keywords:
-Radial inflow steam turbine; meridional flow path design; MST; CFD; FEA;Abstract
— Radial inflow steam turbine technology is limited to turbocharger, waste heat recovery, gas turbine, solar,
thermal, nuclear and geothermal power plant application up to 2-3 MW. The radial turbines are cost effective solution
for power generation as compared to axial turbines. To understand whether radial turbine design can be scaled up to in
the range of 20-30 MW, effort were made to carry out the design of 20-30 MW radial turbine using in-house developed
program and commercial codes. Meridional flow path design is developed for 11 number of stages with stage loading
coefficient in the range of 0.982-1.12 keeping in view to minimize the number of stages. The overall flow path length is
achieved is approximately 2500 mm with total to static efficiency of 81%. A uniform tip clearance of 1 mm is assumed for
the estimation of efficiency. MST and CFD analysis is carried out to understand the flow and loss behavior within the
various components in the turbine. The flow path is modified iteratively to improve the flow behavior and associated
losses in the rotating as well as stationary passage. Further, to understand the mechanical behavior of the rotor, Finite
Element Analysis (FEA) of the rotor parts is carried out.
