Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the Effects of Real Shape Modeling and Non-Equilibrium Condensation Modeling on the Flow Pattern in Steam Turbine

This study presents the results of measurements in a scaled model turbine test rig operated at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. In this paper, the flow pattern obtained by traverse measurements is compared with the results of CFD. In order to investigate the flow field in the low pressure steam turbine, the tests are carried out using a test turbine (4 stages) of × 0.33 scale. The velocity and pressure fields are evaluated by traverse measurements. The corresponding CFD are performed by ANSYS CFX. Generally, shroud and stub are used in last stage rotating blades of industrial steam turbine to provide high structural stability by increasing stiffness and damping. In this study, the shroud and stub are modeled in CFD to evaluate the effect on flow pattern. Besides, in order to evaluate the effects of super cooling in blade rows, non-equilibrium condensation is modeled in CFD by ANSYS CFX. The computation model is constructed as accurate reproduction of the scaled model test steam turbine including some steam pipes, supporting sheet metal and the measurement equipment such as traverse pipes and instruments. However, the simple computation model which consists of blade rows with cavities (multi stages) and short diffuser is applied for non-equilibrium condensation calculation due to convergence problems. Comparative evaluation of the test results with the corresponding CFD results showed that the flow patterns predicted by CFD are good. In order to capture the flow pattern characteristics by CFD, it is necessary to consider both real shape modeling and non-equilibrium condensation modeling.