Aerodynamic Design and Prototype Testing of a New Line of High Efficiency, High Pressure, 50% Reaction Steam Turbines

Abstract

The aerodynamic design and prototype performance testing of a new line of high efficiency, high pressure (HP), 50% reaction steam turbines is described in some detail. Three designs were carried out that can be used in a repeating stage fashion to form high efficiency steam paths. The designs were performed employing a blade master concept. The masters can be aerodynamically scaled and cut to cover a wide range of applications while maintaining vector diagram integrity. Three equivalent prototype flow paths, one each for Gen 0, 1 and 2, masters were designed and tested in a Steam Turbine Test Vehicle (STTV). These prototype designs are representative of high pressure steam turbines for combined cycle power plants. Design of experiments is used to optimize the flow path, stage counts and diameters for production designs taking into account multidisciplinary design constraints. Four such Gen 1 steam path designs have been executed to date as part of a structured series of combined cycle power plants. [1-5] There are two A14 HEAT* (High Efficiency Advanced Technology) steam turbine HP flow paths for GE’s 107FA combined cycle power plants and two A15 HEAT HP flow paths for the 109FB. The larger of the A14 HEAT steam turbine HP’s has recently been performance tested at a customer site demonstrating world class efficiency levels of over 90% for this low volume flow combined cycle turbine [1]. HP volume flows are likely to drop even lower in the future with the need to go to higher steam inlet pressure for combined cycle efficiency improvements so steam path designs with high efficiency at low volume flow will be increasingly important.