Influence of Shroud Cavity Jet and Steam Admission Through a Circumferential Slot on the Flow Field in a Steam Turbine

Abstract

Steam turbines for industrial application are often constructed according to modular design concepts. This allows interchangeable combinations of modules including steam admission and extraction. Prior to field tests the flow in a typical stage configuration of such a steam turbine is predicted numerically. Focus of the current work is the axial gap between high pressure and intermediate pressure part containing a circumferential slot. Mass flow used for axial thrust balancing re-enters the blade channel through this slot. Another exceptional feature appears at the high pressure vane carrier: For manufacturing reasons the last rotor shroud next to and upstream of the gap is not fully enclosed by the vane carrier. This results in a turbulent jet at the exit of the rotor shroud cavity mixing with both the blade channel flow as well as the incoming flow from the slot. A commercial 3D RANS CFD-solver (ANSYS CFX 12) is used to predict the mixing of the different flow partitions within the stage gap. Therefore, the last stage of the high pressure part, the gap with the slot and the first stage of the intermediate pressure part are modeled and solved numerically. The amount of flow through the circumferential slot is varied to discern the influences of the specific flow partitions. Additionally, a modification of the vane carrier helps to analyze radial distribution of incoming flow for the downstream vane row as well as scoring global loss characteristics. As the simulation results indicate, flow parameters up- and downstream and also fluctuations crossing the gap are affected by flow through the slot. Furthermore, the computed flow field shows locations appropriate for a traversing probe system to be used in the test facility.