Research on Pneumatic–liquid On-Line Automatic Balance Technology for High-End Turbine Units

Abstract

Rotor mass imbalance is the main cause of vibration overload of high-end turbine units, which can easily induce a variety of failures such as shaft tile and seal wear, and blade breakage. The online automatic balancing system can solve the problem of imbalance of rotor mass during the operation of the equipment, and at the same time can ensure the long-term stable operation of the equipment. Therefore, a new pneumatic–liquid on-line automatic balance (PLOABS) system is proposed for high-end turbine units, which has the advantages of simple structure, no moving parts in the rotating element, closed action environment, reversible balancing process and can maintain the original state when restarted. Using ANSYS software, the gas driving force and the internal gas–liquid rotating flow field of the actuator are simulated and analyzed, and the actuator structure has been further optimized. At the same time, a set of the PLOABS system is built to conduct automatic balancing experiments. The results showed that the rotor amplitude was reduced from 18.3 to 10.6 μm, which verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the PLOABS technology and laid the foundation for the subsequent engineering application of the PLOABS technology.