Nonequilibrium Throughflow Analyses of Low-Pressure, Wet Steam Turbines

Abstract

The paper describes a throughflow computational method that combines wet steam theory with an axisymmetric streamline curvature technique in order to predict nonequilibrium effects in low-pressure steam turbines. The computer program developed is able to deal with both subsonic and fully choked supersonic flows, and steam properties are represented by a truncated virial equation of state. A number of theoretical test cases have been investigated, including the nonequilibrium flow in the primary nucleating stage of a low-pressure turbine and the complete analysis of a six-stage, 320-MW operational turbine. The calculations are the first of their kind in being able to provide information on the spanwise variation of the Wilson point, the average droplet size nucleated, the degree of supercooling throughout the flowfield, the thermodynamic wetness loss, and the nonequilibrium choking mass flow rate in addition to the aerodynamic parameters which are of interest to the designer.