Conversion at the N. D. Kuznetsova Samara Scientific and Technical Complex Joint Stock Company

Abstract

possibility possibility possibility devising it;Since the early 1970s the N. D. Kuznetsova Samara Scientific and Technical Complex Joint-Stock Company (N. D. Kuznetsova STNK AO) has been developing aircraft-type gas turbine engines (GTE) for the gas industry. Already in the late 1960s Academician N. D. Kuznetsov suggested that aircraft GTEs, after the end of their service life in aircraft, be used in various kinds of power installations on the ground on condition that the working temperature of the gases ahead of the turbine (the basic parameter determining the reliability and life of GTEs) be 150-200~ lower than in aircraft. This makes it possible to extend the life of engines on the ground by ten thousands of hours. It was found, moreover, that engines designed for work on the ground can use up to 70% of the parts and assemblies of aircraft engines, and that greatly reduces labor requirements and production costs of these engines. On the order of the Ministry of the Gas Industry the first gas-turbine engine (NK-12ST) was designed on the basis of the NK-12S turboprop aircraft engine used in the Tu-95, Tu-ll4, An-22 Antei aircraft, and it has been in operation since the end of 1974 in GPA-Ts-6,3 gas-pumping planm (GPP). At present these engines operate in 117 compressor stations in 852 GPPs. Most of the NK-12ST engines operated for about 600,000 h without repair.During the stages of design and operation of these engines the main postulates concerning the conversion of aircraft engines into various GTEs for the economy were formulated: high level of thermodynamic and gas-dynamic parameters; high technical level of design, enduring the building of GTE with large power, great reliability, and long life, and with small weight and overall dimensions of the assemblies; high level of production technology ensuring stability and good quality of production with high coefficient of metal utilization, lowering of metal content, reduced laboriousness, and production costs of the engines; possibility of using aircraft engines as gas generators of GTEs after they had been modified under test and operating conditions in aircraft; possibility of transporting them by helicopter to badly accessible regions, modular design; simplicity of operation of GTEs and no need of change of the external operating conditions; short time of starting and of attaining the nominal regime at low temperatures of the environment; of rapid assembly and start of the engine; of unification of engines for different purposes; of independent laboratory tests of separate assemblies of the engine so as to reduce time and costs of possibility of high-quality repair of engines under shop conditions. The conversion of aircraft engines into gas-turbine" installations for driving boosters of GPPs of electric power generators was carried out with a view to the following requirements: to ensure maximal possible efficiency of the power plant; trouble-free operation and longer life than in the basic engine; maximal ease of operation at gas-pumping stations and in pow...