The Application and Numerical Study of Highly Loaded Blades in the Industrial Steam Turbine

Abstract

Keywords: highly loaded blade; industrial steam turbine; aerodynamic design; CFD. Abstract. The blades are the key components of industrial steam turbine, and the manufacturing of the blade is about one third of total manufacturing. Reduction of the number of the blades is will lower the manufacturing cost. In the present paper, the aim of the research is to develop high efficient highly loaded blades, and bring forward the design methods and requirements adapting to use for highly loaded of industrial steam turbine. The full 3D aerodynamic design software, are used to the aerodynamic design of the highly loaded baldes. The research is consist of the flow characteristics around the stator and rotor blade profiles in the transonic flow region, the spatial stacking method and the stages matching. In this design, the inlet angle of stator increased to 50˚, stage load increased by 30%, the full 3D aerodynamic performance of the last stage flow field is also analyzed. The design is conducted for a industrial steam at design flow rate with a signle workstation. It is demonstrated that the highly loaded blade design produces performance gains at design point and also at off-design points. At the same time, the number of stages in the industrial steam turbine is reduced by 1/4, and the manufacturing cost is greatly reduced.