The Gas-Dynamic Efficiency Increase of the K-300 Series Steam Turbine Control Compartment

The paper proposes ways to increase the efficiency of nozzle control for steam power turbines of the K-300 series, that, along with the K-200 series turbines, form the basis of thermal energy in Ukraine. The object of study is considered to be the control compartment (CC) of the high-pressure cylinder (HPC) of the K-325-23.5 steam turbine. In the paper, the calculation and design of the control compartment of the steam turbine was performed using the complex methodology developed in IPMach NAS of Ukraine, that includes methods of different levels of complexity, from one-dimensional to models for calculation of spatial viscous flows, as well as analytical methods for spatial geometries of flow parts description based on limited number of parameterized values. The complex design methodology is implemented in the IPMFlow software package, which is a development of the FlowER and FlowER–U software packages. A model of a viscous turbulent flow is based on the numerical integration of an averaged system of Navier-Stokes equations, for the closure of which the two-term Tamman equation of state is used. Turbulent phenomena were taken into account using a SST Menter two-parameter differential turbulence model. The research was conducted for six operation modes in the calculation area, which consisted of more than 3 million cells (elementary volumes), taking into account the interdiscand diaphragm leakage. According to the results of numerical studies of the original control compartment of the K-325-23.5 steam turbine, it is shown that the efficiency in the flow part is quite low in all operation modes, including the nominal one (100% power mode), due to large losses of kinetic energy in the equalization chamber, as well as inflated load on the first stage. On the basis of the performed analysis of gas-dynamic processes, the directions of a control compartment flow part modernization are formed and themodernization itself is executed. In the new flow part, compared to the original one, there is a favorable picture of the flow in all operation modes, which ensures its high gas-dynamic efficiency. Depending on the mode, the efficiency of the control compartment increased by 4.9–7.3%, and the capacity increased by 1–2 MW. In the nominal mode (100% mode) the efficiency of the new control compartment, taking into account the interdisc and overbandage leakage, is 91%.