Engine & Turbine Technology
Novel strategies boost turbine efficiency
The challenge of keeping power plants at peak efficiency – when demand is growing and investment is in short supply – is forcing plant managers and equipment suppliers to consider all aspects of their operations. Sean Ottewell reports.
El desafío de mantener las centrales eléctricas al máximo de su eficacia (cuando la demanda va en aumento y la inversión es escasa) está forzando a los directores de las centrales y a los proveedores de equipos a considerar todos los aspectos de sus operaciones. Afirma Sean Ottewell.
Die Herausforderung, Kraftwerke bei wachsender Nachfrage und Mangel an Investitionen mit Spitzeneffizienz zu betreiben, zwingt Kraftwerksleiter und Anlagenzulieferer dazu, alle operativen Aspekte zu überdenken. Ein Bericht von Sean Ottewell.
Fig. 1. At 13 metres long, five metres high and 444 tonnes, the turbine weighs more than the world’s largest passenger airplane.
W
ith power demand growing and capital in short supply, plant managers are turning to new strategies in an effort to extend asset plant and
optimise plant performance. One example of this is the project by
NVision’s contract service division to reverse engineer the complete core of a steam turbine for a major original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in only six weeks compared to the six months that the OEM had budgeted for the project using less sophisticated measurement methods. “Measuring the critical blade geometry to
high levels of accuracy made it possible for the turbine manufacturer to perform simulations that helped to redesign the blades and diaphragms to substantially improve the energy efficiency of the hundreds of existing turbines,” said Steve Kersen, NVision president. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology gives engineers the opportunity to understand how flow affects the performance
of turbine blades and quickly and inexpensively evaluate alternative geometries by determining their impact on energy efficiency. In order to run CFD simulation it’s essential to have a CAD model that accurately depicts the as-built turbine geometry Nearly all of the turbines that are prime candidates for design upgrades were designed without a CAD model so reverse engineering is an essential first step to improving the turbine blade design. Te turbine rotor in this application measures 11 feet in length and 6 feet in diameter and was not available as a CAD model. NVision contract service division technicians scanned all of the turbine components in only three weeks using the NVision handheld non-contact scanner and touch probe at the OEM’s site and the MAXOS scanner in NVision’s Wixom, Michigan facility. Te NVision MAXOS scanner can measure complex geometry even if it has a shiny surface without the need for spraying and it is unaffected by the limitations of ball radius compensation from which traditional coordinate measuring machines suffer. According to the
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