Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Steam Turbine Exhaust Hood Flow Field With Two Types of Diffusers

Abstract

The exhaust hood performance of LP turbine plays an important role in the efficiency of steam turbine. By improving the exhaust performance, the kinetic energy of the last stage rotating blades can be converted to the potential energy and it becomes possible to improve the turbine efficiency. However, the flow field in the diffuser is closely related to the flow pattern of the last stage rotating blade, and the flow field inside the exhaust chamber afterward has a complicated three dimensional flow field. Therefore, in this study, it conducted a scaled model steam turbine test using two types of diffusers and CFD, and evaluated exhaust performance and flow pattern. The verification test was carried out using a test turbine (4 stages) of × 0.33 scale, the velocity field and the pressure field were evaluated by traverse and the wall pressure measurements. The corresponding CFD was calculated by ANSYS CFX. All four stages of blades and seals, exhaust chambers were accurately modeled. Due to the detailed CFD, the internal flow of the exhaust chamber exhibiting complicated three-dimensionality was visualized and the flow pattern was evaluated. The verification test results and the corresponding CFD results were compared and evaluated, and it has been found that the overall performance predicted by CFD is well showing the verification test result. Therefore, it has been found that CFD can help to understand the internal flow of the exhaust chamber exhibiting complex three-dimensional characteristics.