Experiment no: 07

Steam turbine
Objective:
Steam turbine working
Steam turbine:
A steam turbine is a device that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it
to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft.

Because the turbine generates rotary motion, it is particularly suited to be used to drive an electrical
generator.

History:
The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by Sir Charles Parsons, whose first model was connected to
a dynamo that generated 7.5 kW (10 h p) of electricity. The invention of Parsons' steam turbine made cheap
and plentiful electricity possible and revolutionized marine transport and naval warfare. Parsons' design was
a reaction type. The Parsons turbine also turned out to be easy to scale up. Parsons had the satisfaction of
seeing his invention adopted for all major world power stations, and the size of generators had increased from
his first 7.5 kW set up to units of 50,000 kW capacity. Within Parson's lifetime, the generating capacity of a
unit was scaled up by about 10,000 times.

Working:
The four processes in the Rankin cycle:
There are four processes in the Rankin cycle. These states are identified by numbers (in brown) in the above
T-s diagram.
Process 1-2: The working fluid is pumped from low to high pressure. As the fluid is a liquid at this stage,
the pump requires little input energy.
Process 2-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler where it is heated at constant pressure by an
external heat source to become a dry saturated vapor.
Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power. This decreases the
temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some condensation may occur. The output in this process
can be easily calculated using the chart or tables noted above.
Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is condensed at a constant pressure to
become a saturated liquid.

Definition of Boiler:
Steam boiler or simply a boiler is basically a closed vessel into which water is heated
until the water is converted into steam at required pressure. This is most basic definition of boiler.

Working Principle of Boiler:

The basic working principle of boiler is very simple and easy to
understand. The boiler is essentially a closed vessel inside which water is stored. Fuel (generally coal) is bunt in
a furnace and hot gasses are produced. These hot gasses come in contact with water vessel where the heat of
these hot gases transfer to the water and consequently steam is produced in the boiler. Then this steam is
piped to the turbine of thermal power plant. There are many different types of boiler utilized for different
purposes like running a production unit, sanitizing some area, sterilizing equipment, to warm up the
surroundings etc.
Types of Boiler:

There are mainly two types of boiler

Water tube boiler and fire tube boiler.

Fire tube boiler vs water tube boiler:

In fire tube boiler, there are numbers of tubes through which hot gases are passed and water
surrounds these tubes. Water tube boiler is reverse of the fire tube boiler. In water tube boiler the water is
heated inside tubes and hot gasses surround these tubes.

Fire tube boiler:

As it indicated from the name, the fire tube boiler consists of numbers of tubes through
which hot gasses are passed. These hot gas tubes are immersed into water, in a closed vessel. Actually in fire
tube boiler one closed vessel or shell contains water, through which hot tubes are passed. These fire tubes or
hot gas tubes heated up the water and convert the water into steam and the steam remains in same vessel. As
the water and steam both are in same vessel a fire tube boiler cannot produce steam at very high pressure.
Generally it can produce maximum 17.5 kg/cm2 and with a capacity of 9 Metric Ton of steam per hour.
Types of Fire Tube Boiler
There are different types of fire tube boiler likewise,
1-External furnace and
2-Internal furnace fire tube boiler
External furnace boiler can be again categorized into three different types-
1. Horizontal Return Tubular Boiler.
2. Short Fire Box Boiler.
3. Compact Boiler.
Internal furnace fire tube boiler has also two main categories such as
1-Horizontal tubular and
2-vertical tubular fire tube boiler
Horizontal tube boiler:
Normally horizontal return fire tube boiler is used in thermal power plant of low
capacity. It consists of a horizontal drum into which there are numbers of horizontal tubes. These tubes are
submerged in water. The fuel (normally coal) burnt below these horizontal drum and the combustible gasses
move to the rear from where they enter into fire tubes and travel towards the front into the smoke box.
During this travel of gasses in tubes, they transfer their heat into the water and steam bubbles come up. As
steam is produced, the pressure of the boiler developed, in that closed vessel.
Advantages of Fire Tube Boiler:
It is quite compact in construction.
Fluctuation of steam demand can be met easily.
It is also quite cheap.
Disadvantages of Fire Tube Boiler
As the water required for operation of the boiler is quite large, it requires long time for rising steam at
desired pressure.
As the water and steam are in same vessel the very high pressure of steam is not possible.
The steam received from fire tube boiler is not very dry.
Water Tube Boiler:
A water tube boiler is such kind of boiler where the water is heated inside tubes and the hot gasses surround
them. This is the basic definition of water tube boiler. Actually this boiler is just opposite of fire tube boiler
where hot gasses are passed through tubes which are surrounded by water.
Types of Water Tube Boiler
There are many types of water tube boilers, such as
Horizontal Straight Tube Boiler.
Bent Tube Boiler.
Advantages of Water Tube Boiler
There are many advantages of water tube boiler due to which these types of boiler are essentially used in
large thermal power plant.
Larger heating surface can be achieved by using more numbers of water tubes.
Due to convectional flow, movement of water is much faster than that of fire tube boiler, hence
rate of heat transfer is high which results into higher efficiency.
Very high pressure in order of 140 kg/cm2 can be obtained smoothly.
Disadvantages of Water Tube Boiler
The main disadvantage of water tube boiler is that it is not compact in construction.
Its cost is not cheap.
Size is a difficulty for transportation and construction.
Types of Turbines:

1. Impulse Turbine.
2. Reaction Turbine.

The main difference between these two turbines lies in the way of expanding the steam while it moves
through them.

In the impulse turbine, the steam expands in the nozzles and it's pressure does not alter as it moves over the
blades.

In the reaction turbine the steam expanded continuously as it passes over the blades and thus there is
gradually fall in the pressure during expansion below the atmospheric pressure.

Simple impulse Turbine:

It the impulse turbine, the steam expanded within the nozzle and there is no
any change in the steam pressure as it passes over the blades
Reaction Turbine:
In this type of turbine, there is a gradual pressure drop and takes place continuously over
the fixed and moving blades. The rotation of the shaft and drum, which carrying the blades is the result of
both impulse and reactive force in the steam. The reaction turbine consists of a row of stationary blades and
the following row of moving blades.
The fixed blades act as a nozzle which are attached inside the cylinder and the moving blades are fixed with
the rotor as shown in figure
When the steam expands over the blades there is gradual increase in volume and decrease in pressure. But
the velocity decrease in the moving blades and increases in fixed blades with change of direction.
Because of the pressure drops in each stage, the number of stages required in a reaction turbine is much
greater than in a impulse turbine of same capacity.
It also concluded that as the volume of steam increases at lower pressures therefore the diameter of the
turbine must increase after each group of blade rings.
Condenser:
These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its gaseous to its liquid state at a pressure
below atmospheric pressure. Where cooling water is in short supply, an air-cooled condenser is often used.
AIR COOLED CONDENSERS
Air is used in the air cooled compressors to cool the water or steam.

Water cooled:
In water cooling water in cool form Is supplied in tubes and steam is passed through the
surfaces of this cool water pipe which condenses the steam.
Water Pumps :

Water pumps are devices designed to convert mechanical energy to hydraulic energy. All forms of water
pumps may be classified into two basic categories:
Turbo-hydraulic pumps,
Positive-displacement pumps.
Centrifugal Pumps:
Modern centrifugal pumps basically consist of two parts:-
1. The rotating element (commonly called the impeller);
2. The housing that encloses the rotating element and seals the pressurized liquid inside.
The power is supplied by a motor to the shaft of the impeller.
The rotary motion of the impeller creates a centrifugal force that enables the liquid to enter the pump
at the low-pressure region near the center (eye) of the impeller and to move along the direction of the
impeller vanes toward the higher-pressure region near the outside of the housing surrounding the
impeller.
The housing is designed with a gradually expanding spiral shape so that the entering liquid is led
toward the discharge pipe with minimum loss while the kinetic energy in the liquid is converted into
pressure energy.
Reciprocating pumps:
A reciprocating pump is a class of positive-displacement pumps which includes the
piston pump, plunger pump and diaphragm pump. It is often used where a relatively small quantity of liquid is
to be handled and where delivery pressure is quite large.