The influence of condenser pressure variation and tip leakage on low pressure steam turbine exhaust hood flows

Burton, Zoe; Ingram, Grant; Hogg, Simon

doi:10.1177/0957650914524190

The influence of condenser pressure variation and tip leakage on low pressure steam turbine exhaust hood flows

Burton, Zoe; Ingram, Grant; Hogg, Simon

Authors

Zoe Burton

Professor Grant Ingram g.l.ingram@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Professor Simon Hogg simon.hogg@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the importance of the accurate computational modelling of both the inlet and outlet exhaust hood boundary conditions. The computations presented are calculated using the public domain low pressure exhaust diffuser test case proposed by Burton in 2012. The original test case did not include the effect of tip leakage on diffuser flows, but this paper describes the inclusion of tip leakage and the results are shown to be in line with the outputs produced by other authors. The key advance in this paper is that calculations were conducted with a representative condenser pressure gradient caused by the temperature variation inside the condenser tube nest. It is shown that accurately modelling the exit boundary calculation has a large influence on the flow structure and a smaller influence on the pressure recovery inside the exhaust diffuser. This influence is smaller than that seen by other authors when including unsteady effects or accounting for the circumferential non-uniformity of the turbine exit flow but will need to be included in design calculations as diffuser design advances.

Citation

Burton, Z., Ingram, G., & Hogg, S. (2014). The influence of condenser pressure variation and tip leakage on low pressure steam turbine exhaust hood flows. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 228(4), 370-379. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957650914524190

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jan 19, 2014
Online Publication Date	Feb 21, 2014
Publication Date	Jun 1, 2014
Deposit Date	Aug 14, 2015
Publicly Available Date	Feb 4, 2016
Journal	Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A: Journal of Power and Energy
Print ISSN	0957-6509
Electronic ISSN	2041-2967
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	228
Issue	4
Pages	370-379
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/0957650914524190
Keywords	Steam turbine, Exhaust hood, Diffuser, Tip leakage, Condenser, Computational fluid dynamics.

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Copyright Statement
Burton, Zoe and Ingram, Grant and Hogg, Simon (2014) 'The influence of condenser pressure variation and tip leakage on low pressure steam turbine exhaust hood flows.', Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part A : journal of power and energy., 228 (4). pp. 370-379. Copyright © IMechE 2014. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.