Efficiency improvements in an industrial steam turbine stage - Part 2

Improvement in isentropic total to total efficiency of a low reaction turbine stage by airfoil redesign was considered in first part of the paper. Further, modifications in the flow path of the baseline stage is considered in second part of the paper. Flow path of the baseline stage incorporates axisymmetric meridional endwall contour(commonly called Russian kink). For a stage comprising of high aspect ratio blades, assessment of performance with endwall contour is performed. Alternatives, if required for endwall contour had to be explored and numerically verified. Endeavor in the present paper is in this direction. Static pressure distribution at the stator exit is considered as the main objective. Along with flow path modification, stator modifications like vortexing and lean are attempted to obtain stator exit static pressure distribution similar to baseline case. Straight lean on stator provides good results in terms of reducing stator exit pressure gradient as well as reducing gradient of rotor inlet swirl. Since the pressure distribution at stator exit also drives the tip leakage flow, effect of flowpath and stator modifications on tip leakage flow is studied. Performance numbers are reported for cases with and without tip shroud.