Numerical and experimental investigations of steam condensation in LP part of a large power turbine

This paper presents the experimental investigations of steam flow with condensation in the blading system of the low-pressure (LP) part of a 360 MW turbine. To this end, special probes were used, which provided flow visualization opportunities including localization of the front of condensation, determining distributions of pressure, temperature, velocity, and flow angle in the inter-row gaps, measurements of water droplet concentration and sizes. The measurements have proved that the condensation process in the LP turbine might be of heterogeneous nature, depending on the concentration of chemical impurities in steam. The measurement results constituted the basis for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow calculations, which were performed using the time-dependent 3D Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations coupled with two-equation turbulence model (k-ω SST) and additional conservation equations for the liquid phase. The set of governing equations has been closed by a "local" real gas equation of state. The condensation phenomena were modeled on the basis of the classical nucleation theory. The heterogeneous condensation model on the insoluble and soluble impurities was implemented into presented CFD code. The system of governing equations was solved by means of a finite volume method on a multiblock structured grid. The obtained numerical results and experimental data were compared and discussed.