Session: 21-01: Last Stage Blades and Low Pressure Sections

Paper Number: 128909

128909 - Development of a Low-Pressure Section for Industrial Power Generation Application 

The Low Pressure (LP) stages are critical components in any steam turbine product line, as their contribution has a significant impact on overall expansion and their specific operability design limits may pose restriction to the turbine operation.

The authors' company designed a new family of LP stages for power generation applications aimed at improving the efficiency and the overall design of the existing low pressure sections for 50 Hz and 60 Hz  industrial power generation applications of a comparable annulus area.

Industrial power generation comprises a wide range of applications for fixed speed 50 Hz and 60 Hz LP stages, especially in Waste to Energy plants, Concentrated Solar Power plant, Geothermal plants, Combined Cycles plants, Captive Power plants and more recently, energy transition process power plants (e.g. green hydrogen production). This large mix of applications, establish an ample set of requirements in terms, among the others, of off design performances, frequent start up, high exhaust pressure capability and capability to sustain operation in low load and erosion promoting conditions which poses a specific challenge in the definition of a single optimal design

This paper will presents a broad review of the typical operational and design requirements dictated by the various industrial power generation applications along with the summary of the all the phases of the design with focus on the technology related aspects of the different components developed, including exhaust system.

Presenting Author: Nicola Maceli Baker Hughes

Presenting Author Biography: Nicola Maceli is a Principal Engineer with Baker Hughes Nuovo Pignone in Florence, Italy. Nicola got his degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florence in 2001 and joined Nuovo Pignone in 2004 as a Design Engineer. He started his professional journey in steam turbine engineering more than 15 years ago, and in the last five years he has also worked on the development of some of the axial expanders that are required in the novel energy transition cycles, for example in energy storage systems and sCO2 expanders. He pursued a Ph.D. program and defended his thesis in 2021 on the performance loss caused by non-equilibrium condensation in the low-pressure stages of steam turbines. He is author/coauthor of a number of technical articles mainly related to steam turbine and gas turbine aerodynamics

Authors:

Lorenzo Arcangeli Baker Hughes
Antonio Aquilino Baker Hughes
Filippo Brazzini Baker Hughes
Lorenzo Cosi Baker Hughes
Nicola Maceli Baker Hughes
Sara Rizzi Baker Hughes