Kane Chandler (Energy)
One of the unresolved issues for condensing flow in large steam
turbines is correct prediction of the droplet size distribution.
Optical measurements taken in the later stages of LP steam turbines
have shown that the time-averaged droplet size spectra are much broader
with larger average diameters than predicted by most theoretical and
computational methods. Previous work has suggested that the broad
distributions might stem from unsteadiness created by the interaction
between successive blade rows – the so-called ’wake-chopping’ effect.
The current results of multi-stage 3D CFD calculations aimed at
investigating the impact of such unsteadiness on the condensation
process support this hypothesis.
