Wet Steam Flow Ionization and Prospects to Practically Apply Electrical Discharge Devices in Turbo Installations

• Main Authors: Anatolii O. Tarelin, Iryna Ye. Annopolska
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: NAS of Ukraine, A. Pidhornyi Institute of Mechanical Engineering Problems 2019-06-01
• Series: Journal of Mechanical Engineering
• Subjects: steam flow; supersonic nozzle; ionization; non-equilibrium processes; wet steam turbine; efficiency
• Online Access: https://journal-me.com/archive/en/2019/2019_2_1_eng.pdf
• ISSN: 2709-2984; 2709-2992

This paper considers the experimental studies on steam flow ionization in a supersonic nozzle and possibility of artificial flow ionization influence on unequal-weight processes in the low-pressure cylinder and an increase in turbine efficiency. Results of studies to assess the effect of barrier and corona ionizers on the process of intensifying fine-dispersed wetness in a supersonic nozzle are presented. It is shown that ionization allows intensifying the proc-ess condensation of steam in the form of fine wetness, reduce film condensa-tion and coarse-particle wetness concentration, reduce the levels of super-cooling and condensation non-stationarity. The range of parameters at which steam ionization is most effective is determined. Advantages and disadvan-tages of using barrier and corona ionizers are considered. Given are depend-encies, and determined are flow dispersion and condensation nuclei concen-tration at which the process of steam expansion approaches equilibrium. It is shown that the positive effects arising from steam ionization are comparable to the use, in turbines, of metered chemical additions. At the same time, steam ionization has a number of significant advantages. Possible options for im-plementing the use of ionizers in the law-pressure cylinders of wet steam tur-bines are considered both at the stage of creating or upgrading turbines and for the existing turbine plants. It is shown that in the future, the use of ionizers will increase the efficiency and economy of turbine stages operating in the two-phase region, and increase the efficiency of turbine units by 1–1.5%.