Steam Turbine Modeling

Abstract

Steam turbines are one of the most important equipment for generating electricity. A steam turbine is a rotating device that converts a large part of steam kinetic and thermal energy into mechanical energy for driving a generator. High-temperature steam from the boiler is fed to the steam turbine, where it imparts its energy to the rotor blades. In each blade row, the steam releases a part of its energy, thus becoming cooler and progressively losing pressure, this energy being imparted to the turbine shaft in the form of mechanical energy. This chapter describes the steam turbine model and gives a detailed description of the physical equations: modeling assumptions and fundamental equations. A test-case is given that includes the structure of the model, parameterization data, and results of simulation. The full description of the physical equations is independent of programming languages and tools.