Advertisement
Visit Our Friendly Website
Ads by Adsterra

Thermal power plant and steam turbine | lesson 2

lesson 1

Thermal power plant and steam turbine

Thermal power plants use water as a working fluid. Nuclear and coal-based power plants fall under this category. The manner in which fuel energy is converted into electricity shapes a power plant’s running.

In a thermal power plant,

A steam turbine is rotated with the help of high pressure and,
High-temperature steam and this rotation is transferred to a generator to produce electricity. Steam turbine is the heart of the power plant.

Thermal power plant
The rotating impeller imparts a centrifugal force to the water particles,
And the water moves radially out

You can take a closer look at the uniquely shaped steam turbine rotor blades.

Airfoil shape of steam turbine rotor blades

Three stages of steam turbine

High capacity power plants often use different stages of steam turbines,
Such as the high-pressure turbine,
Intermediate-pressure turbine and low-pressure turbines.

Power plant use different stages of steam turbine

Energy absorption from steam

When turbine blades get rotated by high-pressure high-temperature steam,
The steam loses its energy. This, in turn, will result in low pressure and low-temperature steam at the outlet of the turbine.

Here steam is expanded till the saturation point is reached.

Since there is no heat addition or removal from the steam, ideally entropy of the steam remains the same.

This change is depicted in the following p-v and T-s diagrams.

If we can bring this low pressure, low-temperature steam back to its original state,
Then we can produce electricity continuously.

Pressure and temperature drop of steam when turbine absorbs energy from it

NEXT PAGE:

Click to read,

Optimizing a thermal plant performance | lesson 4

Thermal Power Plant – Use of condenser | lesson 3

Components of Thermal Power Plant & Working Explanation | lesson 1

Also, read:

How a Solar Power Plant Works and What Are the Main Types of it?

Ekster EU

2 Comments

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement