Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.

--
Ned Simmons

On 2012-01-17, Ned Simmons wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.


Steam

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:34:10 -0500, Ned Simmons wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.

Heh. Growing up less than 75 miles from the Bonneville Dam, and a day's
drive from most of the big dam's on the Columbia River, I saw "turbine"
and I was thinking "water".

The worst assumptions are the ones you don't realize you're making...

--
My liberal friends think I'm a conservative kook.
My conservative friends think I'm a liberal kook.
Why am I not happy that they have found common ground?

Tim Wescott, Communications, Control, Circuits & Software
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On 2012-01-17, wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

Thanks,. Color wise, this turbine looks like Inconel MIG wire that I
sold recently.

i

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:24:38 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a
normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel)
alloys.

--
Ned Simmons

On 2012-01-17, Ned Simmons wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:24:38 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a
normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel)
alloys.


But what would you find?

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:52:27 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ned Simmons wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:24:38 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a
normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel)
alloys.


But what would you find?

Like I said in my first post, martensitic stainless steels: 410 and
related alloys.

--
Ned Simmons

On 1/17/2012 9:30 AM, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:34:10 -0500, Ned Simmons wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.

Heh. Growing up less than 75 miles from the Bonneville Dam, and a day's
drive from most of the big dam's on the Columbia River, I saw "turbine"
and I was thinking "water".

The worst assumptions are the ones you don't realize you're making...

This doesn't answer Iggy's question, but Tim, did you ever visit the
coal generator plant in Centralia, WA. It was taken out of service quite
a few years ago.

The Portland Amateur Radio Club went there on a tour in the 1970's and
part of the tour was the actual power generation building. The guide
said they used heated hydrogen gas to power the turbines in a closed
system. I should have ask more questions about it, but I am sure that
was the story.

Paul, KD7HB

On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
....

But what would you find?

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular
turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there
weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of).
The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and
the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure
section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the
plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be
to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on here).

--

On 1/17/2012 1:10 PM, Paul Drahn wrote:
....

said they used heated hydrogen gas to power the turbines in a closed
system. I should have ask more questions about it, but I am sure that
was the story.
....

They use H for cooling in the generator section, not power in the turbines.


http://www.ge-energy.com/products_and_services/products/generators/hydrogen_cooled_generator.jsp

--

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg

Iggy, what is it you're looking at there? Siemens? Westinghouse? GE?
Doosan? What?

You've gotten good information in this thread but you can save a lot
of speculation by inquiring with the manufacturer. I assume you're
asking for the scrap value?

In general, steam turbines use more stainless. But they can be
designed for operating temperatures ranging from around 300 C to 1,400
C. At the high end, the rotors are solid Inconel.

If you're trying to figure out the rotor's value, you'll really need
to know who made it and what they made it from. The range is quite
large, from custom 1% chromium alloys to superalloys.

--
Ed Huntress

"Ned Simmons" wrote
...
I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a
normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel)
alloys.
Ned Simmons

FWIW, I saw some turbines from a nuclear power plant (Pilgrim?) in a
scrapyard once. All the blades had been broken off. The owner didn't know
which valuable alloy they were, but it wasn't the same as the rotors.

jsw

One should be concerned with using a clean fuel.

This example is a cool one
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

There is/was a company making motorcycles with small mil-surplus helo power
plants (not propane fueled), and a story about Jay Leno test riding one of
'em.

There was a very interesting video/TV show (Discovery channel, maybe) about
one of the fastest jet powered Bonneville cars(?).. huge twin engines, and
someone asked *when does the second engine get fired?*.. answer was.. it
doesn't, it's just there to keep the car on the ground.

--
WB
..........


"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...

"David Billington" wrote
I was talking to a race engine builder in the UK about 20 years ago and
the subject turned to jet dragsters and what the engines cost, he said
the engines were surprisingly cheap not being of any use for aircraft
anymore but runners. He went on to say that what would hurt your wallet
was finding a pump that would satisfy the fueling requirements. I suspect
with the price of scrap metal these days that has changed a bit bit but
it was an interesting comment regarding the engine price.

I saw a helicopter jet engine go for a few hundred bucks at an auction.
That guy dropped dead young with ALL the toys, maybe 2 dozen steam engines
etc.

I wonder if a log splitter pump would provide enough GPM and pressure to
fire it up for demos.

jsw

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:38:37 -0500, jeff wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks
Iggy, My local scrap buyer pulled out one of these on a recent
visit to him. Hand held XRF Analyzer. Over the years I had a bunch
of worn out forklift contactor tips/buss bars that I saved when I
changed them at work. They were copper bars with some kind of allow
tips. He told me exactly what the composition was. The tips were
silver and worth a bit but I would have had to remove it from the
copper. A torch worked but negated any cost savings. He did pay me #
1 copper so he must have paid one of his guys to separate the silver
from the copper. Nice tool to have but he mentioned a cost of
$15,000 for the tool.... OUCH

Prices have dropped by 2/3, "only" $4911 today, double occupancy.
http://goo.gl/kMwmP

--
The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which
it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold.
-- Glenn Doman

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:59:17 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:31:42 -0500, Ned Simmons
wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:24:38 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

looks like this

http://igor.chudov.com/tmp/Turbine.jpg
A lot of steam turbines are high cobalt alloys, with titanium, nickel,
tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet
720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like
Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high
pressure the steam is.

I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a
normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel)
alloys.
In the powdered coal stations running hyper-steam nothing less will
stand up.

I doubt there's more than a handful of plants running at the temps
that require the alloys you mentioned.

Cut & pasted from a recent paper on steam turbine materials...
******************
ABSTRACT
Ultra-supercritical (USC) power plants offer the promise of higher
efficiencies and lower emissions. Current goals of the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Advanced Power Systems Initiatives include coal
generation at 60% efficiency, which would require steam temperatures
of up to 760 °C. In prior years this project examined the steamside
oxidation of alloys for use in high- and intermediate-pressure USC
turbines. This steamside oxidation research is continuing and
progress is presented, with emphasis on chromia evaporation.

INTRODUCTION
Goals of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Power Systems
Initiatives include power generation from coal
at 60% efficiency, which requires steam conditions of up to 760 °C and
340 atm, so called ultra-supercritical (USC)
steam conditions. A limitation to achieving the goal is a lack of
cost-effective metallic materials that can perform at
these temperatures and pressures. Some of the more important
performance limitations are high-temperature creep
strength, fire-side corrosion resistance, and steam-side oxidation
resistance. Nickel-base superalloys are expected to
be the materials best suited for steam boiler and turbine applications
above about 675 °C]. Specific alloys of
interest include Haynes 230 and 282, Inconel 617, 625, 718, and 740,
Nimonic 105, and Udimet 720Li. Alloy
compositions are given in Table 1.
******************
In other words, steam turbines that require those materials are
perhaps in development. There's no reason to believe the rotor that
Iggy asked about includes anything especially exotic or valuable in
significant amounts.

--
Ned Simmons

"Paul Drahn" wrote in message
...
On 1/17/2012 9:30 AM, Tim Wescott wrote:
On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:34:10 -0500, Ned Simmons wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.

Heh. Growing up less than 75 miles from the Bonneville Dam, and a day's
drive from most of the big dam's on the Columbia River, I saw "turbine"
and I was thinking "water".

The worst assumptions are the ones you don't realize you're making...

This doesn't answer Iggy's question, but Tim, did you ever visit the coal
generator plant in Centralia, WA. It was taken out of service quite a few
years ago.


I worked 12 and 16 hours a day for a couple months straight rebuilding the
turbines for the Centralia plant back in about 1981.



The Portland Amateur Radio Club went there on a tour in the 1970's and
part of the tour was the actual power generation building. The guide said
they used heated hydrogen gas to power the turbines in a closed system. I
should have ask more questions about it, but I am sure that was the story.

On 2012-01-17, dpb wrote:

I've been wondering this for a while.

Just out of curiosity -- given your pseudo-username above, why
did you miss out on using the fourth rotation/reversal of the same
letter, 'q'? That one is your 'b' rotated 180 degrees, or your 'p'
flipped left for right. (Just as your 'd' relates to the other two, 180
degree rotation or flipped left for right. :-)

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On 1/17/2012 10:25 PM, DoN. Nichols wrote:
On 2012-01-17, wrote:

I've been wondering this for a while.

Just out of curiosity -- given your pseudo-username above, why
did you miss out on using the fourth rotation/reversal of the same
letter, 'q'?...

initials, maybe?

--

One should be concerned with using a clean fuel.

This example is a cool one
http://www.asciimation.co.nz/beer/

There is/was a company making motorcycles with small mil-surplus helo power
plants (not propane fueled), and a story about Jay Leno test riding one of
'em.

There was a very interesting video/TV show (Discovery channel, maybe) about
one of the fastest jet powered Bonneville cars(?).. huge twin engines, and
someone asked *when does the second engine get fired?*.. answer was.. it
doesn't, it's just there to keep the car on the ground.

--
WB
..........


"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...

"David Billington" wrote
I was talking to a race engine builder in the UK about 20 years ago and
the subject turned to jet dragsters and what the engines cost, he said
the engines were surprisingly cheap not being of any use for aircraft
anymore but runners. He went on to say that what would hurt your wallet
was finding a pump that would satisfy the fueling requirements. I suspect
with the price of scrap metal these days that has changed a bit bit but
it was an interesting comment regarding the engine price.

I saw a helicopter jet engine go for a few hundred bucks at an auction.
That guy dropped dead young with ALL the toys, maybe 2 dozen steam engines
etc.

I wonder if a log splitter pump would provide enough GPM and pressure to
fire it up for demos.

jsw

In article ,
says...

Jim Stewart wrote:


And I saw four or five 737 engines in a scrapyard.

My first thought was "Is there enough parts to make
one good one". Luckily I put that out of my mind
quickly...
Oh, my! Run one of those for ten minutes and your annual (maybe
whole decade) fuel budget will go up in smoke! WAYYY too big for personal
flying.

Could be fun for a dragster though.

On 1/18/2012 5:54 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In articles_KdncS5mfW0movSnZ2dnUVZ_qWdnZ2d@giganews. com,
says...

Jim Stewart wrote:


And I saw four or five 737 engines in a scrapyard.

My first thought was "Is there enough parts to make
one good one". Luckily I put that out of my mind
quickly...
Oh, my! Run one of those for ten minutes and your annual (maybe
whole decade) fuel budget will go up in smoke! WAYYY too big for personal
flying.

Could be fun for a dragster though.

Some years back, we went the Seattle International Raceway for a special
chevrolet day drag race event. Someone had a turbo jet powered dragster
there as part of the show. After a bunch of smoke events and short leaps
down the raceway, got back to the starting lights and did a real run for
the 1/4 mile. Sure didn't take long to get to the end. Quite a show!
Never been back as they raised the ticket price.

Paul

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:37:44 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

On 2012-01-17, Ned Simmons wrote:

On Tue, 17 Jan 2012 10:24:01 -0600, Ignoramus23559
wrote:

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric
power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience
with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless
steel.


Steam

That's weird. I assumed the front of that thing was the compressor
section. If it isn't, how does that design work? Never thought of a
steam turbine having a compressor section.

I only ran a steam turbine once, and used it to drive another for very
low pressure steam. We were experimenting with falling film vapor
compression evaporation, flash off on the tube side, into separator,
then compress the vapors, desuperheat, and put back in on shell side.
Worked, but bad economics, too much capital.

Pete Keillor

On 17/01/2012 19:59, dpb wrote:
On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
...

But what would you find?

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular
turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there
weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of).
The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and
the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure
section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the
plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be
to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on
here).

--
I'd have said those were HP or IP blades. As for materials, it depends
on the age of the plant, also whether it was fossil or nuclear. If you
have more details I could do some fishing.

On 2012-01-19, Newshound wrote:
On 17/01/2012 19:59, dpb wrote:
On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
...

But what would you find?

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular
turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there
weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of).
The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and
the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure
section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the
plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be
to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on
here).

--
I'd have said those were HP or IP blades. As for materials, it depends
on the age of the plant, also whether it was fossil or nuclear. If you
have more details I could do some fishing.

Fossil, for sure.

i

On 19/01/2012 21:06, Ignoramus19378 wrote:
On 2012-01-19, wrote:
On 17/01/2012 19:59, dpb wrote:
On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
...

But what would you find?

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular
turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there
weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of).
The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and
the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure
section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the
plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be
to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on
here).

--
I'd have said those were HP or IP blades. As for materials, it depends
on the age of the plant, also whether it was fossil or nuclear. If you
have more details I could do some fishing.

Fossil, for sure.

i

So maybe running at a maximum steam temperature of about 650 C? The
following is from a 1971 UK reference, so could be right for recently
decommissioned plant.

The usual HP and IP rotor materials were ferritic steels (chrome moly
vanadium)which are good for 540 C, with 3% Cr-Mo or 2 1/4% nickel chrome
moly for the LP.

Most blading was 12% Chrome moly vanadium steel for strength and creep.
The high temperature blades would contain Niobium for improved creep.
Nimonics were also used (expensive). LP blading was also 12% chrome moly
vanadium, but heat treated for high strength (because these blades are
longer and wider). Titanium was used for lacing wires.

On 1/19/2012 3:06 PM, Ignoramus19378 wrote:
....

Fossil, for sure.

The name of the plant would be the best thing to know...it's easy then
to know what the cycle conditions are.

Unless it was a supercritical plant, it won't be very exotic at all, though.

--

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:06:32 -0600, Ignoramus19378
wrote:

On 2012-01-19, Newshound wrote:
On 17/01/2012 19:59, dpb wrote:
On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote:
...

But what would you find?

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular
turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there
weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of).
The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and
the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure
section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the
plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be
to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on
here).

--
I'd have said those were HP or IP blades. As for materials, it depends
on the age of the plant, also whether it was fossil or nuclear. If you
have more details I could do some fishing.

Fossil, for sure.

The old steam turbine blades I saw in the Carlsbad, CA Encina Power
Plant 30ish years ago were something like 30' in diameter. They were
fossil, too. (fuel oil powered) The thing was down for PM. The guy
said they'd rather take them down early than wait until it threw a fin
through the casing after a bearing took its final spin.

--
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during
my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Count Diodati, 1807

Pete Keillor wrote:


That's weird. I assumed the front of that thing was the compressor
section. If it isn't, how does that design work? Never thought of a
steam turbine having a compressor section.

Yeah, doesn't look like any steam turbine I've ever seen (but that
is only a few). First, the blades are dull, not shiny. Second,
I agree about the diameter change there. HP turbines are
symmetrical, they put the steam in the center and get IP steam
out both ends. That way the HP steam doesn't come near a seal.
The obvious symmetrical shape identifies them for sure.
Maybe that is what this is, and just the long almost axial viewing
angle obscures it. The blade angles are right for that, the rear
blades are pitched opposite from the front ones.

Jon

On Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:47:45 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

Pete Keillor wrote:


That's weird. I assumed the front of that thing was the compressor
section. If it isn't, how does that design work? Never thought of a
steam turbine having a compressor section.

Yeah, doesn't look like any steam turbine I've ever seen (but that
is only a few). First, the blades are dull, not shiny. Second,
I agree about the diameter change there. HP turbines are
symmetrical, they put the steam in the center and get IP steam
out both ends. That way the HP steam doesn't come near a seal.
The obvious symmetrical shape identifies them for sure.
Maybe that is what this is, and just the long almost axial viewing
angle obscures it. The blade angles are right for that, the rear
blades are pitched opposite from the front ones.

Jon

Ah. Thanks, that must be it.

Pete