Steam Turbine Research Paper

HISTORYOF STEAM TURBINE

The first device that may be classified as a reaction steam turbine was little more than a toy, the classic Aeolipile, described in the 1st century by Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria in Roman Egypt.

More than a thousand years later, in 1543, Spanish naval officer Blascode Garay used a primitive steam machine to move a ship in the port of Barcelona. In 1551, Taqi al-Din in Ottoman Egypt described a steam turbine with the practical application of rotating a spit. Steam turbines were also described by the Italian Giovanni Branca (1629) and John Wilkins in England (1648). The devices described by al-Din and Wilkins are today known as steam jacks.

The modern steam turbine was invented in 1884 by the Englishman Sir

• The velocity of steam when it leaves the last blade motion should be made as small as possible, so that the available kinetic energy can be utilized as much as possible. Thus the steam turbine efficiency is higher because of energy loss is relatively small.

Classification of Steam Turbines

The first steam turbine, at its time indeed did spark off the industrial revolution through out the west. However, the turbine at that time was still an inefficient piece of heavy weighing high maintenance machine. The power to weight ratio of the first reciprocating steam turbine was extremely low, and this led to a great focus improving the design, efficiency and usability of the basic steam turbine, the result of which are the power horses that currently produce more than 80% of today’s electricity at power plants! Steam Turbines are Classified as:- Steam Turbines can be classified on the basis of a number of factors. Some of the important methods of steam turbine classification are enunciated below:

 On the basis of Stage

This type of turbine makes use of the reaction force produced as the steam accelerates through the nozzles formed by the rotor. Steam is directed onto the rotor by the fixed vanes of the stator. It leaves the stator as a jet that fills the entire circumference of the rotor. The steam then changes direction and increases its speed relative to the speed of the blades. A pressure drop occurs across both the stator and the rotor, with steam accelerating through the stator and decelerating through the rotor, with no net change in steam velocity across the stage but with a decrease in both pressure and temperature, reflecting the work performed in the driving of the