The conventional turbine system is an assembly of alternate static vanes and rotating disc-mounted blades connected to shafts. The blades and vanes are contained in a divergent casing. The turbine produces a rotational power output along a shaft; it usually provides drive to a fan,a compressor and accessories, or, in the case of engines that do not make sole use of a jet for propulsion, it produces shaft power for a propeller, rotor, pump, compressor, or generator. There is a large range of turbine solutions designed and manufactured for civil and military aerospace, marine, industrial, and energy applications. Improving efficiency through design Turbine modules are designed, manufactured, and tested in line with the following project criteria: > providing the required thrust ) minimising cost ) minimising weight > minimising fuel consumption ) minimising emissions > minimising delivery timescales.‘The Jet Engine - turbines Temperature Pressure Temperature and pressure variations through the turbine as power is extracted from the gastow Reducing pressure and temperature through turbines Basic principles The turbine assembly mounted behind ‘or downstream of, the combustor, commonly Forming the ea third ofa et engine when viewed a6 a whole. Having been highly compressed mixed with vaporised fue andignited,the hot gases leaving the combustor are expanded to a lower pressure and temperature through the turbine. This expansion extracts energy fom the gas to rotate the turbine Biades and dis assembly, which then drives the compressor via acentealy rotating shaft The civil engine market requirements for low fuel bun and high fuel efficiency are pushing designs towards engines with a higher bypass ratio. On turbofan engines the turbines drive both a low-pressure compressor or fan (producing most of the engine's thrust) nd a higher pressure compressor, which ingests and compresses air ready for the combustion process. Some turbines drive another ‘compressor between the low: and high- pressure compressors.To achieve this, 134 the airstream i splitssome is extracted from the fan and passed through a duct outside the turbine and combustor-the remainder ‘passes through the core of the engine, To produce the correct driving torque and efficiency at each stage of the engine, the tufoine may consist of several stages, each ‘employing one row of static nozzle guide vanes (NGV') and one row of rotating blades “The number of utilised turbine stages depends upon the relationship between the power required, the rotational shaft speed, and the permitted turbine diameter, [As the gas is expanded and work is extracted from the air passing through each stage of the turbine, operating temperatures and pressures reduce accordingly. This means ‘that the intermediate pressure (P) turbine does not need as much, nor as sophisticated, cooling as the high-pressure (HP) system = although civil IP turbine and military low-pressure (LP) components stil use oxidation-resistant nickel alloys to minimise the required cooling and hence maximise stage efficiency Further downstream, iil turbine components can be designed to be run uncooled, and can be made from lower temperature capability alloys asthe gas temperature falls to within material property limits Turbine exit temperature, fom the last LP turbine stage is approximately 550°C. Turbine types There are three types of turbine: impute reaction and a combination ofthe two known as impulse reaction inthe impu type turin the pressure crop across ea stage occurs in the fxed NGV. which bec ofits convergent shape, increases theo velocity while reducing pressure The 93s is directed onto the turbine blades whic experience an impulse force caused by the impact ofthe gasfiow onthe blades Inthe reaction type, the xed NGVs are designed to alter the flow dretion only without changing the pressure‘The converging blade passages experience a reaction force resulting ftom the expansion and acceleration of the gas. Normally, modern {gas turbines rely on a combination of both design styles, and modern aerodynamic design methods enable the characteristics of components to be talored to maximise ‘work output and stage efficiency. ‘The mean blade speed ofa turbine has considerable effect on the maximum efficiency possible for a given stage output. As rotational speeds increase in the quest foreffciency,so do the forces and stresses involved within the system. Stress in a turbine disc increases as a function of the square ofthe speeds therefore, to maintain the same stress level at higher speeds, the disc's sectional thickness and thus its weight, must be increased proportionally. For these reasons, the inal design is always compromise between efficiency and weight. Due to the high proportion of thrust generated by the fan, modem high bypass engines have abetter propulsive efficiency than lower bypass ratio designs and so can have ‘smaller turbine fora given thrust. ‘Atypical civil turbine may have an overall length of up to 1.4m (combining all the turbine stages) and a maximum diameter of Up to 1.3m. Miltary turbines are much smaller, typically under 0.4m in length (across the two stages) with a maximum diameter of about (0.75m, Helicopter turbines are smaller stil Imall cases, an increase in turbine rotational speed comes with the reduction in scale in Corder to optimise work output and efficiency. ‘The number of shafts and, therefore the ‘number of turbines can also vary with the type of engine. High compression ratio, engines usually have atleast two shafts, with two turbines (HP and LP) driving high and low-pressure compressors.On some high bypass turbofan engines,an IP turbine system is employed between the HP and LP turbines, forming a triple-spool system. In other designs, especially those whose output is shaft power oan external system, driving torque is derived from a free-power turbine. This method allows the free-povier turbine to be designed to run {at its optimum speed as itis mechanically independent of both the gas generator turbine and compressor shafts. Power turbines ‘A power turbine is the means of delivering usable shaft power in an energy or marine ‘application The power turbine is siilar in A pureimpulie turbine compared to an impulse-eaction tubing Nozze guide vanes \ HPcurbine é ww w/ Tubine dive bythe impulse ofthe gas Now only Wy YY A a. _d “Turbine driven by the impulse of the gas flow and ts subsequent reaction asit accelerates through the converging bade passage HP curbing layout to aro LP turbines and aso exacts energy from the hot exhaust gases exting the gas generator (cor of the engine) This energy is convered from an ail gasfiow toa rotational mechanical energy by one or more rows of NGVs ad rotor blades The extracted rotational energy is used to chive various pieces of equipment For energy applications the criven equipment i usualy a compressor pump oF alternator For marie, a propeller or an aerator. The rotational speeds of power turbines vary depending on application; forthe smallest engines below 1OMW, maintaining blade speed would tend to increase it, gearbox ‘may be used to match the speed to the requirement ofthe driven equipment, Alternators can be designed to run at 3,000rpm (50H2) or 3.600rpm (60H for electrical generation, which would often be direct drive. Below 30MW'4 poe’ alternators run at 1,800rpm. For ail and gas pipelines, pumps and compressors typically require speeds ‘between 5,000 and 6 000rpm,and are directly driven.For ol extraction, pump speeds are roughly double this, and a gearbox is used. Ships use gas generators to drive power turbines in a variety of applications > In conventional gas turbine-powered ships, there is a mechanical drive from ower turbine to propeller via a gearbox. Recently some ships have adopted clectrcal drive. Here, the power turbines dive alternators, and electric motors drive the propeller. Other ships use water jts for propulsion, ‘The power turbine drives a ducted pump. ‘Water is drawn in from beneath the vessel and is ejected at high velocity from the stern ofthe ship, There are two general types of power turbines: ) Heavyweight ~ custom designed high-speed > Aero-derivative ~ based on the aero engine LP turbine. 135