System and method for cooling steam turbine rotors
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsRavi Shankar Venkata Kasibhotla, Anantha Padmanabhan Bhagavatheeswaran, Fred Thomas Willett, JR.
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Abstract
A steam turbine includes a rotor having a plurality of early stages and a stator portion surrounding a portion of the rotor and arranged such that a leakage region exists between the stator portion and the rotor and having a cooling steam channel that passes cooling steam from one portion of the stator portion to the leakage region. The turbine also includes at least one cooling steam transmission channel axially displaced about the rotor that receives the cooling steam from the leakage region and provides it to at least a portion of the early stages.
Claims20
A steam turbine comprising:
- a rotor having a plurality of early stages;
- a stator portion surrounding a portion of the rotor and arranged such that a leakage region exists between the stator portion and the rotor and having a cooling steam channel that passes cooling steam from one portion of the stator portion to the leakage region;
- and
- at least one cooling steam transmission channel axially displaced about the rotor that receives the cooling steam from the leakage region and provides it to at least a portion of the early stages.
A method of cooling one or more early stages in a steam turbine:
- providing high-pressure low-temperature steam through cooling steam channels formed in a stator component that surrounds at least portion of a rotor to a leakage region;
- passing the high-pressure low-temperature steam provided to the leakage region through cooling steam transmission channels formed in a rotor;
- and
- passing the high-pressure low-temperature steam through holes in the cooling steam transmission channels to contact the one or more early stages.
A power plant comprising:
- a steam turbine including:
- a rotor having a plurality of early stages;
- a stator component surrounding a portion of the rotor and arranged such that a leakage region exists between the stator component and the rotor and having a cooling steam channel that passes cooling steam from one portion of the stator component to the leakage region;
- and
- at least one cooling steam transmission channel axially displaced about the rotor that receives the cooling steam from the leakage region and provides it to at least a portion of the early stages.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.