Two-shell casing for fluid flow machine

Abstract

A fluid-flow machine such as a steam turbine including an inner shell surrounding the rotor component of the machine and which is secured to the foundation, and an outer shell surrounding the inner shell and which is composed of three principal components, these being a support frame secured to the foundation, an exhaust duct for the steam or other motive fluid depending from the frame and leading to the condenser, and an exhaust cover above the frame. The inner shell is divided along a horizontal plane passing through the rotor axis into upper and lower hemi-cylinder halves. Each end of the frame includes a lower fixed part incorporating the lower half of the pass-through structure for the rotor shaft and a removable upper part in the form of a yoke beam incorporating the upper half of the shaft pass-through structure. The exhaust cover is divided into two longitudinally extending separable halves joined to each other and to the adjacent surfaces of the support frame by means of fluid-tight connection flanges, so that by disconnecting the flanges and removing the two halves of the exhaust cover, and disconnecting and removing the upper hemi-cylindrical half of the inner shell, and disconnecting and removing the yoke beams at each end of the support frame, the rotor is completely exposed and can be lifted upwardly and removed after the shaft bearings are opened.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.