A Computational Analysis of the Aerodynamic and Aeromechanical Behavior of a Thermo-Well for Steam Temperature Measurement in a Steam Turbine

The goal of the paper is twofold: firstly, it presents computational fluid dynamics analysis for finding maximum unsteady flow forces (and their frequencies) acting on a thermo-well for measuring steam temperature in a steam turbine control stage and secondly, it presents computational solid dynamics analysis of possibility of entry into resonance of the thermo-well structure. There have been analyzed two cases of flow with changing temperature, pressure, and mass flow rate in the control stage chamber of a turbine high-pressure cylinder. The problem is also described in the ASME standard PTC19.3 TW-2010 providing detailed guidelines for thermo-well calculations. The problem under consideration is only a part of whole technical analysis and obeys a primary hypothesis that a reason of the thermo-well damage was a resonance phenomenon.

Automated summary

This paper presents computational fluid dynamics and computational solid dynamics analysis to study the maximum unsteady flow forces and the possibility of resonance in a thermo-well used for measuring steam temperature in a steam turbine control stage. By analyzing different flow conditions with changing temperature, pressure, and mass flow rate, the paper identifies the potential cause of thermo-well damage.