Effect of wet steam on aerodynamic performance of low-pressure exhaust passage with last stage blade

The condensation of wet steam has important effects on the behavior of the flow field. To evaluate the aerodynamic performance of exhaust passage influenced by wet steam phase change condensation, a numerical investigation was conducted. Taking a 600 MW steam turbine as an example with consideration of the wet steam from the last stage blade and the steam exhaust of the BFPT (boiler feed water pump turbine), the governing equations of wet steam two-phase flow were adopted by the Eulerian-Eulerian approach. Results show that the wetness in the stator domain increases gradually while the wetness in the rotor domain varies little on the pressure surface and is in small increment on the suction surface. The velocity uniformity can be improved at condenser throat outlet as the mass flow or wetness increases. Moreover, the trend to improve the aerodynamic performance of exhaust passage benefits from the improvement of wetness at the last stage blade inlet. Conversely, with the increment of wetness at the BFPT inlet, the static pressure recovery coefficient reduces by 5.8% and the total pressure loss coefficient increases by 2.4%, resulting in a reduction of aerodynamic performance of exhaust passage.