Investigation of wet steam flow in LP steam turbine using a novel integrated probe: experimental results

In low-pressure (LP) steam turbine, the wetness fraction of steam causes dangerous erosion of turbine blades and decrease of turbine efficiency. In the study of wet steam flow, wetness, droplet size and velocity are of the main concern. These parameters are closely correlated to the vapour phase of the flow field and have to be measured simultaneously. Following this line, a novel integrated probe system has been successfully developed, based on light scattering technique, correlation theory and common methods for flow field measurement. By using this system, experiment has been performed in a 200 MW and a 350 MW condensing steam turbine. Part of the results are presented and some newly detected phenomena are put forward and discussed.