Influence of Oxide Particle Size on the Erosion of the Control Stage Nozzle in a Supercritical Steam Turbine

Reducing the solid particle erosion (SPE) of blades is one of the most important problems for high-parameter steam turbine. Based on the erosion rate models and the particle rebound models of blade materials obtained through the accelerated erosion test under high temperature, a lot of three dimension numerical simulations were conducted in this paper. The influence of particle size on the impingement point distribution on the nozzle surface and the erosion characteristics of control stage nozzle in a supercritical steam turbine were analyzed quantitatively. The size range of the oxide scale particles participating in the erosion damage were extended to 500μm, and some special anti-erosion measures corresponding to different size particles were proposed to reduce the erosion of nozzle. Results show that the erosion of pressure surface in the trailing edge of nozzle is mainly from the high-intensity impingement of particles smaller than 160μm, especially those with the size range from 20μm to 60μm. For the impingement of these small particles, optimizing the profile and cascade structure as well as coating the hard coating on the surface of nozzle can improve the erosion resistance of nozzle. However, these small particles do not impinge the nozzle trailing edge suction surface. The severe erosion damage of suction surface of nozzle was from the impingement again of the particles with the size range from 200μm to 500μm after rebounding from nozzle pressure surface. It is very difficult to resist the erosion damage of these large particles for the hard coating, and separating large particles from main steam before entering the nozzle chamber should be a good choice for improving the erosion resistance of turbine. These studies will provide a technical basis for selecting anti-erosion measures of control stage nozzle.Copyright © 2013 by ASME