Optimization of a Steam Turbine for Mechanical Drive Applications

Axial flow steam turbines find wide application in several industries, such as oil & gas, petrochemicals, etc. The applications are primarily as mechanical drive turbines, to drive the process compressors. Because it is not feasible to design and optimize new hardware for each specific application, mechanical drive steam turbines are rarely clean sheet designs. These designs are developed from the available hardware inventory, which imposes certain geometric restrictions on the aerodynamic design and optimization of the flow path. Ensuring the mechanical reliability of the design is also critical to the functioning of the turbine. The modifications made to improve the reliability need to be executed with minimal impact to the performance. This paper will outline several concepts that form the basis of the aero-thermodynamic and mechanical design and optimization of mechanical drive axial flow turbines.