General Electric Company

Daniel Ross Predmore

Victor H Correia

Theresa A Brown

Erik Eduardo Lopez Partida

Edward John Sharrow

Rajendra Gonoor

Francisco J Cunha

David Anthony DeAngelis

Sanjay Chopra

Robert James Sherwood

Sean Allen Smith

Michael Christopher Jones

Steven Sebastian Burdgick

Bharat S Bagepalli

Mahmut Faruk Aksit

Abdul-Azeez Mohammed-Fakir

John Howard Starkweather

Dean Thomas Lenahan

Iain Robertson Kellock

Kamlesh Mundra

Mehmet Demiroglu

Richard Jon Chevrette

Gene David Palmer

Jonathan Munshi

Kenneth Michael Koza

James Michael Placko

William John Miller

Raymond Kenneth Overbaugh, Jr

Kumar Navjot

Karthik Gopal Rao Agara

Joseph Charles Taura

John Cao

Erik Eduardo Lopez

A steam turbine inlet assembly and method of constructing the same are disclosed. In an embodiment, an annular ring is provided, along with a body affixed to a distal face of the annular ring and extending distally therefrom. The body portion has a curved entrance geometry at the proximal end adjacent the annular ring, and transitions to a substantially polygonal exit geometry at a distal end.

Turbine casing inlet assembly construction

An inlet transition section and an inlet bowl entry can be designed to reduce a number of turbomachine casing designs. Using relationships between flow properties, distances between elements, crossover/supply pipe diameter, ideal cross sectional area, aspect ratio, and inlet bowl entry size, a transition from circular cross section to substantially polygonal cross section can be made while enabling adoption of a single size of substantially polygonal inlet bowl entry for a plurality of turbine sizes and/or crossover/supply pipe sizes with minimal losses.

Modular turbomachine inlet assembly and related inlet transition section

An arrangement is disclosed in which deflections and mechanical stresses in turbine low pressure casings are controlled by inserting struts between the turbine diaphragm ledge ring stages. Preferably, the struts are cylindrical in shape, although other different shapes can be used in accordance with the needs of different applications. The struts can be solid or hollow in construction, although preferably they are hollow to reduce the material needed to fabricate them. The struts are located around the turbine casing, as is required to connect together two ledge rings where there is high axial deflection in the casing.

Steam turbine LP casing cylindrical struts between stages

A support arrangement is provided for an inner casing of a turbine having an inner casing with upper and lower sections secured together along a first interface lying substantially in a horizontal plane containing a longitudinal centerline of a turbine rotor. An outer shell substantially encloses the inner casing, and in the inner casing is supported directly on an external foundation at a mounting location below the longitudinal centerline.

Support arrangement for a steam turbine LP inner casing

A turbine casing segment is disclosed. In one embodiment, a turbine casing segment is disclosed including: a plurality of stage segments; a plurality of ledge ring partitions separating the plurality of stage segments, wherein at least one of the plurality of ledge ring partitions has an axially extending aperture therethrough; and a substantially rounded extraction aperture located flush with an inner surface of one of the plurality of stage segments.

Turbine casing having ledge ring partition aperture

A remote adjustment and measurement system for a steam turbine nozzle assembly is disclosed. In one embodiment, a steam turbine casing segment is disclosed including: a horizontal joint surface; a pocket having a first opening at the horizontal joint surface and a second opening substantially opposing the first opening; and a path accessible from a radially outward surface of the steam turbine casing segment, the path fluidly connected to the second opening of the pocket.

Adjustment and measurement system for steam turbine nozzle assembly

A support arrangement for an exhaust hood. The inner casing in the inventive arrangement is supported directly by the curb foundation. As a result, the effect of pressure changes in the exhaust hood are eliminated and the effect of temperature changes of the exhaust hood are reduced relative to the positioning of the inner casing and the rotor within it. Shaft bearings may be outside the exhaust hood located in a standard directly on the foundation. Rotor end packing may also be attached to the standard. The exhaust hood can be a much simpler design with less structural supports and less fabrication time. Easier maintenance is facilitated because the shaft bearings are not tucked under the exhaust hood and the end packing can be removed without removal of a large section of the exhaust hood.

Low-pressure steam turbine hood and inner casing supported on curb foundation

An extraction unit for a steam turbine includes an end plate mounted downstream of a selected stage of a steam turbine, the end plate sealing the selected stage from the atmosphere, and an extraction pipe passing through the end plate for extracting steam from the selected stage.

Extraction unit for turbine and related method

An arrangement and method adapted for providing a stiffened lower exhaust hood for a steam turbine. Sidewalls of the lower exhaust hood may taper inward between a horizontal joint and an inlet to a condenser for the steam turbine, providing an enhanced flow path for the exhaust steam. Stiffening of the sidewalls may be provided by stiffening bends, stiffening curvature, and external stiffening beams on the wall plate of the sidewalls of the lower exhaust hood, permitting reduction or elimination of structural supports within the exhaust hood, which degrade exhaust steam flow.

Shaped and stiffened lower exhaust hood sidewalls

Upper and lower diaphragms of a steam turbine have mating flanges forming a horizontal midline joint interface. Each flange has a groove which registers with a corresponding groove in the opposite flange. A composite woven tubular seal is provided in the mating grooves. The seal comprises an inner woven metal core surrounded by an annular silica fiber layer, in turn surrounded by a metal foil with an outer protective covering of a braided stainless steel. Upon joining the diaphragms to one another, the compliant seal generally conforms to a maximum to the shape of the grooves, maintaining a seal between the diaphragms along the horizontal midline joint.

Composite tubular woven seal for steam turbine diaphragm horizontal joint interfaces

A seal is provided between a pair of members by a flexible seal element fixed to one member and having a turned edge. The seal element overlies a contact surface of the other member to effect the seal, the seal element spanning a gap between the members and being pressed into the contact surface by a high pressure region on the same side of the gap as the sealing element. In other forms, a second sealing element is employed in conjunction with a spline seal forming a tortuous sealing path between the members.

Overlapping interference seal and methods for forming the seal

A pair of hollow elongated insert bodies are disposed in one or more of the nozzle vane cavities of a nozzle stage of a gas turbine. Each insert body has an outer wall portion with apertures for impingement-cooling of nozzle wall portions in registration with the outer wall portion. The insert bodies are installed into the cavity separately and spreaders flex the bodies toward and to engage standoffs against wall portions of the nozzle whereby the designed impingement gap between the outer wall portions of the insert bodies and the nozzle wall portions is achieved. The spreaders are secured to the inner wall portions of the insert bodies and the bodies are secured to one another and to the nozzle vane by welding or brazing.

Gas turbine nozzle vane insert and methods of installation

A seal assembly having a flexible cloth seal which includes a shim assemblage surrounded by a cloth assemblage. A first tubular end portion, such as a gas turbine combustor, includes a longitudinal axis and has smooth and spaced-apart first and second surface portions defining a notch therebetween which is wider at its top than at its bottom and which extends outward from the axis. The second surface portion is outside curved, and a first edge of the cloth seal is positioned in the bottom of the notch. A second tubular end portion, such as a first stage nozzle, is located near, spaced apart from, and coaxially aligned with, the first tubular end portion. The second tubular end portion has a smooth third surface portion which surrounds at least a portion of the first tubular end portion and which is contacted by the cloth seal.

Flexible cloth seal assembly

A seal joint including a sealing member for sealing segmented components of a gas turbine engine is spaced from the gas path to provide more effective cooling. The segments include radial extension flanges spacing the seal joint from the gas path. Various cooling arrangements are adaptable to the modified segments to provide for open or closed circuit impingement or convection cooling plus film cooling. Excessive thermal gradients are avoided as the entire corner of the segment is evenly cooled. Moreover, air usage at the joint is bounded by seal leakage with no extra dedicated cooling air.

Cooling joint connection for abutting segments in a gas turbine engine

Turbine stator vane segments have inner and outer walls with vanes extending therebetween. The inner and outer walls are compartmentalized and have impingement plates. Steam flowing into the outer wall passes through the impingement plate for impingement cooling of the outer wall surface. The spent impingement steam flows into cavities of the vane having inserts for impingement cooling the walls of the vane. The steam passes into the inner wall and through the impingement plate for impingement cooling of the inner wall surface and for return through return cavities having inserts for impingement cooling of the vane surfaces. The trailing edge is air-cooled.

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Ballston Lake, NY, United States of America

Daniel Ross Predmore