General Electric Company

Gene David Palmer

Ian David Wilson

Robert Randolph Berry

Sacheverel Quentin Eldrid

John Cleland Lavash

Philip Michael Caruso

Steven Sebastian Burdgick

Abdul-Azeez Mohammed-Fakir

Kamlesh Mundra

Daniel Ross Predmore

Albert Myers

Stephen Roger Swan

Martin C Hemsworth

Sal Albert Leone

Diether E Carreno

Norman Douglas Lathrop

Alan Richard DeMania

Jonathan Munshi

Flor Del Carmen Rivas

Edward Eugene Gibler

Robert Gerard Baran

James Lee Burns

Robert Craig Akin

Gary Joseph Drlik

Azad A Ladhani

Lisa Shirley Rathbun

John Cao

A method is described for establishing load limits for pipe connections to a turbine casing including the steps of: identifying a plurality of the pipe connections as key pipe load connections; developing transfer functions to model deformation of the casing based on loads applied to the key pipe connections; establishing individual load limits for each of the key pipe connections in the group by optimizing solutions to the transfer functions, and establishing a cumulative load limit for the group of key pipe load connections by optimizing solutions to the transfer functions.

Method to optimize pipe load limits on a turbine casing

A turbine comprises an oil deflector including at least one set of seal rings, and a shaft including an annular step. The step includes a circumferential surface in proximity to the seal rings of the oil deflector and a side surface extending radially from a center portion of the shaft and defining a groove positioned radially underneath the circumferential surface.

Steam turbine rotor temperature control at oil deflector

The coupling between discrete axially aligned first and second turbine shafts includes a flange on one end of one shaft and a rotor wheel on the other shaft. Holes in axial alignment with one another through the flange and rotor wheel receive fastening elements securing the rotor wheel and flange to one another, thereby securing the shaft sections to one another. The fastening elements engage segments on the side of the rotor wheel remote from the flange to facilitate clamping of the flange and rotor wheel to one another. The segments also include outer arcuate surfaces which form sealing surfaces with radially opposed labyrinth teeth of packing ring segments forming part of the turbine diaphragms.

Apparatus and methods for coupling axially aligned turbine rotors

A method and a system for determining radial clearances in a rotating machine are provided. The rotating machine includes at least one shell, at least one rotor, and at least one stationary component. The method includes creating a finite element model for at least one component within the rotating machine, creating a cycle deck data file for the rotating machine, determining an initial clearance versus time, and determining an initial clearance versus location. The system includes a client system including a browser, a centralized database for storing machine information, and a server system configured to be coupled to the client system and the database wherein the server system is further configured to receive machine information from the client system, store finite element model information in the centralized database, track machine information, update the centralized database periodically with newly received machine information to maintain machine information, and provide machine information in response to an inquiry.

Methods and systems for calculating steam turbine radial clearance

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

Dovetail-shaped grooves are formed in the axial faces and circumferential rims of wheels and spacers forming a rotor body. Complementary-shaped balance weights are inserted through entry apertures in the grooves and circumferentially aligned into adjusted balanced positions. Fasteners are threaded through the weights to engage in slots at circumferentially spaced positions along ribs projecting from the bases of the grooves. By threading the fastener into the slot and staking the fastener to the balance weight, the metal of the rotary component is not upset or deformed, with the result that the potential for development of cracks in the rotary component is substantially reduced.

Apparatus and methods for balancing turbine rotors

A method of stacking a plurality of wheels and spacers forming a rotor for a turbine, the wheels and spacers having a plurality of circumferentially spaced, axially extending openings spaced radially from axes of the wheels and spacers including providing a support fixture having an axis and disposing a plurality of alignment rods about the fixture in circumferentially spaced relation to one another about and generally parallel to the axis. Each of the rods has a cross-section with a radial dimension less than a circumferential dimension. The method includes disposing the wheels and spacers on the support fixture with the alignment rods extending through the openings with clearances between the rods and margins of the openings being greater in a radial direction than in a circumferential direction.

Methods for aligning holes through wheels and spacers and stacking the wheels and spacers to form a turbine rotor

In a land based gas turbine including a compressor, a combustor and turbine section including at least three stages, an improvement comprising an inlet into a third stage nozzle from the compressor for feeding cooling air from the compressor to the third stage nozzle; at least one passageway running substantially radially through each airfoil of the third stage nozzle and an associated diaphragm, into an annular space between the rotor and the diaphragm; and passageways communicating between the annular space and individual buckets of the third stage.

Cooling supply system for stage 3 bucket of a gas turbine

In a turbine having closed-circuit steam-cooling passages about the rim of the rotor during steady-state operation, compressor discharge air is supplied to the rotor bore for passage radially outwardly into the wheel space cavities between the wheels and spacers. Communicating slots and channels in the spacers and wheels at circumferentially spaced positions enable egress of the compressor discharge air into the hot gas flow path. At turbine startup, cooling air flows through the closed-circuit steam passages to cool the outer rim of the rotor while compressor discharge air pre-warms the wheels and spacers. At steady-state, cooling steam is supplied in the closed-circuit steam-cooling passages and compressor discharge air is supplied through the bore and into the wheel space cavities to cool the rotor.

Rotor bore and turbine rotor wheel/spacer heat exchange flow circuit

A gas turbine rotor stacking fixture includes upstanding bolts for reception in aligned bolt holes in superposed aft disk, wheels and spacers and upstanding alignment rods received in openings of the disk, wheels and spacers during the rotor stacking assembly. The axially registering openings enable insertion of thin-walled tubes circumferentially about the rim of the rotor, with tight tolerances to the openings to provide supply and return steam for cooling buckets. The alignment rods have radial dimensions substantially less than their dimensions in a circumferential direction to allow for radial opening misalignment due to thermal expansion, tolerance stack-up and wheel-to-spacer mismatch due to rabbet mechanical growth. The circumferential dimension of the alignment rods affords tightly toleranced alignment of the openings through which the cooling tubes are installed.

Apparatus and methods for aligning holes through wheels and spacers and

A rotor cooling circuit includes a cooling medium supply reservoir for supplying cooling medium to a plurality of axial passages through the turbine wheel and spacer disc rims. A passageway communicates cooling medium from the reservoir for flow in series and in a serpentine manner in and about the cavities between the wheels and discs. The flows are reunited at a plenum for flowing the cooling medium into first and second stage buckets. Return passages through the rims of the wheels and spacer discs return spent cooling medium from the buckets to a return location external of the rotor. Transition elements between the buckets and spacer plates in the rotor rim accommodate any thermal mismatch between the adjoining buckets and spacer plates to prevent cooling medium leakage at the joints.

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Clifton Park, NY, United States of America

Gene David Palmer