What is it about?
When steam cools down, it turns into water droplets, which can cause problems. To solve this, we looked at a way to add hot steam to the cooling steam to prevent these issues. We used a special shape for steam turbine blades and added the hot steam through a hidden channel. In power plants, we can add hot steam in two main ways: with a lot of pressure or at a steady rate using a valve. We used a method called TOPSIS to figure out the best temperature for adding the hot steam to the cooling steam. At the best temperature, we found that erosion and loss of steam were reduced, and the energy of the steam increased. We also calculated the cost of this process.
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Why is it important?
When steam cools quickly, it creates water droplets and loses energy. Adding hot steam when this happens can help a lot. We used a special channel in the turbine blades to add the hot steam in a smart way. We found that adding the hot steam at a steady rate is better than adding it with a lot of pressure. This way, we can control the process better. We suggest adding the hot steam at a certain temperature because it's easier to control and it works well. This idea could make power plants work even better in the future.
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Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Optimization of inlet conditions of hot steam injection into the non-equilibrium condensing steam, Physics of Fluids, August 2023, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0157372.
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