OPTIMIZATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS IN A STEAM TURBINE USING TAGUCHI METHOD - PROJECT REPORT

INTRODUCTION

Steam turbine is the main component which is used to produce the electricity in an easy way. It is widely available in all the industries to generate power for the required plant and also supplies electricity to the government too. Without electricity, it is very difficult to survive in the world. So, it plays a vital role in day to day life of the people in the world. The main problem we have found is, it is very difficult to maintain the efficiency in terms of temperature, pressure, rate of flow, dryness fraction and not easy to optimise it. We have suggested the process of optimizing and increasing the process parameters by the taguchi
technique.

We have used PLX DAQ software, Arduino program to display the process parameters in the form of line or bar charts in the system. So that , we can view the variation in the parameters and save it for future reference. We have used the display box to view the output from the sensors connected to the Arduino board. We are also using the bluetooth module of connection to operate the boiler from the remote surface. The main motive is to optimize and increase the thermal efficiency of the steam turbine. Its more important to carry out this process to get better accuracy and efficiency of the steam turbine .

As we know ,the more easier way we approach with technologies , “the more we get for that”. Therefore many number of boilers can be optimized through single dashboard easily

1.1STEAM TURBINE
Steam turbines are used in all of our major coal fired power stations to drive the generators or alternators, which produce electricity. A steam turbine is a mechanical device that converts thermal energy in pressurized steam into useful mechanical work.

The steam turbine derives much of its better thermodynamic efficiency because of the use of multiple stages in the expansion of the steam. Steam turbines are made in a variety of sizes ranging from small 0.75 kW units used as mechanical drives for pumps, compressors and other shaft driven equipment, to 150 MW turbines used to generate electricity. Energy in the steam after it leaves the boiler is converted into rotational energy as it passes through the turbine.

1.2 BOILER
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid where water is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central heating, boiler-based power generation, cooking and sanitation. In a fossil fuel power plant using a steam cycle for power generation, the primary heat source will be combustion of coal, oil and natural gas. By product fuel such as the carbon-monoxide rich off gasses of a coke battery can be burned to heat a boiler; biofuels such as bagasse, where economically available, can also be used. In a nuclear power plant, boilers called steam generators are heated by the heat produced by nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is also used as a heat source for generating steam, either directly (BWR) or in specialised heat exchangers called "steam generators" (PWR). Water is useful and cheap medium for transferring heat to a process. When water is boiled into steam its volume increases about 1,600 times, producing a force that is almost as explosive as gunpowder. Liquid when heated up to the gaseous state this process is called evaporation. The heating surface is any part of the boiler; hot gases of combustion are on one side and water on the other. Any part of the boiler metal that actually contributes to making steam is heating surface. The amount of heating surface of a boiler is expressed in square meters. The larger the heating surface a boiler has, the more efficient it becomes.

The boiler system are made up of three main systems .They are:
• Feed water system
• Steam system
• Fuel system

The feed water system provides water to the boiler and regulates it automatically to meet the steam demand. The water supplied to boiler that is converted to steam is called feed water. The sources of feed water are: Condensate or condensed steam returned from the processes and Makeup water which is the raw water which must come from outside the boiler room and plant processes.