Numerical Investigation on the Vibration of Steam Turbine Inlet Valves and the Feedback to the Dynamic Flow Field

The power output of steam turbines is controlled by steam turbine inlet valves. These valves have a large flow capacity and dissipate in throttled operation a huge amount of energy. Due to that, high dynamic forces occur in the valve which can cause undesired valve vibrations. In this paper, the structural dynamics of a valve are analysed. The dynamic steam forces obtained by previous computational fluid dynamic (CFD) calculations at different operating points are impressed on the structural dynamic finite element model (FEM) of the valve. Due to frictional forces at the piston rings and contact effects at the bushings of the valve plug and the valve stem the structural dynamic FEM is highly nonlinear and has to be solved in the time domain. Prior to the actual investigation grid and time step studies are carried out. Also the effect of the temperature distribution within the valve stem is discussed and the influence of the valve actuator on the vibrations is analysed. In the first step, the vibrations generated by the fluid forces are investigated. The effects of the piston rings on the structural dynamics are discussed. It is found, that the piston rings are able to reduce the vibration significantly by frictional damping. In the second step, the effect of the moving valve plug on the dynamic flow in the valve is analysed. The time dependent displacement of the valve is transferred to CFD calculations using deformable meshes. With this one way coupling method the response of the flow to the vibrations is analysed.