The Westinghouse Open Cycle OTEC uses very low density steam as a working fluid, generated directly from evaporation of warm tropical near surface seawater and expanded through tropica turbine. Exhaust steam is condensed by cold seawater circulated from ocean depths extending to 3000 feet. The very low steam vapor density creates exhaust volume flow requirements an order of magnitude greater than presently encountered in the steam turbine industry. Our previous optimization studies of the OC-OTEC system have shown that an integrated plant size of around 100 MWe net output should provide minimum cost per KW in a production configuration. Generating of 100 MWe requires a 200 RPM turbine with 40 foot long blades and a 144 foot tip diameter. The OC-OTEC design study has addressed the problem by using composite fiber reinforced plastic, (FRP) blade construction and borrowing from helicopter technology, adapted to the unique requirements of the turbine. Such a design is an order of magnitude larger than the largest current steam turbines. The thermodynamic and mechanical design of such a machine are highly integrated and as may be anticipated, it is not possible to simply scale-up an existing turbine design. (DePo)


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    Title :

    Open cycle-OTEC turbine design


    Additional title:

    Turbinen mit offenem Kreislauf fuer Meereswaermekraftwerke (OTEC)


    Contributors:
    Coleman, W.H. (author) / Rogers, J.D. (author) / Thompson, D.F. (author) / Young, M.I. (author)

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    1981


    Size :

    22 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 2 Quellen


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English




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