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Steam Turbine Propulsion

Steam turbine is a kind of knowledge-intensive, resource-intensive and capital-intensive equipment product. It represents the research and development level of a country's power equipment and is known as the "crown of the machinery industry". After more than 60 years of development, China's steam turbine technology research and development and manufacturing system has been basically established and increasingly improved. China's large-capacity steam turbine technology has always been the focus of policy and industry experts, and has repeatedly set new records and developed rapidly. At present, the annual production capacity of China's steam turbine manufacturers above a certain scale exceeds 120 million kilowatts. The main steam turbine manufacturers include 12 companies such as Harbin Steam, Dongfang Steam, Shanghai Steam, and Hangzhou Steam.

In terms of product types, ship power systems can be divided into: steam turbine propulsion systems, electric propulsion systems, hybrid power systems, and diesel propulsion systems. In terms of subdivided application areas, China's ship power system industry covers commercial ships, ocean-going ships, amusement crafts, military ships, etc. The leading companies in China's marine power system industry include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Caterpillar, Cummins, Wärtsilä, MAN Diesel and Turbo, etc.

Steam turbine is a kind of turbine machinery widely used in marine propulsion. In a typical marine steam propulsion device, the high-temperature and high-pressure steam generated by the boiler enters the steam turbine and drives the turbine rotor to rotate when it flows through the moving blade channel. The output shaft of the rotor is directly connected to the propeller shaft or connected through a gearbox, thereby driving the propeller rotor to rotate and provide propulsion power. Steam turbines used as marine propulsion power usually adopt a multi-stage axial flow design. Its characteristics are that multiple rows of stator blades and moving blades are arranged staggered along the steam flow direction. An adjacent row of stator blades and a row of moving blades are called a stage. The stator blades are stationary, and the moving blades are fixed on the turbine rotor and drive the rotor to rotate. The moving blade shaft is parallel to the steam flow direction. In order to improve the thermal efficiency of the marine steam power system, the steam inlet temperature and pressure of the steam turbine are constantly increasing. Under the condition of a constant rotor speed, more and more blade stages are required, which makes the volume of the steam turbine continue to increase, and it is increasingly difficult to arrange it when the hull space is limited.

The most fundamental goal of the Shipbuilding Administration was to build steam-powered warships similar to those of European navies, thereby changing the backward situation of China's coastal defense weapons at that time. In 1866, the technical general contract signed by French foreigners Yige and Dekebei clearly stipulated that the foreign technical team should teach and assist the Chinese side in building 16 steam-powered warships within five years after the Shipbuilding Administration Iron Workshop began production (from the first day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of the Tongzhi reign to the New Year's Eve in the twelfth year of the Tongzhi reign, that is, from February 11, 1869 to February 16, 1874).

After the Shipbuilding Bureau accumulated experience in building many warships, officials and craftsmen became more confident. They were not satisfied with just building gunboats and gunboats. On July 12, 1871, they started construction of a large warship that exceeded the Sino-foreign cooperation plan. The seventh ship with a displacement of 1,560 tons was later named "Yangwu", which means "my military power is so powerful". It is the most powerful warship built during the Sino-French cooperation stage of the Shipbuilding Bureau. It is the first cruiser built by an East Asian country in history. After its completion, it served as the flagship of the Shipbuilding Bureau fleet for a long time.

In the early 20th century, ship propulsion underwent a huge change, with steam power replacing sailing power and becoming one of the important symbols of social and technological progress. Steam power was used in old large surface warships. The Anshan class of the Soviet period had 2 steam turbines with a total of 48000 horsepower. The type 051 Luda-class guided missile destroyer was steam turbine powered with two Type 453 steam turbines, four sets of type 454 boilers [some sources report two sets], with a total power of 72,000 horsepower. The Type 051B/C destroyers had steam turbine power of Type 453B, with 2 units providing a total of 94,000 horsepower. The ex-Soviet Sovremenny class destroyers had steam turbine power, with 2 GTZA-674 units providing a total of 100,000-104,000 horsepower.

System evolution went from the Soviet TB-8 (on the Kotlin using 2 units, each with 36,000 horsepower), to the TB-12 (subsequent models used on the Varyag / Liaoning, with 4 units each providing 45,000 horsepower) to the TB-12 improved GTZA-674 (Sovremenny level using 2, each with 50,000 horsepower). China's Type 453 (imitation TB-8 051 using two units, a single 36000 HP) and Type 453B (453 development type 051C/051B using two single 47,000 horsepower).

The Type 051 destroyer is a self-developed destroyer of the Chinese Navy. A total of 17 ships were built in the early 1970s and became the main surface combat ships of the People's Navy. Except for the bombing and sinking of the No. 160 Guangzhou Ship, the remaining 16 ships have been decommissioned. Its power system uses steam power, with 4 boilers driving 2 453 steam turbines (imitated from the "Kotlin" class TB-8 steam turbine), with a single power of 36,000 horsepower and a total power of 72,000 horsepower. The 051 type manufactured by Jiangnan Factory has reached an ultra-high speed of 38 knots in the sea trial! After entering the 21st century, the improved 453B of this power, with a single power increased to 47,000 horsepower, was applied to the last two Type 051 destroyers.

In the 1990s, China introduced four Russian-made Sovremenny-class destroyers in two batches. The main power system of the "Modern" class is also steam-powered, equipped with four high-pressure boilers and two GTZA-674s each with a power of 50,000 horsepower. Type steam turbine. Previously, the prototype of the Type 453 steam turbine on the 051 ship was the Soviet TB-8 steam turbine, while the GTZA-674 steam turbine equipped in the Sovremenny class was an improved model of the TB-12, and the TB-12 was based on the TB-8. The development of the type steam turbine is mainly to increase the power of a single unit from 36,000 horsepower to 45,000 horsepower, and the GTZA-674 type increases the power of a single unit to 50,000 horsepower and the total power is 100,000 horsepower. Sovremenny-class destroyers are all serving in the Third Detachment of the East China Sea Fleet.

The aircraft carrier Liaoning and the Shandong aircraft carrier use the same steam turbines. The power system is 4 sets of TB-12 domestic improved steam turbines + 8 sets of supercharged boilers, domestic improved steam. Compared with the TB-12, the power of a single turbine is increased by 5000 horsepower to reach 50000 horsepower, and the total power is 200,000 horsepower.

Steam power has many advantages: single engine power is high, fuel efficiency is high, inferior fuel can be used, and cost is low; it is more important to the early Chinese navy. Before the digestion and absorption of advanced power technology, the steam turbine that is not controlled at all is China's large and medium-sized steam turbine. The only source of power for ships. However, steam power also has shortcomings, including long start-up time, slow power response, and slow acceleration; second, large size, heavy weight, complicated pipeline equipment, and cumbersome maintenance.

It is often said that takes more than 10 hours for the Liaoning ship to restart after it is turned off. The steam turbine startup process is divided into three parts: heavy oil ignition, boiler water boiling, and steam turbine startup . The working process of the Liaoning ship is to first ignite the boiler with diesel oil. The aircraft carrier consumes a lot of fuel. The boiler usually burns heavy oil that is cheap, resistant to burning, and has a high ignition point but high viscosity. However, the heavy oil cannot be ignited directly, so it is cold. When starting, diesel oil is required to ignite, so that heavy oil with high viscosity will flow and enter the combustion chamber for combustion. After the boiler water is boiled, the steam generated at high temperature and high pressure drives the rotation of the steam turbine blades. When the rotation of the steam turbine blades begins to transmit power to the blades, the Liaoning ship is officially launched. Although it takes at least ten hours to complete these steps, there is no need to worry about it affecting the reaction speed during war, because the aircraft carrier in the combat readiness state will basically not enter the flameout state, and the boiler is also in low-intensity operation when it is stationary.

Gas turbines are preferred in military ships usually because of their compactness, high power density, acceleration, stealth and low start-up time. Not requiring an idling or warm-up time, they are ready to run on full power just in 30 seconds.

"China's steam turbine technology has always insisted on innovation-driven development. Its manufacturing capabilities and production capacity have firmly ranked first in the world, and its production and manufacturing system and industrial chain are very complete." Hu Busong, a senior expert in the steam turbine industry and deputy general manager of Shandong Turbine New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., said frankly, but what cannot be ignored is that: on the one hand, China's small and medium-sized steam turbine industry has overcapacity and fierce competition. On the other hand, due to the lack of basic and core technologies, the high-end product market has been dominated by a few international brands. For example, in the industrial steam turbine market in the fields of petrochemicals, refining and other fields and new energy markets such as solar thermal power generation, internationally renowned brands such as Siemens, GE, and Mentor are still the first choice of users. The overall performance of domestic brand products still lags behind international advanced technologies; the entire small and medium-sized steam turbine industry urgently needs "transformation and upgrading."

The research and development of high-efficiency steam turbine technology in China has always been "major and minor", and there has been a continuous news of large-capacity steam turbine innovation. In July this year, the second phase (2×1240MW) unit of Guangdong Huaxia Yangxi Power Plant completed a 168-hour full-load test run, marking that this world-class single-shaft full-speed unit with the largest capacity and the lowest coal consumption was officially put into production in China; in October this year, the boiler of the second phase of Shenneng Anhui Pingshan Power Plant was ignited for the first time and successfully once, becoming the world's most energy-efficient thermal power unit. In contrast, there is little news about the innovation of small and medium-sized steam turbine technology.

According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of 2019, the total installed capacity (kilowatts) of small and medium-sized steam turbines in China accounted for about 25% of the total installed capacity in the market, and they play a very important role in China's power generation equipment industry. However, for a long time, due to various reasons, most of China's small and medium-sized steam turbine manufacturers have been lacking competitiveness due to their empirical design processes, discrete design tools, fragmented engineering data, and homogenized products. In particular, the rapid development around 2003 restricted the pace and rhythm of technological innovation of China's steam turbine enterprises, resulting in a large number of production equipment failing to meet the design indicators and the overall performance gap with foreign advanced technologies widening. After the development of foreign small and medium-sized high-efficiency reactionary steam turbine technology from Baden, Switzerland, Siemens, Alstom, MAN Turbo, DPI and other companies have continued to develop and innovate, forming a complete and continuously leading technology system. However, domestic small and medium-sized steam turbine technology started late, the motivation for continuous innovation was weak, basic research and systematic induction and refinement were lacking, technological progress was slow, and it seriously lagged behind the high-quality development needs of the energy industry under the new business model.

"To seize the high-end market and fully master the core technology is the pursuit of every steam turbine worker in China." Hu Busong introduced that in order to narrow the gap, after careful research and decision-making, Guoyuan Electric introduced the latest fourth-generation small and medium-sized steam turbine technology from DPI in Italy in 2017. After nearly three years of digestion, transformation and re-innovation, the localization of the entire process from design, manufacturing, service to operation and maintenance support has been gradually realized, opening the road to the localization of the entire life cycle of China's new generation of small and medium-sized steam turbine high-end products.

In the opinion of Feng Zhenping, a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University and a famous steam turbine industry expert, Guoyuan Electric has made full use of its mechanism advantages and has chosen a very effective path of introduction, digestion, transformation, and re-innovation, and is expected to soon become a leader in China's high-efficiency reactionary steam turbine technology. In fact, Guoyuan Electric has made major breakthroughs in promoting the technological progress of small and medium-sized steam turbines, achieving two 100 points: 100% full mastery of core technologies + 100% localization of high-end equipment. "In the future, the high-end small and medium-sized steam turbine industry must achieve localization development, and domestic related industry enterprises are in urgent need of reference, learning, research, and innovation."

According to incomplete statistics, among the total installed capacity of thermal power in China, small and medium-sized steam turbines account for more than 50%, and the total stock exceeds 10,000 sets. Most of them were put into operation during the rapid construction period of electricity between 2000 and 2010, and will gradually be included in the backward production capacity and face upgrading and transformation. In the past decade, the steam turbines required by the rapidly developing new markets such as biomass, waste power generation, and solar thermal power generation are all small and medium-sized high-end products. Whether it is the upgrading and transformation of the existing market or the demand of the new market, small and medium-sized steam turbines have greater development space than large-capacity steam turbines and should receive more attention and support.

The Party Committee of Harbin Electric Group Steam Turbine Company has conscientiously implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on the reform, development and party building of state-owned enterprises, and resolutely implemented the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council. With the confidence and determination to dare to wade through dangerous shoals and tackle tough problems, it has steadily promoted the high-quality conclusion of the three-year action plan for state-owned enterprise reform.