Cooling circuit for reducing thermal growth differential of turbine rotor and shell supports

• Main Authors: KUMAR HEMANTH GS, EIZENZOPF PETER JOHN, ZHENG XIAOQING, IVANCIC CRAIG DANIEL, COOPER EDWARD JAY, RUSCH WILLIAM PATRICK, SHARROW EDWARD JOHN
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 28.06.2016
• Subjects: BLASTING; ENGINE PLANTS IN GENERAL; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; HEATING; INDEXING SCHEME FOR ASPECTS RELATING TONON-POSITIVE-DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, GAS-TURBINES ORJET-PROPULSION PLANTS; INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUSSUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04; LIGHTING; MACHINES OR ENGINES IN GENERAL; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; NON-POSITIVE DISPLACEMENT MACHINES OR ENGINES, e.g. STEAMTURBINES; STEAM ENGINES; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; WEAPONS

A standard for supporting a turbine rotor and a turbine shell includes a bearing block including a housing enclosing bearing surfaces engageable by the turbine rotor. Turbine shell-arm supports are located on opposite sides of the housing, the turbine shell-arm supports each having a horizontal and one or more vertical surfaces adapted to be engaged by support arms of a turbine shell enclosing at least a portion of the turbine. An internal cooling/heating circuit is arranged to simultaneously cool or heat the bearing block and the turbine shell-arm supports to thereby reduce differential thermal growth characteristics of the turbine rotor and turbine shell.