What are turbines made of (in power stations)

Does anyone know, what is the material to make turbines, at electric power stations. Is that stainless? What about the rotor (not blades)?

Thanks

Reply to
Ignoramus23559
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Reply to
Ignoramus23559

Steam or gas turbines?

The parts of medium sized steam turbines that I have direct experience with (buckets, blades, diaphragms) are usually martensitic stainless steel.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

Steam

Reply to
Ignoramus23559

tungsten, Molybdenum, etc - stuff with names like Nimonic 105, Udimet

720, Haynes 282, etc. Pretty esoteric stuff. Lesser stuff like Hastelloy and Iconel are also used, depending on how hot and high pressure the steam is.
Reply to
clare

Heh. Growing up less than 75 miles from the Bonneville Dam, and a day's drive from most of the big dam's on the Columbia River, I saw "turbine" and I was thinking "water".

The worst assumptions are the ones you don't realize you're making...

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Thanks,. Color wise, this turbine looks like Inconel MIG wire that I sold recently.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23559

I doubt you'll find much, if any, of the more exotic materials in a normal steam turbine. Maybe limited use of some Inconel (nickel) alloys.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

But what would you find?

Reply to
Ignoramus23559

Like I said in my first post, martensitic stainless steels: 410 and related alloys.

Reply to
Ned Simmons

This doesn't answer Iggy's question, but Tim, did you ever visit the coal generator plant in Centralia, WA. It was taken out of service quite a few years ago.

The Portland Amateur Radio Club went there on a tour in the 1970's and part of the tour was the actual power generation building. The guide said they used heated hydrogen gas to power the turbines in a closed system. I should have ask more questions about it, but I am sure that was the story.

Paul, KD7HB

Reply to
Paul Drahn

On 1/17/2012 12:52 PM, Ignoramus23559 wrote: ...

Depends markedly on what were the operating conditions of the particular turbine and the age (and the two are correlated to some extent; there weren't any supercritical units before the late 50s or so to speak of). The higher pressure/temperature, the more demanding the conditions and the more "exotic" the materials. I'd guess that's from the low-pressure section in the picture, but "low" is still relative depending on the plant design.

You're best source for the turbine in question if you're serious will be to ask the folks holding the auction (assuming that's what's going on here).

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Reply to
dpb

On 1/17/2012 1:10 PM, Paul Drahn wrote: ...

...

They use H for cooling in the generator section, not power in the turbines.

Reply to
dpb

Iggy, what is it you're looking at there? Siemens? Westinghouse? GE? Doosan? What?

You've gotten good information in this thread but you can save a lot of speculation by inquiring with the manufacturer. I assume you're asking for the scrap value?

In general, steam turbines use more stainless. But they can be designed for operating temperatures ranging from around 300 C to 1,400 C. At the high end, the rotors are solid Inconel.

If you're trying to figure out the rotor's value, you'll really need to know who made it and what they made it from. The range is quite large, from custom 1% chromium alloys to superalloys.

Reply to
Ed Huntress

"Ned Simmons" wrote

FWIW, I saw some turbines from a nuclear power plant (Pilgrim?) in a scrapyard once. All the blades had been broken off. The owner didn't know which valuable alloy they were, but it wasn't the same as the rotors.

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Ah, so! thanks for clearing that up.

Paul, KD7HB

Reply to
Paul Drahn

a small caliper and a small micrometer?

Paul

Reply to
Paul Drahn

And I saw four or five 737 engines in a scrapyard.

My first thought was "Is there enough parts to make one good one". Luckily I put that out of my mind quickly...

Reply to
Jim Stewart

On 1/17/2012 2:17 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote: ...

Indeed, virtually any modern turbine will be a mix.

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Reply to
dpb

In the powdered coal stations running hyper-steam nothing less will stand up.

Reply to
clare

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