Heavy Duty 126 MW GT upgrade for aerodynamic performance improvement

Scope of the Project

• Turbine Services Ltd. , a supplier of replacement parts for GE Large Frame Gas Turbines, has worked with SoftlnWay`s engineering team on the redesign of the third stage of the GE Frame 9E heavy duty gas turbine.
• The scope of this project included the redesign of the third stage vanes and blades to create components competitive with the GE Advanced Aero Uprate package.
• The redesign needed to meet the increased efficiency and structural integrity of the OEM`s official upgraded parts, while avoiding the geometric limitations imposed by the US Patents held by GE.

GE-PG917E General Information

The Frame 9E heavy duty 50 Hz gas turbine is a single shaft machine with 3 stages in the turbine section.

Stage-3 Bucket & Nozzle (Advanced Aero)
GE has redesigned stage-3 bucket and stage-3 nozzle for the 6B, 7B-7EA, and 9B-E gas turbine classes to increase their efficiency and improve the output (up to +1%, at ISO cond.) and heat rate (up to -1% at ISO cond.).

The aero and mechanical requirements from Turbine Services Ltd. required the following steps:

• Nozzles and blades airfoil modifications, including twist and lean;
• Nozzles’ and blades’ profile optimization with minimized losses while avoiding infringement of GE patents;
• Performance analysis performed in AxSTREAM 2D solver with 3D CFD validation demonstrating performance figures competitive with GE advanced stage 3 design;
• Detailed 3D design of the newly developed nozzles blocks and blades with shroud and dovetail;
• Complete cycle of thermo-structural analyses for the air cooled Nozzle blocks and rotating Blades, in order to validate the advanced structural integrity in comparison to GE upgrade parts;
• Complete 3D CAD models development;