History of steam turbines
The term "turbine" comes from the French word "turbine", which arose from the Latin "turbo" - a vortex, rotation at high speed.
A steam turbine is the main power technological unit of an electric power plant, in which the internal energy of steam is converted into mechanical energy of rotor rotation. Unlike a steam engine, which directly converts the internal energy of steam into the work of a moving piston using the elastic forces of steam, a steam turbine, using nozzle blades, first converts the potential energy of steam into the kinetic energy of the steam flow, and then the kinetic energy of the working fluid flow is converted into the mechanical energy of the rotating rotor. Such a double energy conversion allows for a continuous working process in the turbine.
The development of a steam turbine required deep knowledge of the physical properties of steam. It was also necessary to complete the formulation of the laws of thermodynamics and find new engineering solutions for producing work using the thermal properties of water and steam. The manufacture of a turbine became possible only with a sufficiently high level of development of metalworking technologies, since the necessary precision of obtaining individual parts and the strength of the elements had to be significantly higher than in the case of a steam engine.
It was only in 1883 that the Swede Carl Gustav Patrick de Laval managed to overcome these difficulties and create the first working single-stage steam turbine. Several years before this, Laval received a patent for a separator (a device that separates a product into fractions with different characteristics) for milk. However, in order to operate it, a very high-speed drive was needed. None of the engines that existed at that time met the task.
Laval was convinced that only a steam turbine could give him the necessary rotation speed. He began to work on its design and, in the end, achieved what he wanted. The Laval turbine was a light wheel, on the blades of which steam was directed through several nozzles placed at an acute angle. In 1889, Laval significantly improved his invention by adding conical expanders to the nozzles. This significantly increased the turbine's efficiency and turned it into a universal engine.
The first multi-stage steam turbine of the reaction type was developed by Charles Algernon Parsons in 1884. It was not intended to drive relatively low-power separators, but to work together with an electric generator. Thus, from the very first step, Parsons correctly predicted one of the most promising areas of application of steam turbines, and subsequently he did not have to look for consumers for his invention. In order to balance the axial force, steam was supplied to the middle of the turbine shaft, and then flowed to its ends. Parsons first steam turbine had a capacity of only 6 hp and was subjected to various tests. The main difficulties were the development of a rational design of blades and methods for fastening them in the disk, as well as providing seals. Already in the design, dated 1887, Parsons used labyrinth seals, which made it possible to move on to turbines with a unidirectional steam flow. Such turbines were used primarily to drive electric generators.
In 1893, Charles Parson founded the Marine Steam Turbine Company and proposed to the British Admiralty to build a turbine ship. The first turboship "Turbinia" was 37.8 m long, with a maximum width of 3.2 m and a displacement of 44.5 tons and was laid down on August 2, 1894.
In 1896, the turboship was launched and sea trials began, after which it was necessary to revise the existing ideas about the design of the hull and propeller for steamships.
After switching to a three-screw propulsion system (a hydromechanical system that includes the ship's hull and an installation in which the energy of the working fluid is converted into a thrust that imparts movement to the ship's hull), solving problems with propeller cavitation and replacing the turbogenerator with three multi-stage turbines, the ship was delivered to the customer, showing a maximum speed of 34.5 knots (61 km/h) during tests with a power plant capacity of 2,300 hp. The success of the Turbinia inspired the Admiralty to immediately build ships equipped with turbines for the fleet.
In the middle of the 20th century, competition began between steam turbine and diesel power plants for use on large ships for the transportation of bulk cargo, including tankers. Initially, steam turbine power plants prevailed on ships with a deadweight of up to 40,000 tons, but the rapid development of internal combustion engines led to the fact that some ships and vessels with a displacement of more than 100,000 tons are currently equipped with diesel power plants. Steam turbine plants have survived even on large warships, as well as on high-speed and large container ships, when the power of the main engine is 40,000 hp and more.