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500,000 to 600,000 rpm!!!!!!

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chuck foster:
just thought some one would like to see this turbine, they boast that the rpm range is 500,000 to 600,000 rpm.................that sounds scary.

http://pinktentacle.com/2007/08/worlds-smallest-gas-turbine-engine/

chuck  :wave:

Bernd:
Chuck,

Several years ago I went on a tour of a local company that generated it's own power to supply electrcity to the plant. They had several mini gas turbines driving generators. They do run quiet and at a very high rpm. The ones we looked at ran at something in the neighborhood of 100,000 to 300,000 rpm. The tour leader told us that when they spin down they actually settle on the bearing. That's about as much I as I remember.

Now here's a  :proj: for somebody to play with. How accurate is your work?  :lol:

Bernd

ieezitin:
Now that was an interesting article, what puzzled me was they used air bearings; why would they not used magnetism? No maintenance no moving parts or piping.

Relating to rpm,s, I was pipe welding in a nuclear power plant in San Onofre near San Diego southern California, there they have two reactors powering two Alstrom 160 Megawatt turbines each 145ft long 80 feet high.

The shut down was coming to a close and I was one of the last left for the start up of number 2 turbine, they pumped steam at one third pressure into the unit and had it idling for three days, they do this to warm up all piping systems and the rotors and blades to make sure everything expands and seats its self. Idling at 300lbs steam they started to increase pressure to its operating pressure of around 1500lbs you can hear the roar, moaning and whining of the turbines and the steam running through the piping and feel the steel deck structure which has 3 inch thick webbed I-Beams in some places wobble and creek as speeds are increased and everything gets running, the feeling and sounds are alike to sitting on the outside of a wing of a 747 and taking off. 

It was around 2 am and I was sitting in the smoke corral alone just staring at the ocean when they started to give the machine full pressure, that’s  when I though my world came to an end, this lord almighty whoosh and roar exploded behind me, making me put both of my hands over my ears which already had ear muffs on, that did little to dampen the noise, the vibrations running through my body felt that all my organs were going to pop out of my mouth. A 24 inch pop off valve ejected  ( safety valve ) releasing 1200 lbs steam to atmosphere about 300 feet in the air, then this sound which I will never forget just drowned everything that was going on, the best way to describe it is imagine 200 fully loaded freight trains running at 60 mph applying full breaks all at once. A sound which today I believe gave me hearing damage.

What happened was the turbine lost lube oil to all main journals, the back up pumping system failed too because of an electrical overload, well needless to say the machine was in do-do and probably a couple of managers too. Normally when they shut the turbine down it takes 5 days to stop rotating, this incident broke that record by grinding to a halt in 18 seconds. The unit was down for 9 months they had to break down the main rotor shaft and blades ship them back to England to get reworked and sent back, irony was the Panama canal refused to let the boat through because the contents were from a nuclear power plant which in turn forced the ship to go around south America. Stupid as the turbine is not in contact with the reactor.

Just  thought I would share.     Anthony.

Bernd:

--- Quote from: ieezitin on January 06, 2010, 01:41:34 PM ---the feeling and sounds are alike to sitting on the outside of a wing of a 747 and taking off. 

--- End quote ---

You have sat on the wing of a 747 taking off.  :jaw: :bugeye: :jaw: :bugeye:  :jaw:  :jaw:  :jaw: :jaw:

Sorry Anthony I just couldn't leave this one alone. As George Carlin always said "Let the dare devils ride on the plane, I'm getting inside".

It's a wondere that turbine stayed glued together. Apperently it hadn't reach full RPM yet?

Bernd

rleete:

--- Quote from: ieezitin on January 06, 2010, 01:41:34 PM ---Now that was an interesting article, what puzzled me was they used air bearings; why would they not used magnetism? No maintenance no moving parts or piping.
--- End quote ---

Nice story.  Would have been exciting to see/hear that.

I belive the answer to why not to use magnetics is because of the speed.  Running at those RPM would probably set up significant eddy currents in the rotor.  May cause sparking, or mess with electrical components in the rest of the system.

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