Design and Testing of a 10KW Steam Turbine for Steam Turbochargers

A Clausius-Rankine-cycle has been proposed to recover waste heat from a piston engine. This waste heat is then used to supercharge the cylinders by means of a steam turbocharger. The advantage of using this steam turbocharger system is to avoid the losses due to the engine back pressure which accompany the use of the conventional exhaust gas turbocharger. The mass flow rate of turbines for steam turbochargers in the range from 1 to 10 kW is about 0.03 to 0.08 kg/s. This implies a special turbine design, characterised by partial admission and supersonic flow, which unfortunately leads to low turbine efficiencies. A small Pelton turbine for steam has been designed and produced. The turbine is connected to the radial compressor of a conventional exhaust gas turbocharger which works, in this case, as a brake to dissipate the generated turbine power. A special test rig has been built to carry out the experimental investigations on the proposed Pelton turbine. The test rig is supplied with superheated steam from the University’s power plant. Two different rotors for this Pelton turbine have been tested under the same operating conditions (rotor 2 see Fig. 1). Some experimental test results of a special Pelton turbine are presented and discussed in this report.