Introduction

BHEL is the largest engineering and manufacturing enterprise in India in the energy-
related/infrastructure sector, today. BHEL was established more than 40 years ago,
ushering in the indigenous Heavy Electrical Equipment industry in India - a dream
that has been more than realized with a well-recognized track record of performance.
The company has been earning profits continuously since 1971-72 and paying
dividends since 1976-77.

BHEL manufactures over 180 products under 30 major product groups and caters to
core sectors of the Indian Economy viz., Power Generation & Transmission,
Industry, Transportation, Telecommunication, Renewable Energy, etc. The wide
network of BHEL's 14 manufacturing divisions, four Power Sector regional centres,
over 100 project sites, eight service centres and 18 regional offices, enables the
Company to promptly serve its customers and provide them with suitable products,
systems and services -- efficiently and at competitive prices. The high level of quality
& reliability of its products is due to the emphasis on design, engineering and
manufacturing to international standards by acquiring and adapting some of the best
technologies from leading companies in the world, together with technologies
developed in its own R&D centres

BHEL has

• Installed equipment for over 90,000 MW of power generation -- for Utilities,

Captive and Industrial users.
• Supplied over 2,25,000 MVA transformer capacity and other equipment
operating in Transmission & Distribution network up to 400 kV (AC & DC).
• Supplied over 25,000 Motors with Drive Control System to Power projects,
Petrochemicals, Refineries, Steel, Aluminum, Fertilizer, Cement plants, etc.
• Supplied Traction electrics and AC/DC locos to power over 12,000 kms
Railway network.
• Supplied over one million Valves to Power Plants and other Industries.

BHEL's operations are organised around three business sectors, namely Power,
Industry - including Transmission, Transportation, Telecommunication & Renewable
Energy - and Overseas Business. This enables BHEL to have a strong customer
orientation, to be sensitive to his needs and respond quickly to the changes in the
market.

The fourteen manufacturing Divisions are located at

• Bhopal(Madhya Pradesh)
• Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited, Ranipur, Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [4]
• Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh)
• Jhansi (Uttar Pradesh)
• Tiruchirapalli(Tamil Nadu)
• Ranipet (Tamil Nadu)
• Bangalore (Karnataka)
• Jagdishpur (Uttar Pradesh)
• Rudrapur (Uttrakhand)
• Goindwal (Punjab)
• Bharat Heavy Plates and Vessels Limited (Vizag)

Besides these manufacturing units there are four power sectors which undertake
EPC contract from various customers. The Research and Development arm of BHEL
is situated in Hyderabad and two repair shops are at HERP(Heavy Equipment
Repair Plant),Varanasi and EMRP(Electric machines repair plant) Mumbai.

BHEL-Hyderabad
As a member of the prestigious 'BHEL family', BHEL-Hyderabad has earned a
reputation as one of its most important manufacturing units, contributing its lion's
share in BHEL Corporation's overall business operations.

The Hyderabad unit was set up in 1963 and started its operations with manufacture
of Turbo-generator sets and auxiliaries for 60 and 110 MW thermal utility sets.
Over the years it has increased its capacity range and diversified its operations to
many other areas. To day, a wide range of products are manufactured in this unit,
catering to the needs of variety of industries like Fertilisers & Chemicals,
Petrochemicals & Refineries , Paper, sugar, steel , etc.

BHEL-Hyderabad unit has collaborations with world renowned MNCs like M/S
General Electric, USA, M/S Siemens,Germany, M/S Nuovo Pignone, etc.

Major products of this unit's manufacture include the following.

• Gas turbines
• Steam turbines
• Compressors
• Turbo generators
• Heat Exchangers
• Pumps
• Pulverizers
• Switch Gears
• Gear Boxes
• Oil Rigs
• Project Engineering

Steam Turbines

Operation

The expansion of steam through numerous stages in the turbine causes the turbine
rotor to rotate. Steam expands through impulse stage or reaction stage.

• Impulse steam turbine stage consists as usual from stator which known as the
nozzle and rotor or moving blades

• Impulse turbine are characterized by the that most or all enthalpy and hence
pressure drop occurs in the nozzle.
 • The rotor blades can be recognized by their shape, which is symmetrical and
have entrance and exit angles around 20o. They are short and have constant
cross sections

At BHEL-Hyderabad, compounded turbines are made as they are the most used by
plants

• Compounded steam turbine means multistage turbine.

• Compounding is needed when large enthalpy drop is available.
• Since optimum blade speed is related to the exit nozzle speed. It will be
higher as the enthalpy drop is higher.
• The blade speed is limited by the centrifugal force as well as needs of
bulky reduction gear
• Compounding can be achieved either by velocity compounded turbine or
pressure compounded turbine.

Velocity Compounded Turbine

• It is composed of one stage of nozzles, as the single stage turbine,

followed by two rows of moving blades instead of one.
• These two rows are separated by one row of fixed blades which has the
function of redirecting the steam leaving the first row of the moving blades
to the second row of moving blades.

Pressure Compounded Impulse Turbine

• Pressure compounding impulse turbine is a multistage impulse turbine

where expansion in the fixed blades (nozzles) is achieved equally among
the stages.
• Accordingly the inlet steam velocity to each stage is essentially equal, due
to equal drop in enthalpy.
• This equal enthalpy drop does not mean equal pressure drop

The Manufacture and Parts

Casing
The typical casing for an Elliott turbine consists of a cast high-pressure steam chest,
an intermediate barrel section, and a separate exhaust casing. The barrel section is
generally integral with the steam chest so that the vertical bolting joint is at one of the
latter stages where internal pressures are very much reduced. The steam end,
exhaust casing, nozzle ring, reversing blades and diaphragms are all split on the
horizontal center line which allows for easy removal of the upper half of the turbine
for internal inspection.

The diaphragms are machined on the outside diameter and assembled into grooves
accurately machined in the casing. Cap screws, secured by locking, fasten the
nozzle ring to the steam chest, while the diaphragm halves are locked in position by
stops located at the horizontal split in the casing.

Steam chest passages, nozzle block partitions and the valve opening sequence are
all carefully designed to ensure even and rapid heating of the casing after steam is
first admitted to the turbine. The high-pressure end of the turbine is supported by the
steam end bearing housing which is flexibly mounted to allow for axial expansion
caused by temperature changes. The exhaust casing is centerline supported on
pedestals that maintain perfect unit alignment while permitting lateral expansion.
Covers on both the steam end and exhaust end bearing housings and seal housings
may be lifted independently of the main casing to provide ready access to such items
as the bearings, control components and seals.

Rotors

Rotors are precisely machined from solid alloy steel forgings. An integrally forged
rotor provides increased reliability particularly for high speed applications.

The complete rotor assembly is dynamically balanced at operating speed and

overspeed tested in a vacuum bunker to ensure safety in operation. High speed
balancing can also reduce residual stresses and the effects of blade seating. Elliott
also offers remote monitoring of the high speed balance testing, allowing customers
to witness the testing from their offices or at any other location.

Blades
Blades are milled from stainless steel stock purchased within strict specifications for
proper strength, damping and corrosion resistant properties. Disk profiles are
designed to minimize centrifugal stresses, thermal gradient and blade loading at the
disk rims. The blades have various shapes to achieve maximum performance and
withstand any mechanical stresses.

Stationary Components

Nozzle rings and diaphragms are specifically designed and fabricated to handle the
pressure, temperature and volume of the steam, the size of the turbine and the
required pressure drop across the stage. The nozzles used in the first stage nozzle
ring are cut from stainless steel. Steam passages are then precision milled into these
nozzle blocks before they are welded together to form the nozzle ring.

The nozzles in the intermediate pressure stages are formed from profiled stainless
steel nozzle sections and inner and outer bands. These are then welded to a circular
center section and to an outer ring then precision machined.

The low-pressure diaphragms in condensing turbines are made by casting the

stainless nozzle sections directly into high-strength cast iron. This design includes a
moisture catching provision around the circumference which collects released
moisture and removes it from the steam passage. Additional features such as
windage shields and inter-stage drains are used as required by stage conditions to
minimize erosion. All diaphragms are horizontally split for easy removal and
alignment adjustment.

Labyrinth seals are utilized as end gland seals and also interstage seals. Stationary
labyrinth seals are standard for all multistage turbines and grooves are machined on
the rotating part to improve the sealing effect. The leakage steam from the outer
glands is generally condensed by the gland condenser. Some leakage steam from
the intermediate section of the steam end gland seals can be withdrawn and utilized
by re-injecting it into the low-pressure stage or low- pressure steam line.

Replaceable journal bearings are steel-backed and babbitt-lined with five-shoe tilting
pad design. Thrust bearings are double-acting and self-equalizing. Center pivots are
typically used to make assembly easier and provide maximum protection if reverse
for high oil temperature applications.

Turbo Generators

The turbo-generator is common-shaft excitation AC synchronous generator with 3

phases, 2 poles or with 3 phases, 4 poles.

BHEL-Hyderabad makes turbo generators that have the brushless excitation

mechanism which has been explained in the NTPC report.

BHEL presently has manufactured Turbo-Generators of ratings upto 560 MW and is

in the process of going upto 660 MW. It has also the capability to take up the
manufacture of ratings upto 1000 MW suitable for thermal power generation, gas
based and combined cycle power generation as-well-as for diverse industrial
applications like Paper, Sugar, Cement, Petrochemical, Fertilizers, Rayon Industries,
etc.
The Manufacture of the Turbo Generator

Stator

The stator is assembled as six parts. It is made up of steel with 4.5% of silica. Silica
decreases hysteresis loss. The sheets are cut at 30 degree angles.

The sheets then are punched with man drill holes, support rod slots and slots for the
conductors. This process is called notching and the cutting part as shearing.

The sheets are then varnished after blanking or smoothening of the surface. This is
to increase the insulation.

A bunch of these sheets are stacked together and compressed onto each other so
that air gaps are eliminated. These stacks are then assembled with a small air gap
differentiating each stack. This ventilates the machine and keeps it cool.

After the assembly of the stator shell, the inside of the slots are varnished.

The sheets of the core are varnished with xylor, at a temperature of 30-400 degrees
Celsius. It is heated, coated then cooled.

After the core is assembled , the winding is placed in the stator. The winding type
depends upon the power required and the current required to be produced.

The core and the winding are separated by an insulation called HGL. This prevents
the shorting of the core and winding

The winding in the front and back are also separated by this material and they are
joined as per the winding required (lap or wave) using glass-o-flex, a pink ribbon like
material.

The windings are insulated. These windings are then painted to obtain a the stator,
where the power is generated. The windings are always inserted from the exciter
end, one is clockwise and the other anti-clockwise.

The Rotor
The rotor is carved out with the slots into a cylindrical shape from a large block of
metal using Lathe heavy machines.

The rotor consists of 2 ends –

• The turbine coupling end

• The exciter end

The turbine end has a coupling shaft which is circular in shape and has slots.

The exciter end has an input lead and an output lead which are used to give the rotor
DC input for the excitation of the rotating field.

The ends of each rotor consist of bearings. These bearings are placed so as to
support the shaft. The bearing consists of oil which is used to support a thin film over
the surface. This lubricates and decreases friction and losses. The bearing has top
end and bottom end and is stationary. The top end is used to supply the oil.

After the construction, the w inding is fitted into the slots.

The slots and windings are separated by HGL or hard glass lamination which
insulates the core from the cable. The rotor is constructed so as to obtain brushless
excitation.

The complete rotor along with the excitation mechanism is mounted on the shaft and
is balanced for synchronous speed. For better balancing weight removal is done as
that is a better option to adding weight to the system.

The rotor ends are provided with induction motor fans which are used for cooling of
the rotor winding. The winding is mad eup of 99.99 % copper.

Cooling of the Alternator

The machine needs to be cooled to avoid damage and for greater life. Heating
causes insulation failure. Hence, cooling is a very important factor that needs to be
taken care of.

For cooling, the stator and rotor are provided with a ventilation to cool it down. Air
gaps are provided throughout the machine. But for very high power machines natural
cooling is insufficient so a cooling system is provided. For collection of hot air, a
large chamber is provided. This air is cooled and recycled into the generator. The
rotor of the alternator consists of fans powered by induction motors. They suck in the
air and push it through to the cooling chamber.

Another method is also used which is called hydrogen cooling. Hydrogen acts as a
coolant and the chamber is shut completely is filled with hydrogen. Hydrogen cools
itself.

The chamber is emptied each time the machine is stopped.

Circuit -Breakers

Current interruption in a high-voltage circuit-breaker is obtained by separating two

contacts in a medium, such as SF6, having excellent dielectric and arc quenching
properties. After contact separation, current is carried through an arc and is
interrupted when this arc is cooled by a gas blast of sufficient intensity.

Gas blast applied on the arc must be able to cool it rapidly so that gas temperature
between the contacts is reduced from 20,000 K to less than 2000 K in a few hundred
microseconds, so that it is able to withstand the transient recovery voltage that is
applied across the contacts after current interruption. Sulphur hexafluoride is
generally used in present high-voltage circuit-breakers (of rated voltage higher than
52 kV)

In arc assisted opening interruption principle arc energy is used, on the one hand to
generate the blast by thermal expansion and, on the other hand, to accelerate the
moving part of the circuit breaker when interrupting high currents. The overpressure
produced by the arc energy downstream of the interruption zone is applied on an
auxiliary piston linked with the moving part. The resulting force accelerates the
moving part, thus increasing the energy available for tripping.
With this interrupting principle it is possible, during high-current interruptions, to
increase by about 30% the tripping energy delivered by the operating mechanism
and to maintain the opening speed independently of the current. It is obviously better
suited to circuit-breakers with high breaking currents such as Generator circuit-
breakers.