Rotordynamic Analysis of the AM600 Turbine-Generator Shaftline

The AM600 represents the conceptual design and layout of a Nuclear Power Plant Turbine Island intended to address challenges associated with emerging markets interested in nuclear power. When coupled with a medium sized nuclear reactor plant, the AM600 is designed with a unit capacity that aligns with constraints where grid interconnections and load flows are limiting. Through design simplification, the baseline turbine-generator shaftline employs a single low-pressure turbine cylinder, a design which to date has not been offered commercially at this capacity. Though the use of a ‘stiffer’ design, this configuration is intended to withstand, with a margin, the damage potential of torsional excitation from the grid-machine interface, specifically due to transient disturbances and negative sequence currents. To demonstrate the robust nature of the design, torsional rotordynamic analysis is performed for the prototype shaftline using three dimensional finite element modelling with ANSYS ® software. The intent is to demonstrate large separation of the shaftline natural frequencies from the dominant frequencies for excitation. The analysis examined both welded drum and monoblock type Low Pressure Turbine rotors for single cylinder and double cylinder configurations. For each, the first seven (7) torsional natural frequencies (ranging from zero–190 Hz) were extracted and evaluated against the frequency exclusion range (i.e., avoidance of 1× and 2× grid frequency). Results indicate that the prototype design of AM600 shaftline has adequate separation from the dominant excitation frequencies. For verification of the ANSYS ® modelling of the shaftline, a simplified lumped mass calculation of the natural frequencies was performed with results matching the finite element analysis values.