This simulator models a condensing Rankine-cycle steam turbine generator — a hot, rotating, grid-synchronized power island. Adjust admission valve opening, grid load and condenser conditions, then follow steam from the boiler through the turbine, condenser, feed pump and back, watching how mass flow, pressures and efficiencies translate into net electrical output.
• A real-time 3D power island with orange live-steam, violet exhaust, blue condensate/feedwater and cyan cooling-water flow paths, plus a turbine cutaway view. • Admission controls (automatic grid-MW / unloaded-speed governor, or manual valve opening), grid breaker connect/reject, and a trip-latch reset. • A temperature–entropy diagram and a four-state thermodynamic table (boiler exit, turbine exit, condenser exit, pump exit) with steam quality where defined. • Step-by-step cycle calculations, heat and work accounting, and a condenser/cooling-water loop with fixed or cooling-system-responsive pressure. • A backpressure-sensitivity sweep, generator/shaft efficiency settings, fault injection (vacuum loss, fouling, erosion, oil loss, feedwater loss, generator losses) and teaching protective trips. • Operating-history trends for net output, condenser pressure, rotor speed and steam flow, plus a 24-check model verification suite.
Steam admitted from the boiler expands through the turbine, converting enthalpy into shaft work that drives the generator. The exhaust steam then enters the condenser, where cooling water removes the remaining heat and condenses it back to liquid at a low, sub-atmospheric pressure — that vacuum is what lets the turbine extract more work per unit of steam. A feed pump then raises the condensate back to boiler pressure, using comparatively little work since it is pumping an incompressible liquid rather than compressing vapor, and the cycle repeats.
Because backpressure (condenser pressure) sets the low end of the expansion, a lower condenser pressure extends the available expansion and generally increases turbine work — but it can also increase exhaust moisture and demands more cooling capacity, which the simulator's condenser and cooling-water controls let you explore directly.
Turbine power in this model comes from mass flow times enthalpy drop, with the turbine, mechanical and generator efficiencies applied separately, so a specified isentropic turbine efficiency reduces the actual enthalpy drop below the ideal (constant-entropy) value. Net electrical output subtracts pump work and auxiliary demand from gross generation; net plant efficiency further folds in boiler/source efficiency. Steam properties are read from offline tables built from the IAPWS Industrial Formulation 1997, interpolated within their stated range.
Teaching protective trips open the generator breaker and close admission if speed exceeds 110%, condenser pressure exceeds 40 kPa, or lubricating-oil/feedwater pressure is lost, each with a short actuator lag. This is a hot-operation teaching model: it has no reheat, regeneration, blade-by-blade aerodynamics, seal leakage, water chemistry, boiler drum inventory, thermal-stress modeling or electrical synchronization transients, and valve opening simply scales mass flow rather than resolving nozzle choking.
A simple, condensing Rankine cycle — no reheat, no regenerative feedwater heaters, and no boiler pressure storage. It uses interpolated IAPWS-97 steam property tables, incompressible pump work, and specified turbine, mechanical and generator efficiencies, starting from a hot, already-synchronized operating point rather than a cold startup.
Condenser pressure sets the low-pressure end of the turbine expansion. A lower condenser pressure lets steam expand further before exhausting, extracting more work for the same inlet conditions. The tradeoff is that lower pressure can increase exhaust moisture and requires more cooling-water capacity to maintain, which the model surfaces through its condenser and cooling-loop controls.
Turbine work is mass flow times enthalpy drop, with turbine, mechanical and generator efficiencies applied. Net electrical output equals gross generation minus pump work and auxiliary demand, and net plant efficiency also folds in boiler/source efficiency — so a less efficient boiler needs more heat input for the same electrical output, not less shaft work automatically.
Teaching trips activate on rotor overspeed above 110%, condenser pressure above 40 kPa, loss of lubricating-oil pressure, or loss of the feedwater pump. A trip opens the generator breaker and closes steam admission with a short actuator lag. These are simplified, educational settings rather than a certified protection-system specification.