Feasibility study of forced cooling of a supercritical steam turbine after a shut down of a power generating unit

Temperature related decrease of steam turbine components is one of the main transient processes that occur during a typical long-term operation. With a natural cooling (no user interference) it takes more than 14 days before the temperature of components reaches the level that allows to open and repair a turbine. It is then reasonable to apply a forced cooling in order to decrease the time between a shut-down of a power generating unit and a beginning of a repair. This paper presents the analysis of application of a forced cooling process to supercritical steam turbines. The main problems under the investigation are the safety issues of the process and the optimization of cooling conditions. The paper describes the safety restrictions and the optimization criteria. The process is analyzed in numerical simulations conducted for various cooling conditions.