The Gearbox for the Helium Gas Turbine Cycle of 10MW High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor

摘要

The direct helium cycle has much high efficiency to generate the electricity for the power conversion unit of high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). In order to validate the helium cycle technology, INET initiates a project to couple a helium cycle with 10MW high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTR-10) to replace current steam generator. Such a cycle consists of a turbine-compressor system and a power generator. While the speed for the turbine-compressor system is 15000rpm and the speed of the power generator is 3000 rpm. A gearbox is chosen to connect the turbine-compressor system and the power generator.The paper overviews the special features of the HTR-10 helium cycle as well as the current gearbox technology worldwide, provides the technical requirements for the gearbox, and then makes the preliminary design for the gearbox based on the structural mechanical analysis. The center distance between the turbine shaft and the generator shaft is 300mm. An vertical gearbox with a speed ratio of approximately 5:1 is selected to connect the helium turbine-compressor system and the power generator to transfer the power of 2500KW. The mechanical analytical results show that the gearbox design successfully satisfies the technical requirements and the specification.