Steam turbine facts for kids

A steam turbine is a powerful machine that uses the energy from hot, high-pressure steam to create movement. Think of it like a giant pinwheel that spins very fast when steam pushes against its blades. This spinning motion is then used to do work, often to make electricity by connecting it to a generator.

How a Steam Turbine Works

A steam turbine has many blades arranged on a spinning rod called a rotor. When super-hot steam is directed at these blades, it pushes them, making the rotor spin very quickly. As the steam moves through the turbine, it loses some of its heat and pressure, but it transfers that energy into the spinning motion of the turbine. This is how the turbine turns the energy from steam into useful mechanical work.

Sizes of Steam Turbines

Steam turbines come in many different sizes, from very small ones to incredibly large ones.

• Small turbines can be less than 0.75 kilowatts (kW) in power. These might be used for small tasks like running pumps or other simple devices.
• The largest turbines can produce as much as 1,500,000 kW of power. These huge machines are mainly used in power plants to generate massive amounts of electricity for cities and homes.

Where Steam Turbines Are Used

Steam turbines are super important for making electricity. Most of the electricity we use comes from power plants that use steam turbines.

• Power Plants: In these plants, fuel like coal, natural gas, or nuclear energy heats water to create steam. This steam then spins the turbines, which power generators to make electricity.
• Ships: Some large ships, especially older ones or nuclear-powered ones, use steam turbines to turn their propellers and move through the water. The first steam turbine-powered ship was called Turbinia, built in 1894.

Images for kids

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  A 250 kW industrial steam turbine from 1910 (right) directly linked to a generator (left)

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  A steam turbine without its top cover

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  Diagram of an AEG marine steam turbine circa 1905

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  A low-pressure steam turbine in a nuclear power plant. These turbines exhaust steam at a pressure below atmospheric.

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  A two-flow turbine rotor. The steam enters in the middle of the shaft, and exits at each end, balancing the axial force.

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  A selection of impulse turbine blades

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  Velocity triangle

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  Convergent-divergent nozzle

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  Graph depicting efficiency of impulse turbine

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  Velocity diagram

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  Comparing Efficiencies of Impulse and Reaction turbines

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  A modern steam turbine generator installation

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  Diagram of a steam turbine generator system

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  T-s diagram of a superheated Rankine cycle

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  A direct-drive 5 MW steam turbine

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  Turbinia, 1894, the first steam turbine-powered ship

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  High and low pressure turbines for SS Maui

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  Parsons turbine from the 1928 Polish destroyer Wicher

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  NS 50 Let Pobedy, a nuclear icebreaker with nuclear-turbo-electric propulsion

See also

• Turbine

In Spanish: Turbina de vapor para niños