APPLICATION OF FINITE ELEMENT- METHOD IN ANALYSING GENERATOR BARREL FOUNDATION

Abstract

The generator supporting structure has the important function of carrying and transmitting large generator loads to the substructure and then to foundation. As the size of units is increasing, so the size of supporting structure is almost in direct proportion. Therefore it was considered necessary to design the generator supporting structure rationally and economically for which accurate and reliable analysis is required. As the recent trend is to have two basic type of generator foundations termed as `barrel' and Arbor' type foundation, the scope of this dissertation is limited to analysis of barrel foundation only. The barrel type foundation is an indeterminate structure due to number of blockouts, recess and discontinuity due to access to turbine pit, the conventional method of analysis is not very rational. It was therefore considered necessary to analyse the barrel foundation by Finite Element Method. The pattern of stress distribution in the barrel foundation is of great concern for safety and economy of a power house, which can be effectively achieved by analysing it by finite element method. In this dissertation, the stresses have been studied by using. three dimensional fmite element method. The study is divided into two parts : Part : I - Analysis of 3-D model without openings. Part : II- Analysis of 3-D model with openings.