Abstract. The formation of droplets in low-pressure stages of power steam turbines is due to the nucleation phenomenon and its effects, such as sudden pressure rise, also known as the condensation shock, where the irreversible internal heat transfer causes a drop in the efficiency of the turbine. Furthermore, the existence of the liquid phase causes erosion of turbine blade surfaces, and consequently, creates high mechanical costs. Therefore, proposing a solution for reducing these unwanted thermodynamic and mechanical effects is desirable. In the previous work of the authors, volumetric heating of the convergent section was introduced as an approach for reducing the mentioned damages and losses. However, further investigations revealed that heating the convergent section results in the expansion of the flow, and decreases the total mass flow rate, which is not favorable. In this paper, using semi-analytical and one dimensional modeling, the simultaneous effects of volumetric heat transfer and inlet stagnation pressure rise are investigated in order to propose a strategy for modifying this shortcoming and to stabilize the mass flow rate. The results show that for the boundary conditions used in this research, increasing the inlet stagnation pressure up to 5 percent can stabilize the mass flow rate of the non-adiabatic flow, compared to the flow in adiabatic conditions.

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