Performing Member Contact:

Dr. Ajay K. Agrawal, Professor/Chair

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Department of Mechanical Engineering
290 Hardaway Hall
Box 870276
Tuscaloosa, AL 34587
205-348-4964/FAX 205-348-6419
aagrawal@coe.eng.ua.edu

• combustion laboratory, computational facility

University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

Gas Turbine Related Experience and Expertise

The College of Engineering at the University of Alabama has several faculty members with experience and expertise in power generating gas turbines. Research interests of faculty relevant to the University Turbine Systems Research Program (UTSR) include: aerodynamics; combustion; heat transfer; and instrumentation, sensors and life. Following is a brief summary of experience and expertise of interested faculty.

Ajay K. Agrawal in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has 15 years experience in power generating gas turbines. His early work in Clemson involved studies of aerodynamics of combustor-diffuser systems. His research on aerodynamics of gas turbine intercooler systems at the University of Oklahoma was supported by SCIES. He received a Faculty Fellowship from SCIES to study combustion of alternative fuels. His recent research has focused on lean premixed combustion of hydrogen-enriched and alternative fuels. His recent research has focused on lean premixed combustion of hydrogen-enriched and alternative fuels in swirl-stabilized burner systems. He is exploring techniques such as porous inert media combustion to reduce emissions in gas turbines operated on a variety of gaseous and liquid fuels. He is a member of the ASME IGTI Combustion and Fuels committee, AIAA Propellant and Combustion committee, and a member of the Board of Advisor of U.S. Central States Section of the Combustion Institute. He is a Fellow of ASME and the Robert F. Barfield Endowed Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alabama .

Professor Bob Taylor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has extensive experimental and computational experience in boundary-layer flow over rough surfaces. Some of his past research at Mississippi State University was sponsored by the SCIES. His experience includes development of the Discrete Element Roughness Model to predict skin friction and heat transfer in turbulent boundary layers over rough surfaces. This work spanned about 20 years culminating in the development of a predictive capability for real randomly rough surfaces. This computational work was complemented by an extensive experimental program to both calibrate and validate the computational models and to explore interesting behaviors of turbulent boundary layers over rough surfaces. Current interest includes combined experimental/computational validation of computational models. Professor Taylor has extensive background in experimental uncertainty analysis and has worked in the application of uncertainty analysis practices to computational engineering models.

Professor Muhammad Ali Rob Sharif in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics has research interests in computational fluid/aero dynamics and heat transfer and turbulence modeling. He has conducted computational analysis of transonic turbulent flows over airfoils and investigated the effects of surface roughness on the flow.

Professor Sally Anne McInerny, in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics has research interests on noise generated by high thrust, high temperature exhausts and condition monitoring of rotating machines and motors - including gears, shafts, bearings. Her past research includes: developing methods to account for non-linear propagation effects on high intensity jet noise; high frequency monitoring of fatigue failure in the vicinity of a weld; development of helicopter vibration condition monitoring website; development of method for detection cracked carrier plate in planetary gear of helicopter main gearbox; development of fault indicators that provide earlier warning of degradation of the inboard bearing supporting the input pinion drive shaft to the main gearbox of the UH-60 helicopter, among others. Dr. McInerny has been an active member of the SAE Gas Turbine Engine Condition Monitoring Committee (E-32 committee) for several years.

Other faculty members with related research interest include Professor K. Clark Midkiff (combustion), Professor Paul Puzinauskas (combustion, Professor Will Sutton (heat transfer), Professor Marcus Ashford (combustion), Professor John Baker (combustion), Professor Will Schreiber (heat transfer, CFD Analysis), Dr. Dan Daly (combustion chemistry), and Professor Keith Woodbury (heat transfer).

Industry Partnerships, Facilities and Capabilities

Alabama is home to Southern Company, a major power producer in the region. Southern Company has an extensive research and development program in the power generation area, and maintains research and development facilities in Wilsonville , Alabama . The University of Alabama has an excellent working relationship with Southern Company and this relationship will be beneficial in carrying out research in support of the UTSR program.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME) and the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics (AEM) maintain several research laboratories located in Hardaway Hall and adjacent buildings on the campus of the University of Alabama . Other facilities include computational labs, machine and electronic shops, and extensive engineering library and instructional facilities. Some of the facilities are described in the following.

Combustion Laboratories. The combustion laboratories are housed in several rooms, encompass over 3000 square feet, and include a variety of specifically-oriented and general purpose test facilities and platforms. The combustion and flow diagnostics test facility includes combustion chambers and infrastructure to support research on lean premixed combustion, low-emission combustion for alternative fuels, duel fuel combustion, porous media combustion, etc. The supporting infrastructure includes a hot-air supply system, a high-speed rainbow schlieren apparatus, general optical diagnostic support systems, and flow control systems to simulate a range of flame conditions. Other facilities include a diffusion flame test apparatus for reduced gravity experiments; a hydrogen dispersion and ignition test stand; a constant volume combustion chamber to simulate the high-temperature, high-pressure post-compression environment; a rapid compression and expansion machine to investigate premixed combustion; a 16 foot long transparent flame tube for laminar-flame speed measurements; and others.

Computational Facilities. Students and faculty have access to modern software tools that support combustion, internal-combustion engine, and general energy systems research. ME hardware includes over 160 modern PC workstations and a high-performance computing cluster with eight dual Xeon 3.2 GHz processors capable of 102.4 GLFOPS in parallel operation. The University is a member of the Alabama Supercomputer Network, which maintains an SGI Altix 350 56-processor machine capable of 280 GFLOPS and a Cray XD1 144-processor machine capable of 634 GLFOPS. Available software include the KIVA multidimensional reacting flow simulation, FLUENT and FIDAP computational fluid dynamic software, CHEMKIN chemical kinetic analysis software, NASA-Glenn equilibrium code and ANSYS and NASTRAN finite element software.

Major equipment housed in various facilities is listed below: