Allison Turbines, United Technologies-Pratt & Whitney Air Craft Company, General Electric, FETC, Allied Signal Engines, University of CA-Irvine and Berkeley, Purdue University, Vanderbilt University, Penn State, Cornell University, Advanced Fuel Research, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, University of Washington, Sandia National Laboratory, NASA-Lewis Research Center, EPRI, Empire State Electric Energy Research Corporation, Gas Research Institute, Ahlstrom Pyropower Inc., Babcock & Wilcox, Foster Wheeler Development Corporation, Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power, Sacramento Municipal Utility District

• Simultaneous Measurements of Temperature and Species Concentration on Premixed Natural Gas Flames Using a Dual Dye, Single-Strokes CARS System - Paper Presented at the 1996 Fall Meeting of Western States Section/Combustion Institute Meeting at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles October
  28-29, 1996
• CARS Temperature and LDA Velocity Measurements in a Turbulent, Swirling, Premixed Propane/Air Fueled Model Gas Turbine Combustor - Paper Presented at the 1995 Annual Meeting of ASME International Gas Turbine And Aeroengine Congress and Exposition Houston, TX, June 5-8, 1995
• Evaluation of CH4/NOx Reduced Mechanisms Used for Modeling Lean Premixed Turbulent Combustion of Natural Gas - Submitted to ASME Journal Of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power October 1997
• Numerical Method for Predicting Fluid Flow in Practical, Industrial Geometries - International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluid In Review, 1998
• Modeling of Lean Premixed Combustion in Stationary Gas Turbines - Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, In Press, 1998
• Stochastic Modeling of CO and NO in Premixed Methane Combustion - Combustion and Flame 113, 135-146, 1998
• Comprehensive Model for Lean Premixed Combustion in Industrial Gas Turbines- Part I Validation - Paper No. 97S041 - Paper Presented at the 1997 Spring Meeting of the Western States Section/Combustion Institute Meeting at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, April 1997
• Chemical Kinetic Modeling of Bluff-Body Lean Premixed Combustor - Submitted Full Length Article to Combustion and Flame January 1998
• Comprehensive Model for Lean, Premixed Combustion in Industrial Gas Turbines: Part II-Application - Paper Presented at the 1997 Spring Meeting Of the Western States Section/Combustion Institute Meeting at the South Coast Air Quality Management District Headquarters, Diamond Bar, CA, April 1997

Performing Member Contact:

Thomas H. Fletcher

Brigham Young University
Chemical Engineering Department
350 CB
Provo, UT  84602
801-422-6236/FAX 801-422-0151
tom_fletcher@byu.edu

• Dr. Fletcher is the Director of the Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center (ACERC), initiated by the NSF in 1986.  This center involves up to 22 faculty at BYU working on combustion-related projects in many fields, one of which is gas turbines. University computer facilities include the Ira & Mary Lou Fulton Supercomputing Center, which includes a 316 processor (@375 MHz) IBM Sp-2 machine, an IBM Linux cluster with 256 Pentium Xeon processors (@2.4 GHz), an SGI Origin 3800 with 64 processors, an SGI Origin 2000 with 24 processors, and an SGI 3900 with 128 processors (See http://marylou.byu.edu/resources.htm) . We have performed CARS, LDA, and PLIF-OH experiments on an atmospheric, lab-scale gas turbine combustor.  We currently are equipped with an accelerated deposition facility that can experimentally reproduce the particle deposition mechanisms expected in land-based turbines.  We have appropriate SEM, TEM, and other particle characterization facilities at BYU after years of working in coal combustion.  We also have  lab-scale burners for biomass and co-fired coal/biomass (up to 40 lbs/hr of coal), with the associated gas and particle sampling and analysis systems.

Brigham Young University

Brigham Young University is the largest private university in the nation, with over 30,000 students. The College of Engineering and Technology consists of over 3500 students in five departments. Combustion research is a major activity, coordinated through the Advanced Combustion Engineering Research Center (ACERC) initiated by the NSF in 1987. Fluid dynamics and heat transfer are also major research activities. Professors involved in gas turbine-related research are:

• Thomas H. Fletcher (ChE) combustion modeling, pollutant formation, solid fuel combustion, laser diagnostics
• Jeffrey P. Bons (MechE) turbine cooling and surface roughness, turbine applications of flow control
• Brent W. Webb (MechE) radiative and convective heat transfer
• Larry L. Baxter (ChE) deposition and corrosion from coal and biomass, boiler modeling
• Dale R. Tree (MechE) combustion in engines, lab-scale reactor measurements, pollutant formation

Past BYU gas turbine research contributions have been in the areas of:

• turbulence chemistry modeling with computational fluid dynamics
• reduced mechanisms for combustion chemistry under high pressure lean-premixed conditions
• lean-premixed reactor mapping for model evaluation using advanced laser diagnostics (CARS for temperature, PLIF for OH, and LDA for velocities)
• surface roughness measurements of turbine blades

A list of recent publications is found at http://www2.et.byu.edu/~tom/gas_turbines/Relevant_Publications.html

Facilities available for gas turbine research include:

• The Ira and Mary Lou Fulton Supercomputing Center (http://marylou.byu.edu), which currently includes a 316 processor (@375 MHz) IBM Sp-2 machine, an IBM Linux cluster with 256 Pentium Xeon processors (@2.4 GHz), an SGI Origin 3800 with 64 processors, an SGI Origin 2000 with 24 processors, and an SGI 3900 with 128 processors.
• An accelerated deposition facility that can experimentally reproduce the particle deposition mechanisms expected in land-based turbines. Representative coupons with thermal barrier coatings are obtained from various manufacturers and impacted with particles traveling at 200 m/s at 1150 º C to form deposits, which are characterized for roughness and thermal conductivity.
• Particle and deposit characterization facilities, including scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), elemental characterization (organic and mineral), cross-section analysis of deposits, and surface roughness characterization.
• Two low-speed wind tunnels (including one low pressure turbine linear cascade) for turbine aero-heat transfer measurements.
• Pressurized storage systems for air and natural gas for use with lab-scale combustors
• Optical diagnostics capability for:
  
  CARS measurements of temperature and major gas species
  PLIF measurements of OH, CH, and NO
  LDA and PIV measurements of all 3 components of velocity (point and planar measurement respectively).
  
• IR Cameras for surface heat transfer measurement.