Advanced Search
 


Turbomachinery Laboratory Website


The Turbomachinery Laboratory conducts basic and applied research into important problems of reliability and performance of turbomachinery — rotating machinery that extracts or adds energy to fluids. That’s everything from classic Dutch windmills to the space shuttle’s main engine turbopumps and compressors that move natural gas through the distribution system.

The Turbo Lab’s acclaimed Turbomachinery and Pump Symposia (TPS) is held annually in Houston, Texas, and its sister event, the Asia Turbomachinery and Pump Symposia, biennially in Singapore. Both feature a world-class exhibit hall and cutting-edge technical program.

Contents of this community

Recent Submissions

  • Chew, Grace; Asokan, Kaushik (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2024-02-27)
    At one of our customer/end-user chemical plants in Singapore, they had a problem with frequent replacement of the Hastelloy C impellars casted used in their centrifugal pumps in service with Sodium Hypochlorite application. ...
  • Srinivasan, Anand; Fowler, Edward J.; Marechale, Russell K. (Texas A & M University. Libraries; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Axial thrust load predictions are an important aspect when it comes to predicting the performance of centrifugal compressors. The accurate prediction of axial thrust forces is necessary to size the appropriate balance ...
  • Wu, Tingcheng; Kuzdzal, Mark J. (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    As speed and power density increase, open (unshrouded) impellers are becoming more and more utilized in process gas compressors. Open impellers enable higher tip speeds and more aerodynamic head per stage than closed ...
  • Gaydon, Peter; Claxton, Jack; Cropper, Mike; Marscher, Bill (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Vibration caused by resonance is an industry problem for new and retrofit applications that persists due to lack of specification and upfront analysis. To limit the chances of resonant vibration, dynamic analysis of the ...
  • Marscher, William D.; Onari, Maki M. (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    This tutorial outlines the basics of pump rotordynamics in a form that is intended to be Machinery End User friendly. Key concepts will be defined in understandable terms, and analysis and testing options will be presented ...
  • McManus, Robert F.; Butler, Brian M. (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Non-contacting dual pressurized gas lubricated seals for use in pumps have been in service since the early 1990’s. The application of these seal designs has expanded over time into very high temperature applications up to ...
  • Perissinotto, Rodolfo Marcilli; de Cerqueira, Rafael Franklin Lazaro; Verde, William Monte; Biazussi, Jorge Luiz; Bannwart, Antonio Carlos; de Castro, Marcelo Souza (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Electrical submersible pumps are assembled in oil wells to act as artificial lift methods. When water is present in the reservoir, oil-water emulsions are formed in the pump. These two-phase mixtures affect the performance ...
  • Zaghloul, Medhat; Jacobson, Wayne (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    This tutorial discusses the design basics for refrigeration compressors, using the 2�section Propane refrigeration configuration as an example. The benefits of incorporating a flash gas Economizer are discussed, as are ...
  • Kurz, Rainer; Reitz, Daniel; Burnes, Daniel (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Industrial gas turbines have performance characteristics that distinctly depend on ambient and operating conditions. Application of these gas turbines, as well as the control and condition monitoring, require to consider ...
  • Goodwin, Fred; Termunde, Dan; First, Rick (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Rotating equipment being installed in industrial environments, including refineries and chemical processing plants, are critically aligned with exact tolerances. When in operation, this equipment experiences heavy dynamic ...
  • Aikens, Kurt; MacWilliams, Scott; Gilarranz, Jose; Sorokes, James M.; Hermes, Viktor (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    This tutorial delves into the factors that impact the accuracy of turbomachinery performance predictions. The discussion is broken down into three parts… the influence of engineering tools / procedures, the impact of the ...
  • Kurz, Rainer; Allison, Tim; Moore, Jeff; McBain, Marybeth (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    In the context of carbon reduction efforts, discussions evolve around hydrogen compression, as well as compression requirements related to CO2 capture, transportation and sequestration. In this paper, compression requirements ...
  • San Andres, Luis; Delgado, Adolfo (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Turbomachinery seals are engineered to maintain efficiency and power delivery by minimizing leakage. Seals also appreciably affect the system rotordynamic behavior due to their relative position within a turbomachine. The ...
  • Sandberg, Mark R. (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    The detailed sizing and selection of centrifugal compressors may be somewhat of a mystery to the typical user. Once the suction and discharge process conditions and required flow rates are established, they are submitted ...
  • Adachi, Akira; Baba, Yoshitaka (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Startup transients of both torsional and lateral vibration behaviors of an integrally geared centrifugal compressor driven by a synchronous motor are examined by transient torsional-lateral coupled analyses, and the numerical ...
  • De Francesco, Francesco; Annese, Francesco; Da Soghe, Riccardo; Mazzei, Lorenzo; Brizzi, Rita (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Pumps steam tracing is widely used in Oil&Gas industry for critical services in which the process fluid requires a minimum temperature to avoid its crystallization during stand-by. This paper describes the process of ...
  • Armentrout, Richard (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    When machines equipped with tilting pad bearings are well enough balanced to limit the journal whirl amplitudes to less than 40% to 50% of the bearing clearance, the bearing behavior can usually be considered linear and ...
  • Havlik, Nico; Kraft, Christian; Winking, Philipp Sebastian; Schwarze, Hubert; Lindloff, Kai (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Tilting-pad thrust bearings which include a self-equalizing feature, ensure reliable and safe operation especially under conditions on which misalignment between bearing and collar occurs. One common method to incorporate ...
  • Bauer, Derrick (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Centrifugal compressors are commonly utilized for hydrogen compression in refineries for critical applications, and a potential “Hydrogen Economy� to lowering the carbon footprint on a worldwide scale will require ...
  • Kim, Hyeongjun; Lee, Sanghun; Yang, Jinseok (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station; Texas A & M University. Libraries, 2022)
    Fire incidents occurred in the turbine bearing housing at every start-upsince the original wet type seal in the compressor was replaced with a dry gas seal(DGS). The first investigation focused on leakage of the lube oil ...

View more