Browsing by Author "Wilkes, Jason"

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    CST14 - Design and Implementation of Swirl Brakes for Enhanced Rotordynamic Stability in an Off?shore Centrifugal Compressor
    (Turbomachinery Laboratory, [2019]) Cave, Michael; Moulton, David; Eldridge, Thom; Wilkes, Jason; Clarke, Chris; Venkataraman, Balaji; Moore, Jeff
    Rotordynamic stability of gas compressors at high speeds and operating pressures is a significant technical challenge. Dynamic instability must be avoided for the sake of safe, reliable and continuous operation of turbomachinery. During the last few decades, the industry has successfully used swirl-brakes in a Teeth-on-Stator configuration for many applications. This case study presents the design, testing and successful implementation of swirl-brakes for a Teeth-on-Rotor configuration to improve rotordynamic stability.
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    Design and Implementation of Swirl Brakes for Enhanced Rotordynamic Stability in an Off-shore Centrifugal Compressor
    (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2018) Venkataraman, Balaji; Moulton, David; Cave, Mike; Clarke, Chris; Moore, Jeff; Wilkes, Jason; Eldridge, Thom
    Rotordynamic stability of gas compressors at high speeds and operating pressures is a significant technical challenge. Dynamic instability must be avoided for the sake of safe, reliable and continuous operation of turbomachinery. Experience and literature have shown that one of the main sources of instability is the swirl within the secondary leakage path in shrouded impellers, especially the swirl entering the shroud seals. The technical brief presents the design and implementation of swirl brakes for centrifugal compressors with Teeth-on-Rotor seal configurations for shrouded impellers. Discussion includes (a) aerodynamic design of swirl brakes with the help of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), (b) sub-scale testing of the swirl brake design in an instrumented single-stage test rig to measure the inlet swirl ratio in a shrouded impeller, (c) full-scale prototype shop-testing and qualification, with and without the swirl brakes in a closedloop test facility, and (d) results of incorporating the swirl brakes at an off-shore compressor installation to improve rotordynamic stability.
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    Introduction to sCO2 Power Cycles, Applications, Turbomachinery, Heat Exchangers, and Research Programs
    (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2018) Allison, Tim; Moore, Jeffrey; Wilkes, Jason; Musgrove, Grant; McClung, Aaron; Turbomachinery Symposium (47th : 2018)
    The recent interest to use supercritical CO2 (sCO2) in power cycle applications over the past decade has resulted in a large amount of literature that focuses on specific areas related to sCO2 power cycles in great detail. Such focus areas are demonstration test facilities, heat exchangers, turbomachinery, materials, and fluid properties of CO2 and CO2 mixtures, to name a few. As work related to sCO2 power cycles continues, more technical depth will be emphasized in each focus area, whereas those unfamiliar with the topic are left to undertake the large task of understanding fundamentals on their own. This short course aims to remedy this problem by providing an introduction to the following aspects of this new and exciting field. 1. sCO2 Power Cycle Basics and Proposed sCO2 Cycles 2. sCO2 Power Cycle Applications 3. sCO2 Turbomachinery 4. sCO2 Materials 5. sCO2 Heat Exchangers 6. sCO2 Research
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    Troubleshooting of Sub-synchronous Torsional Interaction Phenomena on an Electric Motor-Driven Centrifugal Compressor
    (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2018) Smith, Natalie; Moore, Jeffrey; Wilkes, Jason; Allison, Timothy; Kulhanek, Chris; Turbomachinery Symposium (47th : 2018)
    This case study discusses the identification, troubleshooting, and correction of a torsional instability in an electric motor-driven driveline with variable frequency drive (VFD) for a high-pressure gas compressor test facility permanently installed at SwRI. A torsional instability was identified on the gearbox high-speed shaft at speeds when the VFD output (line) frequency met or exceeded the torsional natural frequency of the train. The issue was resolved by changing to sensorless vector control in the VFD instead of voltage/frequency control. In the literature, this change was not observed.
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    Turbomachinery Overview for Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles
    (Turbomachinery Laboratory, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station, 2017) Allison, Tim; Wilkes, Jason; Brun, Klaus; Moore, Jeffrey; Turbomachinery Symposium (46th : 2017)