RAMGEN Power Systems (RPS),Bellevue, Washington, is developing a turbine in support of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Fuel Cell/Turbine Hybrid Program under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center-Construction Engineering Research Laboratories (ERDC-CERL).  This research and development program utilizes RPS’s shock wave compression technology.  For this development, there is a need for a sequence of static tests that require the design and build of a test support system or test rig.  This is an integral step in development and will be verified with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling.  The design and build of the test support system has been awarded to Concurrent Technologies Corporation (CTC) through the Cooperative Agreement (No. DACA42-02-2-0001) between the ERDC-CERL and CTC.  CTC will design, build and deliver the test support system in stages to RPS to use in their developmental testing in support of the UAF fuel cell hybrid program.  RPS will use the installed system components to evaluate the performance of a supersonic nozzle they have designed to deliver the needed flow conditions to the downstream pre-inlet design.  A subsequent test will then evaluate various techniques modeled in the Rotor Flowpath Performance Improvement Program at RPS.  To facilitate design and fabrication of the test rig, RPS will provide interface control documents (ICDs) for each stage of the project.  The ICDs will contain the requirements CTC needs to design and build each stage of the system.  Data obtained by RPS from each stage of their testing will assist in CTC’s refinement and development of subsequent systems.

RPS is currently considering conducting the static testing in the Gas Dynamics Laboratory at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Gas Dynamics Laboratory 600 & 150 HP Compressors (2000 scfm, 10 & 20 atm.) Shock Tube (4 inch diameter) Supersonic Wind Tunnel (4 x 4 inches) Transonic Cascade Wind Tunnel (2 x 3 inches) Free Jet (1 inch) Rotor Spin Rig (50 HP @ 30,000 RPM) Small Gas Turbine Test Cell and Free Jet VXI/PC Data, Scanivalve ZOCs, PSP, Schlieren