Establishing the Scientific Foundation for the 21st Century Gas Turbine
Anchoring ATS efforts to pro-vide the underlying science (tech-nology base research)—requisite for major systems developments— is the Advanced Gas Turbine Sys-tems Research (AGTSR) Program. AGTSR is a university/industry consortium that has grown into a vibrant virtual laboratory with na-tional scope and worldwide recog-nition. Since its inception in 1992, AGTSR has networked the partici-pation of 100 universities in 38 states, and 10 major players in the gas turbine industry. Through net-working research activities, AGTSR has exponentially increased the in-teractions among researchers and interested parties, breaking the mold of traditional one-on-one university research (researcher and funding agency). Moreover, AGTSR has not only established a body of scientific excellence in gas turbine technology, but provided for continued U.S. lead-ership in turbine technology through an ongoing education program.
With DOE oversight and indus-try guidance, the South Carolina In-stitute for Energy Studies (SCIES) administers the AGTSR Program, providing the linkage between uni-versities, industry, and government. A 10-member Industry Review Board (IRB) provides corporate leaders who define the thrust of the research program and technical experts to evaluate research pro-posals. IRB membership includes gas turbine manufacturers, parts suppliers, customers, and indus-try research and development or-ganizations. SCIES coordinates the research efforts, creates teams of excellence in the various fields of endeavor, conducts workshops, and arranges internships and fellowships as part of an education program.
Research remains the primary mission of AGTSR. But as the pro-gram matured, other functions emerged as a consequence of the program’s success. Workshops be-came necessary for effective tech-nology transfer. And education activities became a natural outgrowth to sustain scientific excellence, such as internships, fellowships, faculty studies, and special studies. To date, 16 separate universities around the country have sponsored workshops on key topics. All interns were eventually employed by the gas tur-bine industry or by a university. Well over 400 university personnel and over 100 industry experts have participated directly in the AGTSR program.
The structure of AGTSR serves to ensure the quality, relevance, and timeliness of the research. The quality of research is assured by university peer review at work-shops and through the publication process. Relevance of the research is established by having industry de-fine the research needs, select the research, and critique the results. Timeliness is guaranteed by in-dustry and DOE involvement with Performing Member institutions throughout the life of the projects.
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he creation of a national net-work of universities under AGTSR mobilized the scientific talent needed to understand the fundamental mechanisms impeding gas turbine perfor-mance gains and to identify pathways for overcoming them.
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