Dr. Karen Kirkland, associate department head and professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University, is the principal investigator of the Terry Turbine Expanded Operating Band Project. Her research was featured in the November issue of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability newsletter. Kirkland’s team is working on increasing knowledge of the operational characteristics and limitations of Terry turbopumps and the systems that use them. The Terry turbine is a compound-velocity impulse turbine. Terry turbopumps are used by the U.S. nuclear industry as steam-driven turbopumps to power essential safety systems. The co-PIs are Dr. Yassin Hassan, the Sallie & Don Davis '61 Professor in Engineering, professor of nuclear engineering and professor of mechanical engineering, and Dr. Abhay Patil, an assistant research engineer in the mechanical engineering Turbomachinery Laboratory.
Experimental testing is currently underway at Texas A&M.
Read the entire article in the November issue of DOE’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability newsletter.