NWU-Puk engineers build unique gas turbine

Two schools of engineering of the NWU Puk have built a unique gas turbine that will henceforth play a significant major role in, amongst others, the training of students and future research.
  By building the turbine themselves, the faculties of engineering have saved hundreds and thousands of rands, since it is only available in America. Besides, the University now has the data available to do further tests and developments.
  The popularity of Gas turbines has steadily increased during the past years, especially as propulsion for jet aircrafts, thanks to their high power-to-mass ratio. Besides, their ability to function on different fuels and at high temperatures has also contributed to popularity for generating power.
  According to Dr Barend Botha at mechanical engineering, the increasing involvement of NWU Puk in the field of gas turbine technology has created the need for a test bank by means of which the basic principles of gas turbines can be demonstrated to students in practice while it also presents the opportunity for further research in the various fields of gas turbines
  Consequently it has been decided to develop the test bank locally, and the project was tackled along with electric/electronic engineering due to the strong presence of mechanical as well as electronic components.
  Botha points out that, during the design phases, attention was given to safety, electromagnetic reconcilability, maintenance, affordability and functionality.
  The mechanical aspects were addressed by Mr Jannie Oosthuizen as his final-year project. It entailed the monitoring of the temperature and pressure sensors on the critical points, as well as the development of an instrument to determine the momentum.  Coupled with this, a cabinet was designed and built to house the test bank.
  The characterization of the gas turbine by means of the ConceptsNREC software forms part of Mr Thengi Molotsi’s master’s degree studies. This will also be the first information of its kind for a micro-gas turbine of this scale which can be of significant value to the manufacturer to improve the performance of the unit.
  The remarkable electronic control system was developed by Mr Rossouw van der Merwe as part of his master’s degree studies under guidance of Prof Johann Holm. The data for temperature, pressure, speed, momentum and fuel consumption is displayed simultaneously on the control panel and a computer. The data is then also saved so that it can be analysed later.
   Botha mentions that a system engineering process was followed while designing the system. He added that the functional analysis that was done to ensure the functional capability was an important contribution. Besides, a support document was developed that dramatically increases fault tracing in the constantly changing academic environment.
  The project demonstrated the value cooperation between different disciplines at university can already hold – for the students as well as projects. Apart from a huge saving, the University has the advantage of access to the software for further tests and development.
  “Furthermore, the system can also be integrated with Flownex®, a thermodynamic network analysis package which also originated at NWU Puk, where the results can be compared between a Flownex® simulation and the implemented system”, says Van der Merwe.
  Botha is of opinion that this cooperation between the two schools of engineering has created a product that will hold many advantages for engineering students in the future.