| The Turbomachinery and Heat Transfer Branch was formed in the
fall of 2005 by the merger of the Compressor and Turbine
branches. The branch conducts fundamental and applied
research to advance the state of the art in turbomachinery for
gas turbine engines, pumps for rocket engines, and heat transfer
for aerospace applications.
The research is applicable to civil and military aircraft,
industrial engines, and space vehicles. The research has
also been applied to such diverse applications as automotive
fans, vacuum cleaner impellers, and jet ski impellers.
The branch maintains and operates several large test
facilities. These facilities are used to:
- Produce highly detailed test data for validation of
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes.
- Measure the performance of advanced compressor and turbine
designs.
- Investigate new concepts for improving the performance or
stability of compressors.
- Measure surface heat transfer on turbine blades.
- Study the effects of roughness, transition, and turbulence
on turbine heat
transfer.
The branch also develops, maintains, supports, and applies
several computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. The
codes are applicable to many types of turbomachinery, including
fans, compressors, turbines, pumps, and diffusers. The
codes are used to:
- Design advanced turbomachinery.
- Predict turbomachinery performance.
- Understand steady and unsteady flow phenomena in
turbomachinery.
- Investigate new concepts for improving the performance or
stability of turbomachinery.
- Predict the effects of advanced turbine cooling
configurations.
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