Turbo Expo Attracts the World’s Turbomachinery Experts

(From left): Panelists Vinod Philip of Siemens Gas Turbines, Alan Epstein from Pratt & Whitney, and Stuart Jeffries of ExxonMobil at the Turbo Expo keynote session.

For the 58th year, ASME’s Turbo Expo convened turbomachinery professionals from around the globe. This year’s conference, sponsored by the Society’s International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI), drew more than 2,400 attendees to the San Antonio Convention Center in Texas from June 3-7.

The Turbo Expo, which this year consisted of 1,025 technical papers being presented during more than 280 technical sessions, has earned a reputation during its many years in existence for bringing together preeminent experts from around the world to share the latest in turbine technology, research and development, and applications in the areas including gas turbines, steam turbines, wind turbines, fans and blowers, solar brayton and rankine cycle, and supercritical carbon dioxide. 

In addition, Turbo Expo’s three-day exhibition offered exceptional networking opportunities. The exhibition attracted many of the industry's leading professionals and key decision makers, whose innovation and expertise are helping to shape the future of the turbomachinery industry. More than 120 exhibitors including GE, Pratt & Whitney, Alstom, ANSYS and Dresser Rand displayed their latest technologies and innovative services to attendees on the trade show floor.

(From left): Thomas Sattelmayer, Christian Eichler and Georg Baumgartner, co-authors of the paper Experimental Investigation of Turbulent Boundary Layer Flashback Limits for Premixed Hydrogen-Air Flames Confined in Ducts, with ASME President-Elect Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb at the conferral of the ASME Gas Turbine Award. The award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the literature of combustion gas turbines or gas turbines thermally combined with nuclear or steam power plants.

The keynote panel session, on June 3, addressed the theme of "Trends in the Global Energy Supply and Implications for the Turbo-Machinery Industry." The keynote panelists were Alan Epstein, vice president of Technology & Environment for Pratt & Whitney; Stuart Jeffries, Global Facilities engineering manager for ExxonMobil Production Co.; and Vinod Philip, head of engineering for Siemens Gas Turbines.

Following the keynote session, seven awards were bestowed during the IGTI Awards Program ceremony. The 2013 award winners included Tony Strazisar, recipient of the ASME R. Tom Sawyer Award; Christian Eichler, Georg Baumgartner and Thomas Sattelmayer, winners of the ASME Gas Turbine Award; Allan Volponi, the 2013 recipient of the International Gas Turbine Institute Scholar Award; and Randall Mathison, winner of the Dilip Ballal Early Career Award for contributions in the gas turbine industry within the first five years of a career.

Also honored during the ceremony were Milt Davis and Nicholas Frederick, who received the John P. Davis Award for the paper "Investigation of the Effects of Inlet Swirl on Compressor Performance and Operability Using a Modified Parallel Compressor Model"; Sigmar Wittig, who accepted the 2013 Aircraft Engine Technology Award for outstanding contributions in the field of air breathing propulsion through inspiring leadership, education and research; and Rainer Kurz, who was given the 2013 Industrial Gas Turbine Technology Award for outstanding contributions and industry leadership in low emissions combustion system research, design, development and deployment.

During her introduction of the awards program, ASME President-Elect Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb noted the important role IGTI and the Turbo Expo play in the international gas turbine market. “As technologies advance and the global population surpasses 7 billion people, IGTI will continue to be a vital source of innovation, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and skill development,” she said. “Each year, Turbo Expo offers presentations enriched by new advances in research and technology. This is an exciting time for the energy sector, and IGTI and our industry will continue to grow and adapt to the demands of a changing world.”

The trade show floor at the 2013 Turbo Expo featured more than 120 exhibitors from the turbomachinery field.

Turbo Expo featured many other special events during its five-day program, including a welcome reception, an Honorary Lectures featured session with IGTI award winners Sigmar Wittig and Ranier Kurz, a special panel session honoring the life and career of Prof. Dillip Ballal, and an early career engineer and student mixer.

A tour of Southwest Research Institute was offered on the last day of the conference. The tour consisted of a visit to SwRI’s turbomachinery labs, material and coating labs, hydrocarbon and multi-phase flow closed loop test facilities, and its aerospace structures labs.

ASME Turbo Expo 2014 will be held in Dusseldorf, Germany, June 16-20. For more information on the ASME International Gas Turbine Institute and the Turbo Expo program, visit http://igti.asme.org.