ROTOR DYNAMICS LABORATORY BACKGROUND

Dr. Kirk was at the University of Virginia prior to taking his first industrial position at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, East Hartford, CT in 1972. After three years in the Structures Research Development Group at Pratt and Whitney, Dr. Kirk moved to the Turbo Products Division of Ingersoll-Rand Company, Phillipsburg, NJ. He formed the first industry Rotor Dynamics Group as part of the Turbo Analytical Support Group and was responsible for both analysis, test-stand trouble shooting, and field problems that were beyond the capability of the field service group. This unique position gave Dr. Kirk 10 years of industrial experience on axial, centrifugal and axi-compressors, steam turbines, gas turbine driven power turbines, hot gas expanders, vertical pumps, and engineered centrifugal pumps. In 1985, Dr. Kirk accepted an offer to join Virginia Tech to teach and conduct research in the area of turbomachinery dynamics.

The Rotor Dynamics Laboratory Industry Affiliates Group received its first sponsor support in July 1986.  That first $10,000 check from Exxon Research was followed up the next year with monetary support from Amoco Research, Dresser-Rand and Bently Nevada in addition to the continued support of Exxon and donations of equipment from Ingersoll-Rand.  Since that initial start-up, some companies have joined and withdrawn, while other faithful sponsors have continued to provide a source of support for several graduate students and the laboratory needs since 1988.  In January of 1997, Dr. Mary Kasarda joined the faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech. Dr. Kasarda received a NSF Research Grant in 1998 with matching possibilities to provide up to $400,000.00 over the four year grant period for evaluation of AMB systems.   As of Jan 1, 2008 the laboratory has received more than $1,778,189.00 from industry sponsors, plus double that in donated equipment and other forms of sponsored support for a total of just over $3,942,260.00 in total funding.  Over the past twenty-two years, the laboratory has sponsored forty graduate students, twenty-six of those have completed their Master's degree work and five have completed their Ph.D. degree program and research.  Currently, four students are working toward their Ph.D. program of studies and research and two are working on their master degree program.  A portion of the support for these students has come from the Mechanical Engineering Department, NASA, NSF, CIT and a limited number of sponsored research projects with both Affiliate companies and non-Affiliate companies.  The major portion of the monetary support has been provided by the Industry Affiliates Group. The Affiliates Group now has seven member companies providing unrestricted grants for support of research on rotating machinery.

In January, 2005 the Plantation Road Research Laboratory was converted to a unmanned vehicle research facility due to the proximity of the building to the planned test area for the vehicles.  The result was the demolition of the fluid film test stand and the 200 HP test stand that had been used for AMB rotor drop research in the 1990's.  The fluid film test rig is currently being moved to storage.  The 200 HP test stand is lost and the smaller 10HP test rig was moved to Randolph Hall.  This past spring it was converted for a base support structure and lube supply for a off-engine test capability for evaluation of diesel engine turbocharger bearing stability evaluation.

Check the Current Research web page for more information of the additional research efforts under my direction.   R. G. Kirk 7-24-2008