ASME Turbo Expo celebrates milestone

In June, ASME Turbo Expo celebrated its 50th anniversary in Reno-Tahoe, Nev., with an exposition that exceeded 100 companies, a technical congress featuring 199 sessions, 627 published papers, and an attendance of more than 2,000.

That's quite a difference from the first conference 50 years ago, then called the Gas Turbine Conference and Exhibit, which featured 25 exhibitors, six technical sessions, 17 papers and an attendance of 747.

This year's event kicked off on June 6 with the Scholar Lecture, presented by Ben Zinn of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Zinn's presentation, "Smart Combustors — Just Around the Corner," gave attendees an understanding of today's combustor technology and a glimpse at the advancements of tomorrow.

The keynote session, which followed the Scholar Lecture, featured a panel of top executives representing major corporate players in the field of gas turbine power and propulsion. The panel included David L. Calhoun, president and chief executive officer at GE Transportation; Louis Chênevert, president of Pratt & Whitney; John G. Rice, president and chief executive officer of GE Energy; Sir Ralph Robins, former chairman of Rolls-Royce; and Randy H. Zwirn, president and chief executive officer at Siemens Westinghouse Power Corp.

During the keynote session — moderated by Brian H. Rowe, chairman emeritus of GE Aircraft Engines and executive conference chair of Turbo Expo 2005 — panel members discussed their views on future technology needs and market opportunities for gas turbines in the global economy. More than 1,000 conference-goers attended the session.

The conference's Technical Congress sessions, organized by IGTI's 17 technical committees, covered such diverse topics as microturbine design developments, innovations in hybrid cycles, environmental impacts of unconventional fuels, experimental techniques in heat transfer, turbomachinery aerodynamics, and many others. This year, attendance at the Technical Congress reflected the participation of 49 countries.

Turbo Expo also featured a special 50th Anniversary Welcome Reception at Reno's acclaimed National Automobile Museum. Sponsored by Alstom Power, GE Energy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Bently Pressurized Bearing, Siemens Westinghouse and GE Transportation, the reception offered visitors an opportunity to network and enjoy refreshments among the museum's impressive collection of more than 200 antique, vintage, classic and special-interest vehicles from 1892 to the present.

At the conference, IGTI also held its first Recognition Luncheon, on the opening day of Turbo Expo. The luncheon combined and replaced two separate functions traditionally held at Turbo Expo: the IGTI Awards Dinner and the Appreciation Luncheon.

A number of honors were bestowed at the luncheon, among them the 2005 R. Tom Sawyer Award, which was given to ASME Fellow Edward M. Greitzer. The Sawyer Award, the institute's most prestigious, recognizes an individual who has made important contributions to advance the purpose of the gas turbine industry and of IGTI over a substantial period of time through sustained forthright effort. Another major honor, the ASME Gas Turbine Award for best technical paper, went to ASME members Marco J. Castaldi, Shahrokh Etemad, Vivek K. Khanna and Lance L. Smith, and Hasan Karim, William C. Pfefferle and Kenneth O. Smith — the seven co-authors of "Rich-Catalytic Lean-Burn Combustion for Low-Single-Digit NOx Gas Turbines."

Also at the luncheon, ASME Life Fellow Theodore H. Okiishi received ASME's Dedicated Service Award for 2005, ASME Fellow Ben T. Zinn was presented with both the 2005 Aircraft Engine Technology Award and the 2005 IGTI Scholar Award, and the IGTI John P. Davis Award went to "Case Studies of Fatigue Life Improvement Using Low Plasticity Burnishing in Gas Turbine Engine Applications," by Paul S. Prevéy, Ravi N. Ravindranath, Michael Shepard and Timothy Gabb.

The conference's exposition floor featured more than 100 leading companies in gas turbine technology, including GE Energy, Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, CD-adapco, Mitsubishi Power, Sulzer Metco, AP&M, Man Turbo USA, Parker Hannifin, Ansys, Arnold Engineering, Thomas Welding & Machine, Vericor, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

ASME's Turbo Expo will return to Europe next year. Barcelona, Spain, will host the event May 8–11, 2006. Information for attendees, exhibitors, authors and organizers is available and updated regularly at www.turboexpo.org. Subscribers to the Turbo Expo free e-bulletin will receive brief alerts via e-mail when significant updates are made to the site.

Companies interested in participating in the Exposition should contact IGTI's Expo Department at (404) 847-0072, extension 1647, or by e-mail at igtiexpo@asme.org.

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