Advanced turbine systems program conceptual design and product development. Quarterly report, February 1995--April 1995

This Quarterly Technical Progress Report covers the period February 1, 1995, through April 30, 1995, for Phase II of the Advanced Turbine Systems (ATS) Program by Solar Turbines Incorporated under DOE contract No. DE-AC21-93MC30246. The objective of Phase II of the ATS Program is to provide the conceptual design and product development plan for an ultra high efficiency, environmentally superior and cost competitive industrial gas turbine system to be commercialized by the year 2000. A secondary objective is to begin early development of technologies critical to the success of ATS. Tasks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 of Phase II have been completed in prior quarters. Their results have been discussed in the applicable quarterly reports and in their respective topical reports. With the exception of Task 7, final editions of these topical reports have been submitted to the DOE. This quarterly report, then, addresses only Task 4 and the nine subtasks included in Task 8, {open_quotes}Design and Test of Critical Components.{close_quotes} These nine subtasks address six ATS technologies as follows: (1) Catalytic Combustion - Subtasks 8.2 and 8.5, (2) Recuperator - Subtasks 8.1 and 8.7, (3) Autothermal Fuel Reformer - Subtask 8.3, (4) High Temperature Turbine Disc - Subtask 8.4, (5) Advanced Control System (MMI) - Subtask 8.6, and (6) Ceramic Materials - Subtasks 8.8 and 8.9. Major technological achievements from Task 8 efforts during the quarter are as follows: (1) The subscale catalytic combustion rig in Subtask 8.2 is operating consistently at 3 ppmv of NO{sub x} over a range of ATS operating conditions. (2) The spray cast process used to produce the rim section of the high temperature turbine disc of Subtask 8.4 offers additional and unplanned spin-off opportunities for low cost manufacture of certain gas turbine parts