Notre Dame lab partners with company to test power generating machine

Scientists and researchers at Notre Dame have been tapped to lead a multi-million dollar project. 

The Turbomachinery Lab at Ignition Park in South Bend is using its newest test cell room to examine a power generating machine that could power entire cities.

It’s a 2.5 million dollar agreement and will help fill some of those empty spaces. The Notre Dame Turbomachinery Lab has four different lab cells and they’re using their newest, and largest one to test parts of a big gas turbine, which can help generate power.

“One of the things that we wanted to do when we built this lab was to start making our expertise here in south bend available globally,” said Dr. Joshua Cameron, Director of the Notre Dame Turbomachinery Lab in Ignition Park.

And they did just that. The lab partnered with Doosan Heavy Industries based in South Korea to test and do some pretty impressive research come early 2018.

“They recognized that we had built some world class turbomachinery test capability here and they wanted to get involved in doing research and testing with us,” said Cameron.

Cameron says this is the first time DHI has ever built a gas turbine machine of this scale.

“This is the sort of gas turbine that can power whole cities,” said Cameron.

And experts at that lab are working to make sure that can happen. 

“So we’re just pulling out a small piece and we’re working on that to make sure that it works perfectly and then they’ll go build it into their larger gas turbine and they’ll run it at a power plant,” said Cameron.

Notre Dame will provide the data for DHI to design its product which will then be sold all around the world.

“To partner with such a big global company, this is a first step in that direction,” said Cameron.