ATLANTA (Dec. 9, 2015) – Siemens has announced that it will supply the University of Notre Dame with the main motor and variable frequency drive for its new Turbomachinery Facility. The facility will be a research and test facility for advancing the technology used in gas turbine engines used by the commercial and military aircraft, power plant and the oil and gas industries. Siemens will provide the main motor and variable frequency drive for this new testing facility for turbines with future expansion into large compressors.
Siemens will provide a 10-megawatt SINAMICS SM120 variable frequency drive (6,300v input) and a 5-megawatt SIMOTICS AboveNEMA TEWAC motor. The VFD was sized to allow Notre Dame to support development testing on compressors rated up to 10 megawatts. Notre Dame selected Siemens’ solution due to its unique features such as standard dynamic braking and the fully regenerative front-end. The dynamic braking module will serve as an emergency brake to support the safe operation of the turbine test stand, while the fully regenerative front-end option provides energy management flexibility.
“The Siemens team came prepared for our pre-bid meetings, listened to our requirements and did not shy away from any of the requests from our engineers for the system solution,” said Michael Rulli, project leader at University of Notre Dame. “The Notre Dame Leadership team selected Siemens based on their professionalism and application knowledge on large-scale systems.”
The new $36 million project will be at the forefront for the nation for turbine testing. The Turbomachinary Facility will sit in 25,000-square-feet of the 43,000-square-foot building and is expected to be fully operational by mid-2016.