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This article was originally published in Business Partners, 2nd Quarter, 2010

First, many gas turbines purchased since 2000 have 3-way purge valves installed on the back-up liquid fuel system. Unfortunately, operational reliability for this design suffers over time for the same reason as did standard liquid fuel check valves, high temperatures cause coke formation of the valves internal components and degrades sealing capability. Once this occurs, refurbishment is needed in order to address the problem. The process is then repeated after every 12 to 18 months of gas fuel operation.

Previously, power plants which utilize the 3-way purge valve design and need to improve the reliability of their back –up liquid fuel system would have to convert to water cooled liquid fuel check valves, purge air check valves and install cooling water piping in order to achieve this goal. This change is significant from a cost perspective because it means that the fuel and purge air piping must be modified to accept check valves. In many cases, 2 weeks or more of labor is required to complete this system upgrade. After having evaluated this situation, it became clear that developing a water cooled version of the 3-way purge valve would provide an equally effective yet less expensive alternative.

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Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner arrived at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport on Saturday, May 22, for hot weather flight testing. Jansen’s Aircraft Systems Controls (JASC) of Tempe, Arizona, manufactures the flow divider used to control fuel flow to the aircraft’s auxiliary power unit (APU). The flow divider’s small size, measuring approximately one-by-two inches, belies its importance on this large aircraft — providing the necessary fuel flow distribution to the APU without a large increase in fuel-system pressure. The APU supplies the aircraft with electrical power on the ground as well as back-up power in flight.

JASC is a manufacturer of advanced fluid controls and actuators for aviation, aerospace and power generation industries. For more informaion, www.jasc-controls.com.

Two of JASC’s quality personnel, Santiago Castro and Demian Lozano-Phillips are veterans of Marine Corps Squadron VMF-214 Blacksheep and they helped the company celebrate with a cake cutting ceremony. The first piece of cake was given to JASC’s first employee (and founder) Harvey Jansen. The second piece was passed to the newest employee, Alex Garfio, signifying the passing of experience and knowledge from the old to the young and emphasizing the fact that we care for our newest employees as well as our future before we look to our own needs.

JASC thanks all of its valued suppliers for their support in providing consistent, quality materials.

Recently, a few gas-only engines have been or are being converted to dual fuel because of grid-reliability concerns (example at www.combinedcyclejournal.com/archives.html, click 2Q/2009, click “Termocandelaria” on the issue cover).

Municipals and cooperatives, in particular, are specifying dual fuel for new units and improving the functionality of liquid fuel systems on existing gas turbines (GTs)—this to assure native load doesn’t go dark in the unlikely event gas supply is interrupted. Recall that public power companies are owned by their customers, most of whom are voters.

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UAE-based GETL will cover territories in the Middle East and North Africa. In addition to component sales, GETL will provide on-site installation/commissioning support, repair, and overhaul services for JASC products.

UK-based TPS will cover territories in Europe. In addition to component sales, TPS will provide on-site installation/commissioning support, repair, and overhaul services for JASC products.

JASC specializes in the design and manufacturing of new technology for process control problems in industrial, aerospace, and aviation applications. For more information on JASC products and services, go to www.jasc-controls.com.

Ensuring fail safe
Over the past 30 years, utilities have paid millions of dollars in additional cost when purchasing turbines that have
dual-fuel capability or the ability to operate on both natural gas and liquid fuel. While a wide variety of devices
have been tried over the years, until fairly recently, technology that addresses all of the primary causes of fuel system failures did not exist.

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The aim of this year’s conference was “… to identify and highlight the propulsion systems, components, and technologies required to enable the next generation of aerospace vehicles.” The focus of these technologies include: civilian and commercial aerospace applications, supersonic and hypersonic propulsion research as well as the newly emerging commercial space field.

For the second consecutive year, JASC had a booth amongst some of the propulsion industry’s giants that also attended the conference, including UTC (with both their Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton-Sundstrand divisions), GE Aviation, Rolls-Royce and Aerojet.

JASC’s booth this year proudly displayed some of our more technologically innovative design solutions. These included: our Bi-Propellant Thrust Control Valve (a cryogenic, turbo-pump throttling valve for a commercial space application), our Thrust Vector Control and Fin Control System actuators (also for commercial space applications), as well as an example of our Electronic Pressure Regulator and Hot Gas Valve (the fuel metering valve for the X-51A SED/Waverider hypersonic scramjet research vehicle, currently scheduled to fly in the first half of 2009).

Not only did JASC have a booth at this year’s conference, but JASC is also proud to commend two of our engineers who presented papers. JASC’s engineering manager, John Calleja, presented a paper on the development of our innovative Electronic Pressure Regulator. As mentioned above, this device is used on the X-51A SED/Waverider hypersonic scramjet research vehicle, its function is to control (to a very high degree of accuracy) the pressure of the gaseous nitrogen inside the vehicle’s fuel tank. John’s presentation was well received and sparked quite a bit of interest by those who attended.

JASC Controls Engineer, Matt Caspermeyer, presented his paper on the modeling and analysis of a high-temperature, pneumatic actuator. Matt’s modeling was used to verify the intended performance of a pneumatic actuator designed to control the Inlet Guide Vanes and First Stage Stator of a technology demonstrator turbine engine. Through Matt’s excellent analytical and modeling skills, he was able to identify a performance deficiency before any hardware was machined. This allowed a redesign of a critical section within the actuator, resulting in a complete actuator system (control valve, pneumatic actuator and digital electronic controller) that worked the first time it was tested. Matt’s presentation was well attended and also piqued quite a bit of interest.

If you have any questions, or would like to know more about any of the items mentioned above (or any other innovative JASC designs) please visit our website: www.jasc-controls.com.

If you’re ever in the Phoenix area, please stop by and visit our facility.

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