Thomas M. Korb, Ph.D, PE, has joined the engineering department of Turbine Technologies, LTD as an Aerothermal Design Engineer. Dr. Korb's primary responsibilities will be research and development efforts related to gas turbine engines and implementation of new technologies and engineering tools used in the engine development process.
Dr. Korb's research and the majority of his professional engineering experience have been in the technical fields of combustion, fluid mechanics, gas dynamics, and the thermo sciences. His doctoral research was an experimental study focused on the effect of metal-oxide structure and overall catalytic activity on gas-phase ignition of hydrogen-air mixtures by heated metallic surfaces.
Dr. Korb has also been involved in research related to both gas turbine and Stirling engines. He was responsible for the commissioning, troubleshooting, and experimentally validating a Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) system designed to measure and spatially resolve fuel droplet size and mass distribution in the spray field of gas turbine fuel atomizers. The system was used to characterize the performance of several developmental gas turbine fuel atomizers for NASA's Advanced Subsonic Technology (AST) and Ultra Efficient Engine Technology (UEET) programs. Dr. Korb also conducted an experimental study for the Office of Naval Research (ONR) on gas turbine emissions reduction by combustion in porous media. In addition to traditional emissions measurements systems, advanced laser diagnostics tools were used to perform in-situ fuel spray characterization in an experimental gas turbine combustor operating at elevated pressures.
In addition to his research experience, Dr. Korb has extensive engineering experience in the design, operation, and control of a variety of industrial combustion systems. Emissions reduction and combustion performance was the primary focus of most of this work.