Another major TEDAC milestone met

  • Published
  • By Shawn Jacobs
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Officials from on and off base attended the construction kickoff ceremony for the Turbine Engine Dry Air Capability (TEDAC) Phase II Sept. 20 at the C-Plant Airside building at Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC).

The $49.7 million contract is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, with AEDC providing technical oversight and Walbridge Aldinger as the design/build contractor.

TEDAC Phase I provided a new desiccant dryer facility capable of providing 350 pounds mass per second - a unit of measure for mass flow - of dry air for turbine engine altitude testing. The desiccant dryer facility will provide the only altitude test capability when the refrigeration cooler (RC-1) is taken out of service for refurbishment in 2012 and will provide additional dry air as required after the system is returned to service.

The RC-1 cooler is a 150 foot by 42 foot steel vessel that uses multi-staged refrigeration systems to condition the supply air for turbine altitude testing, according to Kris Hughes, Air Force program manager for TEDAC.

TEDAC Phase II replaces two major refrigeration systems (RC-13 and RC-14), their associated piping and pumps, switchgear for the RC-3 cooler, cooling coils in the RC-1 cooler and two glycol concentrators. The project also includes construction of a new 54-inch bypass duct.

"The TEDAC program will significantly improve plant reliability while reducing AEDC's environmental risks," Hughes said. "Phase II efforts began in 2009 and upon completion will eliminate 50,000 gallons of trichloroethylene, 48,000 pounds of R12 refrigerant and their potential environmental hazards. AEDC will no longer require these hazardous chemicals for plant operations with the completion of TEDAC."

Removing those chemicals will eliminate significant environmental hazards at AEDC, according to David Browning, Aerospace Testing Alliance (ATA) TEDAC program manager.

"These chemicals will be replaced with environmentally-friendly refrigerants and brines," Browning said. "The final system, expected to be completed in November 2012, will be able to provide 1,200 pounds per second of dry air at minus 24 degrees Fahrenheit to support turbine engine testing."

AEDC Commander Col. Michael Brewer said the project is about capabilities, environmental stewardship and, especially, mission.

"Because of the work that's done here, we're going to provide capabilities so that a 25-, 26- or 30-year-old who is out flying in combat today and in the future is not going to worry about his motor quitting," Colonel Brewer explained. "He's not going to have that happen.

"He's not going to know what a chiller is. He's not going to know what dry air impact is to a motor. All he's going to know is he can rely on his motor not to quit. That's what our job is to do and that's what the work today will support."

Michael Dorsch, project executive for Walbridge Aldinger, said his company hired the designers and subcontractors who are physically performing the labor. He said he is excited that the project is part of a new program that focuses on hiring veterans.

"'Helmets to Hardhats' is a program with the building trades [unions] and a lot of contractors," Dorsch said. "It takes former servicemen and brings them into the building trades [and] gets them started in their careers. This is the first ... federal [contract] that's part of the project agreement as a part of that."

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be responsible for overseeing the contract to insure its integrity is being maintained. That includes making sure the quality of the project and overall safety are adhered to, according to Col. Steven Roemhildt, the Corps' Mobile District commander.

"We'll have people out here every day that the contractor is working," Colonel Roemhildt said. "We've had a superb relationship with them [Walbridge Aldinger] in the past and we continue to look forward to having a super partnership on this particular project and look forward to a successful conclusion here in the next few months."

TEDAC was planned, designed, constructed and validated using the Department of Defense's (DOD) System Engineering (SE) process. This process began with identification of the system requirements and followed a rigorous engineering approach as the project was planned, designed and executed. Engineering reviews throughout the process continually mapped the solution back to the user requirements to assure TEDAC would satisfy AEDC's needs.