USN Land Based Testing of the WR21 ICR Gas Turbine

Abstract

Development of the Northrop Grumman / Rolls-Royce WR21 Intercooled Recuperated (ICR) Gas Turbine, begun in 1992, is now well advanced and system testing has been completed on eight engine builds at the Royal Navy’s Admiralty Test House located at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, Pyestock in the United Kingdom. Test activity is shortly to move to the US Navy’s Test Site at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division – Ship Systems Engineering Station in Philadelphia, PA, where a new test facility has been built to carry out some final development testing and an endurance test. A previous paper on this subject (94-GT-186) defined a test program leading to a design review and the beginning of Qualification Testing. The development program has since evolved and it is the aim of this paper to summarize engine testing to date and set out the plan for conclusion of development testing. The paper will describe the development of the Philadelphia Test Site, as a combined site for the US Navy’s Integrated Power System (IPS) and ICR testing. This will include a description of the advanced, high-accuracy Data Acquisition System (DAS). Finally, the test program and the development and endurance test objectives will be outlined.