Two years with an industrial mechanical engineering laboratory experiment

A new laboratory experience for mechanical engineering students in an industrial setting has been effective. Forty-five junior mechanical engineering students in the spring of 1990 and 40 junior mechanical engineering students in the spring of 1991 visited the Tenneco Gas Compressor Station 261 following an on-campus introduction to the theory and operation of a centrifugal gas compressor. At each visit the group was given an overview of the natural gas transportation system, introduced to industrial gas turbine operations, taken on a tour of the facilities, provided assistance in collecting turbine and compressor data, and presented with a set of results made by the Tenneco staff on compressor performance for comparison with their simplified method computation for turbine/compressor operating characteristics