ASME IGTI Industrial Gas Turbine Technology Award Lecture
1:30pm – 3:30pm, Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Carlos E. Koeneke, PhD
Chief Engineer, Project Engineering
Mitsubishi Power Americas
Biography: Carlos has over four decades of turbomachinery experience, he started a Rotating Equipment position at a major petroleumcompany after completing his undergraduate program in 1982. He pursued his master's degree in rotor-dynamics and vibration analysis while working and was awarded a Japanese Ministry of Education scholarship to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Tokyo. He completed a thesis related to high-speed supercharger bearings under the effect of centrifugal force. In 1993, he joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan and was transferred to Mitsubishi Power Americas in 2001. Carlos has written over 35 technical articles addressing GT topics.
He is a long-term member of the Electric Power and Industrial & Cogeneration technical Committees and has actively participated in ASME conferences since 2003, reviewing paper, chairing or co-chairing sessions and participating in panels and technical sessions. Since 2003, Carlos established a relationship with the insurance community and has conducted Insurance Forums in London, Singapore and the U.S. In 2022, Carlos became the Gas Turbine Association vice-chair/ treasurer and is currently the Chair. He cooperates with academia by participating as UCF Faculty Scholar and Engineering Advisory Board Member at EmbryRiddle University. He also participates in the GUIde Research program led by Duke/Purdue Universities.
ASME IGTI Aircraft Engine Technology Award Lecture
Thursday, June 18, 2026 , 8:00 am – 10:00 am
Dr. John P. Clark
Aerodynamics Engineering Discipline Lead
KRATOS, Florida Turbine Technologies
Lecture Title: On the Reduction of Unsteady Forcing in a Transonic Turbine
Abstract: The ability to predict accurately the levels of unsteady forcing on turbine blades is critical to avoid high-cycle fatigue failures. Further, a demonstrated ability to make accurate predictions leads to the possibility of controlling levels of unsteadiness through aerodynamic design. There are several desiderata to achieve designs that experience reduced forcing functions. First, and quite simply, any such design is by definition grounded in the basic physics of the flow. Second, confidence in the fidelity of the design-level analyses used to predict the relevant flow physics is critical. This in turns means that design analyses are as well validated as possible and that both the viscous and geometric modeling of the turbine is appropriate to the problem. Additionally, it is critical that proper periodicity of the predicted flowfield is achieved during design-level analyses. An ability to judge this is in turn dependent on an understanding of basic concepts in digital signal processing that are also essential to the accurate calculation of unsteady forces on airfoils. Here, a method to assess the convergence of periodic flowfields is presented with reference to an experimental turbine designed at the Air Force Research Laboratory. Then, the physics of the flowfield in this turbine that gives rise to unsteady interactions is discussed with reference to available code-validation data. Then, several design techniques are considered either to reduce the magnitude or alter the phase of unsteady interactions within the turbine to mitigate forcing. These include the shaping of both the rotating and stationary airfoil profiles as well as a novel flow-control method that involves steady blowing from the pressure side of the downstream stationary airfoil row. In addition, the effects of downstream vane asymmetric spacing, vane-to-vane clocking, and downstream airfoil re-stagger are assessed. It is also shown that rapid-turnaround unsteady analysis is a useful tool for guiding the assembly of a turbine blade row to minimize forcing on a target airfoil. Finally, the efficacy of many of these methods to reduce unsteadiness is demonstrated through rotating turbine experiments.
Biography: Dr. John Clark is the Discipline Lead for Aerodynamics at Kratos, Florida Turbine Technologies. He joined Kratos in September of 2025 after more than 23 years with the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH. At AFRL he led the in-house research program in turbines for the Turbine Engine Division of the Aerospace Systems Directorate. He retired from the USAF as an AFRL Fellow, and he is a Fellow of the ASME. While at AFRL he was also named the AIAA Engineer of the Year in 2012. Prior to joining AFRL, he worked in the Turbine Aerodynamics group at Pratt & Whitney. He received his doctorate in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford where he was a student of the late Prof. Terry Jones.
Scholar Award Lecture - Turbomachinery Simulation Impact on Design, Understanding, and Optimization
Monday, June 15, 2026, 5:45pm – 6:45pm
Dr. Mark Turner
Retired | Previously Senior Technologist
NASA Glenn Research Center
Abstract: This paper presents the impact of Turbomachinery Simulation from simple analytical simulation to high fidelity CFD and Finite Element Analysis on the design of turbomachinery and the understanding of flow physics that is then used to improve design approaches. The impact of Optimization is also presented. The best approach for the tool development is to work with a compressor, fan, or turbine designer or to work on the design process directly. The paper represents the work and impact of the author over his 45-year career and provides insight for both new and experienced engineers. The paper explores applications of distortion from a downstream fan frame, the first uses of 3D CFD for fan, compressor and turbine design, heat transfer, biomimicry, and approaches to optimization for performance and structures.