newsletter Ray W. Herrick Laboratories Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2031 Spring 2009 http://www.engineering.purdue.edu/Herrick Volume 17, Number 1 A Moment for Reflection —Judy Hanks Recently a photo of the original barn, which later days, it’s easy to reminiscence and imagine the became Herrick Laboratories, was discovered in an smell of hay in the building. Upcoming agricultural publication. It shows how the structure Events looked around 1942. It’s the earliest photo found so The grassy area in front of the building remains, Thursday, far of the building. Special thanks to Archives and but is much smaller than when sheep grazed years October 15 Special Collections at Purdue for allowing us to ago. Today, the campus has grown around our through Saturday, reproduce it. facility bringing new people and new buildings to October 17, 2009: the area. Discovery Park is across the street and is Industrial Advisory a focal point of the University. In the future plans Committee Meeting (Ohio for the Purdue campus, the current location of the State game) Herrick Labs is close to center of the University (http://www.purdue.edu/architect/campus_planni Saturday, ng/master_plans.htm). October 3, 2009, Homecoming (Purdue vs. Northwestern) From the J.C. Allen collection, courtesy of Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections After seeing this photo, perhaps this is an ideal time to reflect on the past and how far the Side view of the original barn in 1957 before the wings laboratories have come since the beginning, a were added, and the Herrick Laboratories began. Wednesday, July little more than 50 years ago. 12 and Thursday, After 50 years, the activities at the laboratories July 13, 2010: have simply outgrown the research facilities. Doug Compressor and You can see the white sheep barn in the Adams has had to move his operations across town Refrigeration Short background. Unfortunately, it’s been lost to (https://engineering.purdue.edu/PCSI/). As you Courses progress; however, the old horse barn and the know from previous letters, we are working to round exhibition facilities still remain. The round build the new labs. We completed Phase I of fund Friday, July 14 barn is currently used by Grounds, which is raising in the fall and have a couple of initiatives in through Monday, scheduled to relocate to new facilities sometime in th the works for the funding of the remaining phases. July 17, 2010: 19 the future. Greenhouses for Grounds stand where International the sheep barn once was. Compressor Engineering As most of you know, in 1957 the horse barn was Conference remodeled and the two existing wings were added on each side of the Herrick Laboratories. Shortly Friday through Monday, July 14- afterward in 1958, offices were added on the north 17, 2010: 12th side of the barn. The director’s office is where it was International when our first director, William Fontaine, began the Refrigeration and laboratories. Patricia sits in Bill’s old chair. Early photo of Herrick with the east and west wings. Air Conditioning Notice the lack of landscaping. Do you know when this Conference In 1971-72, the hay loft in the horse barn was photo was taken? Ray Cohen thinks it is circa 1960 remodeled for graduate students’ office space, after the wings were added, and David Tree thinks it’s and it is still used for that today. On rainy, damp after the tile roof was removed which would make it circa 1980. 1 Herrick Alums at the Baltimore Aircoil Company —by Steve Marshall When Steve Marshall (Purdue MSME 1984) joined the Balti- nology Committee for four years and just recently completed more Aircoil Company (BAC) a couple years ago, he was three years as a member of the Board of Directors for the or- welcomed into the R and D Group by three Purdue ME gra- ganization. duates, including two other Herrick Lab alumni. This Pur- due/Herrick Labs satellite group now consists of Steve, Rich Tom Carter, a native of the Washington, DC area, graduated Harrison (Purdue MSME, 1970), Tom Carter (Purdue BSME, from Purdue University in May, 1977 with a BS in Mechani- 1977), and Branko Korenic (Purdue MSME 1977 and Ph.D. cal Engineering. During his undergraduate studies he bene- 1980). Reminiscing on Purdue and Herrick Labs experiences fited from co-op experiences with both the Bechtel Power is a popular pastime in this group at the BAC Headquarters Corporation and the Naval Surface Weapons Center. Later in Building in Jessup, Maryland. Was it coincidence or destiny 1983 he went on to earn an MS in Computer Science from that everyone in the group found their way from West La- Johns Hopkins University and became a registered Profession- fayette to Baltimore? al Engineer in the state of Maryland. Rich Harrison grew up in the After receiving several offers Northern Virginia area. He re- for employment from various ceived a BS degree in Mechani- companies around the country, cal Engineering from Virginia Tom chose to begin his career Polytechnic Institute. He then as a design engineer with the went to Purdue where he did BAC in July, 1977. He recalls compressor motion modeling at he was initially attracted to Herrick Labs and received a MS BAC for a number of reasons. degree in Mechanical Engineer- Among them were the quality ing in 1970. After Purdue, he of the people he met, their en- spent two years as an Ordnance thusiasm for the work they were Officer in the Army in Germa- doing, the ability to put his en- ny. Next, he went to work at gineering skills to the test in Ford in Dearborn, MI doing BAC’s large industrial laborato- computer crash simulations of ries, the openness and respect airbag and seatbelt equipped between the employees in vari- cars and comparing that data to ous departments and the pro- Pictured left to right are Rich Harrison, Steve Marshall, Branko actual controlled crashes. Korenic, and Tom Carter. duction personnel, the relatively small size, yet global footprint Rich left the Detroit area and of the company, and the impor- began his career with BAC in 1974. Over his 35 years with tant work the company’s products played in saving water and BAC, he has progressed from Product Engineer to his current energy. He continues to find all these qualities existing at BAC position of Director of Research and Development. He has today. been most intimately involved in heat and mass transfer de- velopment and fan performance. A key part of his job over Over the ensuing 32 years, Tom has spent most of his career in these years was the development of thermal performance rat- the Engineering Department. Later in his career, he also ac- ings for BAC products. He led this industry to adopt a pro- cepted assignments in both the Manufacturing and Customer gram of third-party independently certified thermal perfor- Service groups which greatly helped in his understanding and mance ratings under the Cooling Technology Institute. BAC appreciation for the other facets of BAC’s business. However, was the first manufacturer to participate in this program in over the years he recognized that he continues to have a true 1983 and now 24 other worldwide manufacturers have joined passion for engineering and is thrilled to be in his current posi- the program. tion as Director, Research and Development. During his time with BAC, the computer modeling experience Tom credits Purdue’s strong emphasis on the engineering fun- that started at Purdue helped Rich to develop many more damentals for providing him with the necessary technical computer models of various different processes and innovative skills to guide him along his career path and in helping him components in BAC’s products. Those innovative products or discover his passion for the engineering profession. It still components resulted in nine US patents and numerous foreign amazes him how frequently he continues to return to his origi- patents for Rich. nal and well worn Thermodynamics, Fluids and Heat Transfer text books to go back to the basic principles. While at BAC his Rich has participated in Cooling Technology Institute for over work has focused primarily in the areas of evaporative heat 20 years. He was the Chairman of the Performance and Tech- transfer and thermal storage and has resulted in 17 US Patents. 2 Herrick Alums at the Baltimore Aircoil Company Looking back over his career, Tom is thankful for the founda- Previous to attending Purdue, Steve had graduated with a tion the quality of the Purdue education provided. He also BSME from the University of Cincinnati in 1979. He accepted feels very fortunate to work with such a number of exceptional a position with the Delco Products Division of GMC back in colleagues and is excited about the discoveries and advances his hometown of Dayton, Ohio. After graduating from Purdue, they will continue to make. Steve returned to Delco for a year. In 1985, Steve and Marcia relocated to Seattle, Washington where Steve worked at the Branko Korenic arrived at Purdue from the former Yugosla- Boeing Commercial Airplane Company for 14 years. via in June 1975. After interviewing several professors in the ME Building, he visited and became so impressed with the In 1999, Steve and Marcia, and their two children, Danielle and faculty and staff at Herrick Labs that he agreed to work for the Weston, relocated to the sleepy Appalachian town of Abingdon, professors Leidenfrost and Goldschmidt. Professor Leiden- Virginia, where Steve accepted a position at Bristol Compressors frost’s interest in evaporative cooling, theory and applications International.