ROMAC faculty members have been working in the area of rotating machinery analysis for over thirty years. Many technical journal articles, reports, computer programs, and experimental results have been generated by the group. A complete description of the Industrial Program is available upon request as well as a list of reports (over 500) and numerous computer programs.
All previous reports and computer programs are immediately available to new ROMAC members. ROMAC computer programs and test results are used regularly by our Industrial members.
The 2013 annual membership fee to the ROMAC industrial program is $27,000. An initiation fee of $27,000 applies for new members.
Annual Meetings
Annual meetings are held in Charlottesville, one of the member company locations, or some other suitable place to present the results of the year’s research and to discuss industrial machinery and control problems with the member companies. Membership includes two free annual meeting registrations for representatives from each member company. Each company is requested to make a short presentation on some rotating machinery problem at every other annual meeting (no proprietary information is presented). At these meetings, the Industrial members make their research and software needs known. The overall future research direction is thus determined jointly by the Industrial members and the ROMAC faculty.
Short Courses
ROMAC sponsors periodic short courses on topics of interest to the member companies. Participation in these short courses is held for representatives of ROMAC member companies, but is also open to non-members. The fee for ROMAC members is presently $500 for this 5 day course. The fee for non-members is $1500.00. These short courses are tutorial in nature since current research topics are discussed at the annual meeting. Short course topics have included rotor dynamics, bearings, fluids, and the use of ROMAC computer codes.
Membership Policy
ROMAC faculty members, staff, and graduate students report to the industrial members the results of their research from ROMAC, federal, and private foundation sponsored research. Reports, computer programs, and the results of experimental research are passed directly to the member companies without the time consuming publication process. Research of generic interest is also published in the public domain.
Multiplier Effect
The cost to each individual industrial participant is quite low. The current group of over 70 industrial members provides funding of more than $861,000 per year. Typical external funding for research related to ROMAC is presently on the order of $600,000 per year. This cooperative project combines industrial and government funding to support a very substantial program. Thus, an industrial participant’s investment of $27,000 per year provides access to a wide ranging million-dollar research program.