Date of Award

5-2011

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Stephen A. Whitmore

Committee

Stephen A. Whitmore

Committee

Barton Smith

Committee

Robert Spall

Abstract

The description of a portable 6-degree of freedom static thrust stand for RC-scale jet engines is reported. The stand includes three axial and three lateral load cells measuring static thrust with six degrees of freedom. A pitot probe with single axis position control placed perpendicular to exhaust flow measures stagnation pressure along the nozzle centerline. A pitot probe open to the inside of the engine nozzle normal to the exhaust flow and near the outlet measures static pressure. A digital scale measures fuel consumption. The engine is mounted with exhaust gases exiting upward avoiding ground effects and thrust acting downward. The test stand instrumentation is interfaced with a laptop computer running National Instruments® LabView 9.0. The report includes descriptions for test stand structure, hardware, mounting instructions, instrumentation specifications, references to download instrumentation software, complete wiring diagrams, and the test procedures used for testing an RC jet engine. Some testing results are included for a JF-170 Rhino RC-scale jet engine including graphs for static thrust, fuel consumption, and exit plume pressure profiles. A momentum defect is found in the exit plume of the JF-170 engine.

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on May 13, 2011.

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