Design, Build, and Test of a Thrust Test Stand
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2017 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. Currently, many power plants are being developed to meet performance and safety requirements for air and space vehicles. It is important to design and build a suitable thrust test stand in order to accurately characterize performance of those power plants. Thrust test stands are a valuable tool needed to determine performance parameters such as specific fuel consumption, net thrust, and specific impulse. The need for low cost structures and minimum maintenance has led to the development of new designs that have made these systems more vulnerable to vibrations. Therefore, the structural properties of the test stand need to be studied to determine its dynamic range. To accomplish this, the dynamic response of the structure as a result of a dynamic force input was measured using an impedance head. Measurements of drive point impedance were used to assess the dynamic performance of the test stand. This analysis presents results regarding the dynamic range of the test stand structure and its applicability to characterize a pulsejet engine.
