Development of Airborne Test Environment for Micro Turbojet Engine - Part II: Remote Measurement System

Abstract

Turbojets still have their role in aviation, mostly due to the advent of unmanned aerial vehicles. The main goal of this research is to develop a preliminary airborne test bed for a micro turbojet engine to accomplish performance measurements. The authors present the results in two parts. The entire work, presented here and in Part I, forms the basis to show the benefits of using Turbofan Power Ratio (TPR) in such kind of turbine engines, which can be considered as novelty. In turbojet engines, unlike conventional controls based on rotor speed (n) or Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) the compound thermodynamic parameter TPR exhibits linear correlation with the thrust of the engine. In order to develop an airborne test bench, complex design and assessment steps must be carried out. The first part of this complex research deals with the integration of powerplant and airframe. The second part, which is presented in this paper, shows the development of a remote data acquisition system based on the already existing electronic engine controller. This paper aims to describe the development steps and evaluation of the preliminary performance of this measurement system.