Advanced Data Acquisition System for Alternative Fuels Micro Turbojet Engine Test Bench

Abstract

As in commercial aviation, military aircraft typically use gas turbine engines for propulsion. Regardless of the actual output being thrust or shaft power, each type employs similar working process to produce high energy gasses. Although they are more tolerant to different fuel grades, traditionally jet fuel has been utilized in the past decades. In the recent years, due to emerging problems affecting fossil fuels several alternatives have been developed, but only a few competitors have remained that offer basically equal characteristics in contrast to conventional fuel. According to global trends in aviation, the National University of Public Service has also decided about the introduction of alternative fuel for the companies of state aviation. The main aim of this paper is to develop an advanced data acquisition system for the turbojet test bench that makes it possible to collect more sophisticated data about engine behavior with different fuels. The improved system is based on a completely new DAQ hardware specifically chosen for the given test bench environment and the choices were based on experiences with previous system components. As the original operating software was written in LabVIEW, this did not require significant rework to make it compatible with the new hardware, however, the necessary changes will be discussed here as well.