Journal: Mechanical Engineering

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Propulsion and Thrust
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Overview

Source: Alexander S Rattner; Department of Mechanical and Nuclear

Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

Aircraft, rockets, and ships produce propulsion by accelerating surrounding

fluid or high temperature combustion products to high velocity. Because of

the principle of conservation of momentum, the increased fluid velocity

results in an effective thrust force on the vehicle. The thrust capabilities of

propulsion systems are often measured with static thrust tests. In these

tests, propulsion systems are mounted and operated on fixed, instrumented

platforms, and the holding force on the mounts is measured as the thrust

In this experiment, a small-scale static thrust measurement facility will be

constructed and modeled. The thrust curves for two model aircraft motors

and propeller systems and a computer cooling fan will be measured. Thrust

efficiencies will also be evaluated (thrust force / electrical power input).

Measured thrust values will be compared with theoretical predictions based

on measured air velocities.

Principles
Open-operation fluid propulsion mechanisms, such as boat props, airplane
propellers, or fanjet aircraft engines produce thrust by accelerating ambient
fluid to a high velocity. During operation, such devices draw in intake fluid
from a large upstream area, and exhaust it downstream as a narrow high
velocity jet (Fig. 1). The exhaust area is approximately equal to the propeller
face air. Mass and momentum flow rate balances over the control volume
including the upstream intake and exhaust jet yield the following results:
(1)
(2)
Here, is the mass flow rate, ρ is the fluid density, A is the flow area, U is the
fluid velocity, and T is the resulting thrust force. As shown in Fig. 1, the
intake area is much greater that the exhaust jet area and the inlet and outlet
densities are approximately equal. As such, the exhaust velocity must be
much greater than the inlet velocity ( , and the inlet
momentum flow rate is negligible ( ). The theoretical resulting
thrust is:
(3)
The thrust from model aircraft propulsion systems is relatively small, less
than 0.1 N in many cases. To enable measurement of these forces, a lever-
arm based test stand will be constructed here (Fig. 2a). The test stand
structure pivots on a low-friction bearing such that the torque from the
propeller at the end of one arm (length Lprop from bearing axis to center of
motor) balances the torque from a digital scale depressed by a shorter
moment arm (Lscale). This configuration amplifies the thrust force on the scale
to yield more accurate readings. If the scale is tared (zeroed) when the
propeller is turned off, than the measured thrust during propeller operation
can be determined with Eqn. 4. Here, m is the mass reading on the scale.

(4)
The electrical power supplied to the propeller or fan can be determined as
, where I is the current (in amps) and V is the voltage. A thrust
efficiency can be defined as (in Newtons per Watt).
Figure 1: Control volume for flow through a fluid propulsion device
Figure 2: a. Schematic of static thrust test facility. b. Detail view of
pivot assembly. c. Photograph of experimental facility.
Procedure

1. Fabrication of static thrust test system (see schematics and photograph,

Fig. 2)
1. Form two cylindrical bushings on a lathe with outer diameter 42.16
mm, length ~10 mm, and bore through the center axis of 9.50 mm.
2. Press one flanged ball bearing into the bore on each bushing. Insert the
bushings flush into the two parallel ports of the 4-way tee fitting, with
 the bearings on the outside. The bushings should fit snugly in the tee
fitting. (See the pivot assembly schematic in Fig. 2b.
3. Cut two 100 mm long lengths of the aluminum right-angle extrusion.
Drill a 3.2 mm hole in the middle of the longer side of the extrusions,
~45 mm up from the base. Drill two mounting holes near the ends of
the shorter sides of the extrusion.\
4. Insert the shaft through the two bearings in the 4-way tee fitting. Even
lengths should be exposed on each end. Slide the right-angle
extrusions onto the exposed shaft ends. Screw the right angle
extrusion to the work surface through the mounting holes. Install the
shaft collars on the exposed ends of the shaft to keep the assembly
centered between the right-angle brackets.
5. Cut short (~18 mm) and long (~36 cm) lengths of 42.16 mm outer
diameter PVC pipes. Insert the short length into the horizontal port on
the 4-way tee fitting, and the long length into the vertical port. Insert a
pipe cap on the end of the horizontal length.
6. Position a precision digital scale (±0.1 or ±0.01 g recommended) under
the horizontal pipe arm cap.
7. Mount the propeller motors and fan on pipe caps. The propellers should
be offset so that the caps do not block the airflow. It is recommended
that the propeller motors are glued to the heads of thin screws
installed on pipe caps (Fig. 2c).

2. Performing experiments
1. Mount the smallest propeller and motor pipe cap onto the vertical pipe
arm.
2. Record the distances (moment arms) from the pivot axis to the
propeller motor axis (Lprop) and from the pivot axis to the contact point
of the horizontal arm on the scale.
3. Connect the propeller motor to a variable voltage DC power supply
(turned off).
4. Turn on the scale, and tare (zero) the reading.
5. Turn on the power supply and vary the voltage in ~0.4 V increments up
to 3.8 V. For each case, record the voltage, supplied current, scale
reading (in grams), and scale range during steady operation (typically
oscillates by ~0.3 - 5.0 g). It may be necessary to tap the propeller
blade to start it spinning. Ensure that the airflow is in the right
direction (flowing toward the rear of the motor). If not, reverse the
positive and negative leads on the power supply.
6. If available, use a thermal anemometer to measure the air velocity just
behind (downstream) the propeller at a few conditions. The velocity
varies over the propeller face area, so this is only an order-of-
magnitude measurement.
7. Repeat Steps 2.1 - 2.6 for the other motor and propeller and the PC
cooling fan. The fan can operate up to 12 V.
3. Analysis
1. Using Eqn. 4, calculate the propeller and fan thrusts (T) for each
measured case. The major source of uncertainty is the
variation/oscillation in the scale reading during operation. Substitute
this range (Step 2.5) for m in Eqn. 4 to determine the thrust
uncertainty.
2. For each case, compute the input power . The uncertainty can be
estimated as , where ΔI and ΔV are the current and
voltage measurement uncertainties (0.005 A and 0.005 V here).
3. For each case compute the thrust efficiency . The uncertainty for
thrust efficiency would be .
4. Compare the measured thrusts with estimated theoretical values using
the anemometer velocities (Eqn. 3). Here the outlet area can be
estimated as the propeller/fan face area, less the hub or motor area:
. How do these compare with measured values?
Results
In Fig. 3a, the thrust vs. power curves are presented for the three propulsion
devices evaluated in this experiment. The fan achieves the highest thrust,
reaching 0.68 ± 0.02 N at 11.83 ± 0.08 W input power. The smaller propeller
produces slightly more thrust per input power than the larger propeller, but
reaches its maximum operating voltage at 2.66 ± 0.04 W. Fig. 3b presents
the thrust efficiency for the three devices. For the small propeller and fan,
the efficiency generally decreases with increasing power input. The
efficiency of the larger propeller is relatively constant at η ~ 0.03 N W-1.
Theoretical thrust values based on measured outlet velocities are compared
with directly measured thrust values in Table 1. For these cases, the
measured velocities vary over the propeller/fan face areas, so velocity and
predicted thrust ranges are reported, rather than single values. In general,
reasonable agreement is found between predicted and measured values,
which provides confirmation for the theory outlined in the Principles section.
However, measured velocity ranges were quite wide in some cases, so this
analysis should be is only qualitative.
Figure 3: (a) Thrust and (b) thrust efficiency curves for the three studied
propulsion devices.
Outlet Predicted
Propulsion Power Measured
Velocity Thrust Range
device (Aout) Input (W) Thrust (N)
Range (m s-1) (N)

Small Propeller 0.49 ± 0.02 3.0 – 5.0 0.017 – 0.048 0.034 ± 0.005
(0.0016 m2) 1.56 ± 0.03 4.0 – 6.2 0.030 – 0.073 0.068 ± 0.005
Large Propeller 0.73 ± 0.03 2.0 – 3.0 0.020 – 0.045 0.020 ± 0.004
(0.0042 m2) 2.39 ± 0.05 4.0 – 5.0 0.080 – 0.125 0.066 ± 0.004

PC Cooling Fan 2.16 ± 0.03 4.0 – 5.5 0.145 – 0.275 0.180 ± 0.007
(0.0077 m2) 9.98 ± 0.07 8.0 – 8.4 0.581 – 0.641 0.593 ± 0.014

Table 1 - Comparison of predicted thrusts based on measured outlet velocity

ranges with directly measured thrusts.
Application and Summary
This experiment introduced the basic operating principles of fluid propulsion
devices found in aircraft and watercraft. A static thrust test platform was
constructed to measure the propulsion capability of model aircraft propellers
and a pc cooling fan. The resulting thrusts and propulsion efficiencies (thrust
per input power) were measured and compared. Theoretical thrust values
were also estimated based on downstream jet velocities. Measurement and
rating of propulsion system performance, as demonstrated here at small
scales, is a key stage in fluid propulsion system development, and is critical
to ensuring engines deliver required thrust levels.
Fluid propulsion systems are employed in nearly all aircraft and watercraft.
In the configuration considered here, upstream ambient fluid is accelerated
to a high velocity downstream jet, also at ambient pressure. In devices such
as HVAC air handlers, air compressors, or steam power plant liquid pumps, a
significant portion of input work is supplied to pressurize fluid rather than
just to increase flow velocity. However, the same general principles of
analysis can be applied, based on control volume mass and momentum flow
balances. Devices such as wind turbines and steam turbines also operate on
similar principles, but extract momentum and energy from fluid flow to
produce mechanical and electrical power.