Validation Of The Gas Generator Method Of Calculating Jet Engine Thrust And Evaluation Of Xb 70 1 Airplane Engine Performance At Ground Static Conditons

Validation of the Gas Generator Method of Calculating Jet-engine Thrust and Evaluation of XB-70-1 Airplane Engine Performance at Ground Static Conditons

Deficiencies in established techniques of measuring aircraft thrust in flight led to the application of the gas generator method of calculating engine thrust to the XB-70-1 airplane. A series of tests on a ground static-thrust stand [were]performed on the airplane to establish at ground static conditions the accuracy of this method, to measure the installed thrust of the YJ93-GE-3 engine, and to determine the effect of instrumentation errors and nonuniform flows at the engine compressor face on the thrust calculation. Tests with an aerodynamically choked inlet, an opened inlet-bypass system, and varying combinations of operating engines were also conducted. Results showed that the accuracy of the gas generator method was ±2 percent for the normal operation of the XB-70-1 airplane at ground static conditions and for the upper 70 percent of the engine's throttle range. They also showed that the effect of individual instrument errors on the thrust calculation was reduced because of the large number of measurements and that abnormally high inlet flow distortion affects the thrust calculation. When corrected for inlet losses, the installed thrust of the YJ93-GE-3 engine agreed favorably with the engine manufacturer's uninstalled estimated thrust for all power settings except those at the low end.--P. [i].

NASA Technical Note

NASA Technical Paper