Initial report

Design of thrust stand of electric propulsion devices.

Objective

 To design the Thrust stand and measure thrust and torque of the motor and propeller.

 To establish the Thrust stand as a laboratory instrument in Aerospace lab, Pulchowk Campus.

 To design an efficient propeller for UAV.

 To compare the obtained results like KV, etc. of the motor with manufacturer’s data sheets.
Introduction

Thrust stand is the device which is capable of measuring the thrust. Thrust is a mechanical system. It is
force with both magnitude and direction I.e. Vector quantity. We need to measure the thrust in order to
find various parameter for the estimation of torque, efficiency, etc. of the propeller. Comparatively,
Electric Propulsion have higher Thrust to Weight ratio.

There are three types of thrust stands.

• Hanging Pendulum

This is the easier configuration system for manufacturing process. It has a larger moment arm in order to
increase the sensitivity. The electric component are at the top of the plate as shown in figure below.
Gravity force acts as a stablizer. There is proper distancing between sensors and heat generating
components.

Fig: Hanging pendulum

• Inverted Pendulum

In case of inverted pendulum, Gravity force is a destabilizing force I.e. the system becomes unstable.
Here, Centre of mass is above the pivotal point. The thruster is attached to the top of the plate.

Fig: Schematic diagram of inverted pendulum.

• Torsional pendulum.

Thruster is attached to the end of moment arm but the moment arm is horizontal. This helps to
eliminate the gravity force effect. It has higher sensitivity.

Fig: Torsional Pendulum.

Electric components:

The brief discussion of the electric components that we will be using in thrust stand are given below:

Load Cell:

A load cell is a force transducer which converts a force such as tension, compression,

pressure, or torque into an electrical signal that can be measured and standardized. As the

force(thrust) applied to the load cell increases, the electrical signal changes proportionally.

Among different types of load cell found in the market we are interested to use 1kg Aluminum

Alloy Scale Weighing Sensor as load cell.

Fig: 1kg Aluminum Alloy Scale Weighing Sensor

Hx711:

Hx711 is a analog to digital(A/D) chip. It is a specially designed for the high precision

electronic scale design, with two analog input channels, the internal integration of 128 times

the programmable gain amplifier.

Fig: Hx711 chip

Current sensor:

A current sensor is a device that detects electric current in a wire and generates a

signal proportional to that current.

Fig: Current Sensor

Potentiometer:

It provides variable resistance.

Fig: Potentiometer

LCD:

Use to display result such as thrust, current, frequency.

Fig: LCD

T slotted Aluminum
This frame can be used as outer structure of the thrust stand.
Arduino:

It is used as microcontroller. The board is equipped with sets of digital and analog

input/output pins that may be interfaced to various expansion boards and other circuits.

Fig: Arduino

Other different types of electronics components like rpm measuring sensor, temperature

and humidity measuring sensor, resistors, capacitors, buzzer, motor, esc, propeller etc

are required for this project.

Block Diagram:

The block representation of the electric circuit or that f mechanism of thrust stand is given below:

Fig: Block diagram representation

Cost Estimation

S.N. Instrument Price

1. Arduino 1000
2. Hx711 300
3. loadcell 1500
4. Current sensor 500
5. Lcd display 500
6. Housing and frame 3000
7. Wires and cable 500
Total Rs 7,300
Data Acquisition System
The following image illustrates our planned real time data visualization framework. Various
fluctuating parameters can be easily viewed in real time with the help of those plots.