Every successful space program is the result of several years of development and countless tests. Today, engineers have a big advantage compared to the pioneers of aerospace technology, because modern test equipment enables far deeper insights even into the smallest details of functionality. The acquired data enables an in-depth understanding of the physical events and allows for a significant improvement of an aircraft’s or spacecraft’s efficiency and functionality.
Engines are one of the areas where detailed insights make a significant difference in research and development. Inside the combustion and ignition chambers, it is common to find instabilities causing oscillations in thrust output – an undesired effect. In rockets, combustion instabilities may lead to malfunctions or even cause severe damage to the engines. In jet engines, these imbalances also occur and lead to inefficiencies, vibration as well as increased fuel consumption. Therefore, optimizing combustion chambers to prevent these instabilities holds a lot of potential to reduce emissions. Piezoelectric pressure sensors with high temperature resistance make it possible to monitor these instabilities in both applications extremely closely.
In Switzerland, two organizations of ambitious student teams show how it is done: ARIS from the ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich) and the EPFL Rocket Team (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) compete in a literal race to the stars with rockets they developed and built themselves. Keeping their goal of reaching orbit in mind, they showcase their progress in yearly international competitions. Throughout the year, these passionate engineers in the making invest many hours and even their weekends for testing and evaluating data to improve their rocket engines. Specialized measuring equipment plays an integral part in these tests. As an expert for dynamic measurements, Kistler supports both teams with expert knowledge, high-end piezoelectric sensors, and equipment such as cables, data acquisition systems, and software for analysis.