Vertical Rocket Test Stand

Vts supported cold flow and hot fire operations for lotus development engines.

Vertical rocket test stand.

The solid rocket motor test firing will burn so hot the sand at the aft end of the motor will turn to glass. The 12 x 12 inch foot print and lineal footage of strut available for mounting hardware makes it ideal for this application. A typical sea level test stand may be designed to restrain the rocket engine in either a horizontal or vertical position. A couple of guy wires to steady the stand and two stakes should secure it in place nicely.

Converting the tripod stand was chosen as the fastest route to an additional raptor test facility in a vertical configuration. The vertical test stand vts began as a variation of the original h ybrid test stand and has now been retired and replaced by the horizontal test stand. The b 2 side is designed to test rocket stages. The test stand contains a system of load cells that enable engineers to measure the thrust the motor produces and verify their predictions.

This is a prototype and so the tanks will most likely be separate from the engine i e. Fluid systems include high pressure nitrogen liquid nitrous oxide and liquid isopropyl alcohol. The prc recently upgraded the test stand cryogenic flow systems and instrumentation capabilities in the rocket test cell. My test stand is a vertical motor mounting with two pressure gauge one for chamber pressure and another for thrust.

Construction was well underway by mid october 2019. Operators can also configure the test stand for either horizontal firing or inclined firing up to 45 degrees for cryogenic liquid engines. It fires vertically nozzle up and measures chamber pressure up to 2200 psi 15 megapascal and thrust up to m class motors. The thrust stand shown below has thrust load capabilities from 500 lbf to 2 000 lbf.

Originally the stand was designed for vertical firing of small liquid rocket motors. Lthe b 1 b 2 test stand is a dual position vertical firing facility built in the 1960s to test saturn v rocket stages that carried humans to the moon during the apollo program. The high energy rocket engine research facility b 1 and nuclear rocket dynamics and control facility b 3 were vertical test stands with cryogenic fuel and steam ejector systems that permitted rocket fuel systems to be studied in simulated altitude conditions. Liquid rocket engines are usually fired in a vertical position because the propellant pump intakes are designed to draw fuel from the bottoms of the fuel tanks.

The effect of the propellant weight on the thrust measurement system tms must be accounted for as the engine is firing. The b 1 side is equipped for single engine tests. Each test stand had several levels a test section and ground floor shop areas.