REDUCING COST, TIME AND RISK IN AEROENGINE COMPRESSOR TESTING

There is constant pressure to reduce engine development cycles to mini mize costs and bring forward the revenue earning part of the engine's life. As cost and time are designed out, the risk of performance short fall must be minimized by bidding efficiencies from demonstrated techn ology. This requires a large-scale ongoing advanced development progra m. In compressor development, high-speed tests are unavoidable but are expensive; low-speed rigs are easier to instrument and provide a cost -effective filter for the high-speed designs. The large-scale, low-spe ed compressor at Cranfield is one of only four worldwide. Recent inves tment in data reduction software has greatly reduced the test/analysis cycle time.