Ten Years of Experience With a Small Jet Engine as a Support for Education

In 1997 the Turbomachinery Group of the University of Liège decided to acquire a small jet engine to illustrate the courses in propulsion and to provide the students with the opportunity to get some experience on data measurement, acquisition, and interpretation. Among others, the SR-30 engine from Turbine Technology Ltd. Chetek, WI was chosen. It consists of a single spool, single flow engine with a centrifugal compressor, a reversed combustion chamber, an axial turbine, and a fixed convergent nozzle. This engine was installed on a test bench allowing for manual control and providing fuel and oil to the engine. The original setup included measurements of intercomponent pressure and temperatures, exhaust gas temperature, and rotational speed. Since then both the engine and the test bench have been deeply modified. These modifications were led by a triple objective: the improvement and the enrichment of the measurement chain, the widening of the engine’s operational domain, and, last but not the least, the wish to offer appealing hands-on projects to the students. All these modifications were performed at the University of Liège and were conducted by the students as part of their Master theses. Several performance models of the engine were developed to support data validation and engine condition diagnostic. This paper summarizes the developments conducted with and by the students, and presents the experience that was gained by using this engine as a support for education.