The test stand was constructed and used within the Mississippi State University wind tunnel which can be seen to the left. The test stand consists of steel rigging, a load cell, and a motor to which the propellers will be secured. The test stand configuration can be seen to the right.
Experimental Setup
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In determining a proper motor to be used for testing, the maximum power required by the load cell to power the propeller in testing conditions had to be determined. Performance data for the propellers was referenced from APC’s available data to determine the maximum power. This maximum power was found to be 5630 W by considering a wind tunnel velocity of 36.5 mph and rpm of 7000 for the largest propeller which is the 22inx10in propeller. The Q80-5L V2 7000 W brushless from Hacker Motors was selected due to its ability to produce more than the required power and its compatibility with the wind tunnel setup.
While purchasing the motor from Hacker, the representative recommended us to purchase an electronic speed controller from Advanced Power Drives (APD). Unfortunately, the ESC we bought was not able to be configured in time to test. The ESC we used was a Castle Link 40. An Arduino code was used to change the throttle to conduct the tests. The two-terminal side will be plugged directly into a power source, while the three-terminal side will go to the motor.
Windspeed was tested from 0 m/s to whenever the thrust coefficient turns negative. Each prppelller was at least tested to 20 m/s to create a control in data.
