MAE 156B: Helicopter Test Stand Project
A quick glance at the project
Objective
The objective of this project is to build a cost-efficient test stand which can have two degrees of freedoms (vertical translation and yaw). For vertical translation, it must be able to go up at least a meter and free rotation for yaw. In addition, the students should also be able to measure thrust, torque, speed, acceleration and position of the helicopter. Last but not least is the safety for students operating the test stand.
Please check out final design and team sections for more details.
Final Design
To meet primary objective of the project, most basic components of our final design are low cost and efficient. For example, entire test stand was made out of wood stocks instead of aluminum which is a lot more expensive. Helicopter body was also cut from wood. Linear ball bearings were installed in collar as shown in slideshow above to provide two degrees of freedom, vertical translation and yaw, at the same time. Hardened steel shaft was used in order to prevent bending of shaft when translating. Counterweights were installed so that there was less load for primary motor to lift up. Two optical encoders were installed to track positions for each degree of freedom. A load cell was installed with adjustable bracket at the bottom of test stand to measure force or thrust that main propeller output and reaction torque that the main propeller produced when tail motor was not running.
For more details, please go to Reports section and view or download executive summary either in PDF or doc format.
The final CAD design with annotations were shown below. For details, CAD drawing in PDF format can be downloaded at CAD section.