Design and Analysis of a Vertical Thrust Stand for Liquid Rocket Engines

Tartarus, the liquid rocketry project part of the UAH Space Hardware Club, has designed a thrust stand for mounting and recording data from hot-fire tests of liquid rocket engines. The thrust stand is rated for an engine with a thrust of 1000 pounds of force (IBF) with a safety factor of 3 in order to meet both the operating thrust of the "Prometheus" engine, which was designed by Tartarus and is scheduled to be tested on the thrust stand later this year, as well as accommodate future engines with minimal modifications required. The thrust stand is split into 4 subcomponents: the thrust stand frame, the flame diverter, the thrust structure, and the igniter fluids system. The thrust structure is used to mount the test article engine with 4 rail guides restricting horizontal movement so the engine can be mounted on 2 load cells. The "Prometheus" engine uses a torch ignition system which will be mounted along with its propellant tanks to the back of the thrust stand. Stress and displacement finite element analysis (FEA) was performed on the thrust stand frame as well as the flame diverter. Further details on the subcomponent design as well as the thrust stand structural calculations will be covered in the paper.