Experimental characterization of a small internal combustion aero engine

Despite much research in aircraft engines, mainly before 1950s, very little has been done forsmall Internal Combustion (IC) engines. Small aircraft engines have specific requirements whencompared to larger IC engines due to size and non-linear scaling of significant characteristics. The engine - along with the air frame - is essential for trusted flight of aircraft, and needs to operate continuously between start-up and shut-down. Reduced reliability can lead to catastrophic failure.One critical aspect of IC engine operation is the multitude of variables and parameters (including environmental) and their variability in time (due to wear) which affect efficiency and reliability. Any engine will operate in very narrow combinations of variables and parameters This research is focused on setting an experimental protocol, selecting and collecting critical variables from data produced by a small aero engine. It then establishes dependencies for safe operation by developing computational models for the engine (Albin et al. 2012). The mathematical model developed in this article is based on real data (Vitale 1998), characterizes the engine under investigation and represents a platform for further computer analysis,simulations and optimization of engine. The developed model describes the operation of the engine at a point in its life and was validated in a number of separate experiments. Refereed/Peer-reviewed