{"id":31178,"date":"2025-04-11T13:34:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T13:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/?p=31178"},"modified":"2026-05-07T09:57:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T09:57:30","slug":"eketl-affordable-wind-tunnel-for-zero-emission-propulsion-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/2025\/04\/11\/eketl-affordable-wind-tunnel-for-zero-emission-propulsion-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"eKETL: affordable wind tunnel for zero-emission propulsion testing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The e-KETL project, funded by the NATEP programme, has developed a novel suction wind tunnel concept based on the ejector principle at S&amp;C Thermofluids&#8217; existing Kemble Engine Test Laboratory (KETL) to allow configurable e-propulsor dynamic and cross-wind testing. The project is led by Greenjets UK Ltd and more information on the concept can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/greenjets.com\/e-ketl-dynamic-test-site\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The work involved mounting an existing engine owned by S&amp;C Thermofluids, the ALF502, into the detuner infrastructure at the KETL. The exhaust from the ALF502 entrains a significant amount of free air within the detuner by the ejector principle, and hence upstream of the detuner a working section was designed to create a simulated wind tunnel. The combined mass flow of the ALF502 intake and the entrained air results in flight speeds of up to 150m\/s in the working section. Electric propulsors and other novel flight hardware can therefore be tested at flight velocity &#8211; and the use of a floating sting arrangement on a 6-axis load cell allows thrust measurement in cross-wind configurations.<\/p>\n<p>The ALF502 had not previously been operated by S&amp;C Thermofluids so a package of work was undertaken to understand the mounting requirements. A stress analysis study was contracted to Technia UK to assess the structural integrity of the design whilst under the full load of the engine in operation. Technia UK has written a case study on the work which is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.technia.com\/en\/resources\/engineering-engine-mounting-frame-sc-thermofluids\/\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The commissioning activity was completed in March 2025 and we would be more than happy to discuss tailoring the capability to your future testing requirements. <a href=\"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/contact\/\">Get in touch<\/a> to check our rates and availability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The e-KETL project, funded by the NATEP programme, has developed a novel suction wind tunnel concept based on the ejector principle at S&#038;C Thermofluids&#8217; existing Kemble Engine Test Laboratory (KETL) to allow configurable e-propulsor dynamic and cross-wind testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[61,62,63],"class_list":["post-31178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flight-stream","tag-eketl","tag-flight-stream","tag-innovate-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31178"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31216,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31178\/revisions\/31216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thermofluids.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}