With growing interest in UAVs, evaluating small to medium sized propeller and propulsion system performance has regained attention. In an attempt to evaluate these powerplants in a cost effective way, a mobile propeller dynamometer has been designed, built, and tested. The mobile dyno has been designed to be low cost through its ability to load into the back of a test vehicle to create simulated flight characteristics. This allows much larger propellers to be dynamically tested without the use of large and expensive wind tunnels. While evaluating the accuracy of the dyno, several improvements had to be made to provide accurate results. These design choices will be discussed along with attempts to validate the dyno by comparing its results against known sources. Another large part of assuring the accuracy of the mobile dyno is determining if the flow around the test vehicle will influence the propellers incoming flow uniformity. This is determined by characterizing the boundary layer and the accelerated flow over the vehicle. This evaluation was accomplished by vehicle aerodynamic measurements with the use of full-scale tests using a pitot-rake over the test vehicle. Additional flow visualization tests were conducted in a low speed wind tunnel with a 1/8th-scale model and flow visualization. Continuing research on the mobile dyno will be discussed, along with other potential uses for the dyno.
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