Proceedings of the National Conference on Cryogenics for Space (NCCS-2019)
December 12-14, 2019, LPSC, Thiruvananthapuram, India.
Design and Realization of Thrust Measurement System for
High Altitude Testing of Cryogenic Rocket Engine
Cross Sapna.A*, D.Gayathri Devi, S.Rajapandian , L.Louis Sam Titus
CTIS/AISE/IPRC, Mahendragiri.
*Corresponding Author: cross.sapna@iprc.gov.in
ABSTRACT
In order to launch a higher weighted payload and to place a
satellite into the planned orbit correctly, it is necessary to get
the exact evaluation of the engine performance. It is important
in the developmental testing of rockets to determine the effect
of nozzle design, fuel/propellant mixtures, additives and
changing other parameters of the engine system on
performance. In order to better simulate the rocket engine
operating environment, a high altitude testing of Cryogenic
engine is necessary before flying. The most important
parameters to evaluate a rocket engine performance are thrust
and rate of propellant consumption. In this work, a thrust
measurement system was designed to measure the propulsion
performance of a cryogenic Rocket engine. This work is part
of the qualification test program of CE20 Cryogenic Engine
which is used for powering the Cryogenic stage (C25), the
upper stage of the next generation GSLV Mk-III launch
vehicle of ISRO, capable of launching four tonne class
satellites. The design, selection, realization, in-place
calibration, usage and test results are presented.
Keywords: Load cell, Thrust measurement, design of
measurement chain, in-place calibration, Results.
INTRODUCTION
The advancement in space technology brings out the
tendency to rely more heavily on cryogenic rocket propellant
for the rocket propulsion system because of the enhanced
performance. The combination of liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen gives the highest performance among the
propellants used for space launch vehicles. After completion
of design, during the development phase, static tests of
Cryogenic engines are conducted to evaluate and qualify the
performance of propulsion systems. Checking the upper stage
engine at atmospheric pressure could mask the effects of flow
separate from nozzle wall, engine ignition delay, combustion
instability, ambient temperature effect etc. Hence, for upper
stage engines, the tests in vacuum conditions with fully
expanded nozzle define the essential criteria for altitude
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019
NCCS-2019-1013
simulation test facilities. A series of static tests are carried out
to validate the performance parameters of Cryogenic Engine.
During these tests, to evaluate the performance of the engine
and its subsystems, a number of parameters like pressure,
temperature, flow rate, vibration, current etc. are measured and
recorded.
The most important parameter for the upper stage
propulsion system is specific impulse which is defined as the
thrust produced per unit weight flow rate of propellant. These
demand the determination of Thrust with a maximum of
accuracy and precision; in other words, with a minimum
distortion. Thus, Thrust measurement system is an important
phase of rocket research.
A brief description on measurement technique, Design of
the measurement chain, realization and usage and results are
described. The in place calibration technique for this thrust
measurement system is also discussed in this paper.
SELECTION OF TECHNOLOGY
Rocket engine operates through force of its exhaust pushing
it backwards according to Newton third law of mechanics. The
driving force produced by the ejection of the high-velocity
matter is the thrust force (F). Thrust is defined as the sum of
two terms, a momentum term and a pressure term. The thrust
equation of 1D-flows of ideal gas at constant pressure is:
𝐹 = 𝑚𝑣2 + (𝑝2 − 𝑝3 )𝐴2
where
𝑚𝑣2 − 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑢𝑚 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚
(𝑝2 − 𝑝3 )𝐴2 − 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑚
The cryogenic rocket engine generating a nominal thrust of
18.6 tonnes need to be static tested by positioning inside a
vacuum chamber of dimension 3.5m dia in horizontal mode.
The Instrumentation room where the signal conditioners
positioned is situated around 200m away from the test stand.
The Instrumentation sub-systems are realized in Remote
Input/ Output configuration with associated interfaces .The
test operations were remotely controlled from the well
equipped control room (1 km away from Test stand).
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 During the testing of engine, the force to be measured shall
be in tension mode to find out the engine performance and the
force also to be measured in compression mode to study the
behaviour of the test facility. The thrust developed during
static testing under 40mbar vacuum condition is to be
measured to qualify the engine for flight condition. The engine
mounted inside the Vacuum Chamber is shown in fig: 1.
Figure1: Experimental setup (without insulation)
There are various methods for thrust measurement such as
direct force measurement, measurement of exit properties of
exhaust gases and momentum balance establishment. The
direct force measurement is required during the developmental
phase of rocket research. Most common thrust measuring
systems are hydraulic, pneumatic, piezoelectric and load cell
based. Hydraulic and pneumatic systems are losing its interest
in thrust measurements because of more reliable electronic
measurement systems and piezoelectric type is best suitable
for dynamic only measurements. The electromechanical force
transducer (load cell) have become the de facto standard in the
modern test stands.
The load cell is a transducer that converts force into an
electrical signal. According to the way of detection, a load cell
which can measure both tension and compression force is
needed to comply the operational requirements of test facility.
The thrust measurement sensor shall consist of machined
metal part where strain gauge array to be attached in
Wheatstone bridge setup and in pairs by active and balancing
arrangement.
Strain gauge consists of a metallic foil pattern with known
electrical resistance. As tensile/compression load is applied to
the foil, it deforms. The change in shape results in the change
of resistance which is measured. Thus, by knowing the change
in electrical resistance of the gauge, the strain is calculated.
The change in resistance of foil is linked to strain by a factor
known as gauge factor which is the ratio of change in electrical
resistance to strain in the foil. The change in output voltage
(𝛥𝑉) is determined by the following equation.
2. 𝑘 . (1 + 𝑣)
𝛥𝑉 = 𝜀𝑎𝑥𝑖𝑎𝑙
4
where
𝑘 – gauge factor
𝑣 - poisson ratio
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019
The strain gauge load cell is best suitable for the static
temperature thrust measurement and offers several advantages
like immunity to drift & associated loss of accuracy, excellent
dynamic response when proper care is taken during
installation and calibration of strain gauges. Strain gauge load
cell based Thrust measurement system is selected for the direct
thrust measurement of CE20 engine during High Altitude
testing.
DESIGN OF MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
The Thrust Measurement System is designed for a thrust of
300kN with a tensile mode of testing with minimum deflection
of the members. TMS consists of a thrust frame assembly, wall
frame assembly and measurement load link assembly. The
thrust frame is used to transfer the axial thrust developed by
the engine to the measurement load link. One end of the thrust
frame is connected to the engine interface by means of
intermediate frame and the other end to the measurement load
link assembly. It consists of two circular flanges at the two
ends interconnected with three circular rods. Wall frame
assembly is used to transfer the thrust developed by the engine
to the thrust wall.
The strain gauge based Sensy make 5100 series load cell of
±0.03 % FSO accuracy class is selected for CE20 Engine
testing which can measure Thrust of 250kN. This sensor
converts the force into electrical output in two stages. Within
the load cell structure is an area which is stressed in a linear
fashion (Max deflection: 0.19 to 0.25 mm), when force is
applied.
Strain gauges sense the strain in the load cell structure under
the applied load, and then provide a electrical output signal
proportional to the strain when excited by a regulated voltage
source. The sensor has fully active dual Wheatstone bridge
circuits which provide temperature compensation and also
more sensitive. Four active strain gages are used in this circuit.
The following equation shows the resistance change of all four
gauges in their combined effect and their relation with the
change in output voltage (𝛥𝑉) as.
(𝛥𝑅1 − 𝛥𝑅2 + 𝛥𝑅3 − 𝛥𝑅4 )
𝛥𝑉 =
2(2𝑅0 + 𝛥𝑅1 + 𝛥𝑅2 + 𝛥𝑅3 + 𝛥𝑅4 )
The selected sensor can measure the compression and
tension forces. This sensor gives a span output of ±2mV/V
ratiometric to the excitation voltage applied. Being ratiometric,
the changes in excitation voltage doesn’t affect the absolute
accuracy of measurement and yield the resistance value
directly. The inbuilt compensation resistor reduces the effect
of sensor temperature on the signal.
To determine the relation between the load and output
(sensitivity), a calibration process is to be done before the load
cell can be used as thrust sensor. The calibrated sensitivity is
to be used as the reference to convert voltage to thrust and to
validate the measurements from the completed device.
The pig tail cables from the sensors are to be terminated at
the termination connector which in turn will be terminated at
the Vacuum feed through mounted on the Vacuum Chamber.
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The cable is to be selected in such a way to avoid the
introduction of noise signal by inductive coupling and
capacitive coupling between the sensor and the system and
also the corona effect. PTFE insulated silver plated stranded
copper cables which are shielded (>90% coverage) and twisted
are chosen for the signal cabling. Special care is taken for
cable mounting inside the Vacuum Chamber to protect against
mechanical damages, sharp edges etc. The cable-connector
interface is protected from stress through protective shields
due to atmosphere and mechanical effects. Cross talk with
other power lines is also reduced by physical isolation of cable
as per standard.
The variation of cable resistance as a result of temperature
influence or due to change in cable length is to be taken care
by designing the 6 wire configuration for the measurement.
The 2 wire will be used for excitation to sensor, 2 wire for
receiving output from sensor and the extra 2 wire for the sense
line which helps the amplifier to make internal adjustment to
take care of change in excitation voltage.
Since, the sensor provides span output of ±2mV/V, full
scale output is only ±18mV for the range of its operation when
excited for 9V. Hence, the signal conditioner needs to be
chosen in such a way to accurately resolve the small
differential output voltage in the presence of common mode
voltage. So, the signal conditioner with high common mode
voltage is essential. The Isolated signal conditioning amplifier
featuring extremely low drift, very low noise, high accuracy
and wide dynamic range common mode rejection while
offering very fast overload recovery and settling time is to be
used to faithfully measure the thrust force. The output of
Signal Conditioner is to be connected to Main and Redundant
(M&R) Test Article Data Acquisition system. The Data
acquisition system needs to be designed in such a way to meet
the M&R configuration and the signal sampling requirement
of 2 kHz.
The measurement chain components to be selected and the
signal flow of thrust measurement chain is illustrated in fig.2.
Figure2: Measurement chain components
REALIZATION
From the description of design of Thrust measurement
system in the preceding, there were a series of challenges
involved during the realization of Thrust measurement system.
They can be broadly categorized into the following:
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019
• Mounting Configuration
• Signal transmission from Load cell
• Intrinsic Safety for Hydrogen environment
• In place Calibration of TMS
• Signal Conditioning
The subsequent sections give the salient features of the
methodologies adopted during the realization.
Mounting:
In order to measure the axial thrust faithfully, careful
consideration is given to the design of mounting by
eliminating situations that can cause thrust profile distortion.
If not properly mounted, the load cell can be subjected to
ringing due to the abrupt load changes. The measurement load
link assembly interconnects the thrust frame and wall frame .It
consists of load cell and flexures on either side of it. These
flexures minimize the lateral force interactions on the
measured axial force.
The laboratory calibrated load cell is mounted with all
mechanical assemblies inside the Vacuum Chamber as shown
in fig:3
Load Cell
Figure3: Load cell mounted inside Vacuum Chamber
A pre loading arrangement also made to apply a preload of
1 tonne by using dead weights. Preloading helps in developing
a pre-stress in the measurement system by removing the
slackness in the links.
Pre loading is very important due to following reasons
• reduces initial misalignment of axial link.
• gives load transferring property by getting contact
with load transferring members.
• avoids shock load transfer to the connecting members.
Signal transmission from load cell:
With hundreds and potentially thousands of control and
sensor data channels entering and exiting the vacuum
environment, it is essential for hermetically sealed conductor
feed throughs to solve cross-talk and leakage challenges as
well as to provide flexibility to meet future needs. The
Vacuum feed throughs are Ultra high vacuum leak tightness
with Gold plated contacts which meets the MIL-C-5015
standard. The instrumentation cables pass through the
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instrumentation feed through located in the vacuum pressure in the thrust wall. Load is applied to the calibration link by
boundary. A mechanical sealing method and a brazing method means of hydraulic jack in steps as shown in fig: 5.
are generally used in the sealing of an instrumentation feed
through. The signals are taken through the Vacuum feed
throughs from the Vacuum Chamber by the PTFE insulated
silver plated stranded copper cables.
The mV output from the dual redundant bridge of the load
cell is taken to Instrumentation Room through two Hydraulic
independent measurement chains in order to have redundancy. Master LC loading

Intrinsically-safe requirement:

Next is the presence of hydrogen which poses an extremely

hazardous working environment. Hydrogen being extremely
explosive in nature; special care has to be taken while realizing
the measurement chain in order to avoid damage to personnel
and property. Intrinsic safety (IS) is based on the principle that
the electrical energy in hazardous-area circuits is deliberately
restricted such that any electrical sparks or hot spots are too
weak to cause ignition. This is achieved by choosing a
hermetically sealed, explosion proof with IS mV output load
cell and by inserting an energy limited interface in the wiring
between safe and hazardous areas. The interface passes signals
in either direction as required but limits the voltage and current
that can reach the hazardous area under fault conditions. The
excitation power to the sensor at Test stand is provided
through a Transformer Isolated Barrier (TIB) and the output
from the sensor is received by another TIB.
In place Calibration of TMS:
Thrust measurement system needs to be in-place calibrated
to characterize the Thrust Measurement System with the thrust
leakage due to interference.
In-place calibration is done by applying known weights
for finding the thrust with the assembled condition through
comparison method. The calibration test setup is as shown in
fig: 4
Figure5: Calibration setup using hydraulic arrangement
There are two sensors (master load cell & measure load cell)
used in the calibration process. The master load cell is used as
reference to get the magnitude of load applied to the measure
load cell. The output voltage value recorded and signal
conditioned. The same process in each loading was repeated 3
times in order to check for repeatability. Comparing the master
load cell readings with the measurement load cell reading,
calibration coefficient is to be determined.
The following procedure as detailed in ASTM E 74-02
(Standard practice of Calibration of force measuring
instruments for verifying the force indication of testing
machines) is used to determine the degree of best fitting
polynomial equation.
• The distinct non-zero forces (n) are measured in steps.
The mean data is used in case of repetitions of forces.
• Residual standard deviation is computed as
𝑑1 2 + 𝑑2 2 + ⋯ + 𝑑𝑛 2
𝑠𝑚1 = √
𝑛1 − 𝑚1 − 1

𝑑1 , 𝑑2 - difference between fitted curves and n

observed values
𝑛1 - no. of distinct non-zero force increments
𝑚1 - the degree of polynomial fit

• Polynomials of degree 1,2,3,4 & 5 are fitted

separately and the residual standard deviation s1, s2,
s3, s4 & s5 is calculated.
• The ratio s4 / s5 is computed and compared with the
Figure4: Calibration setup for TMS
corresponding factor obtained from the following
The calibration system assembly consists of a calibration table. C (n1,5).
frame which is fixed to the back side of the thrust wall by
Factors C(n,m) for determining the best degree of
bolting. A hydraulic jack of 50 t capacity is fixed at one end of
polynomial fit
this frame. Hydraulic Jack is connected to the load link
n1 m1=2 m1=3 m1=4 m1=5
assembly by an arrangement with two flanges. The other end 10 1.373 1.455 1.582 1.801
of the load link is connected to the tie rod through an adapter. 11 1.315 1.373 1.455 1.582
The tie rod is connected to the measurement link through hole 12 1.273 1.315 1.373 1.455
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019 1013/4
 15 1.195 1.215 1.241 1.273
20 1.131 1.141 1.151 1.163
• If s4 / s5 > C (n1, 5), then the coefficient of the 5th
degree term is significant. If not, step for next lesser
degree is repeated till significant coefficient for a
degree of fit is obtained.
• Uncertainty is calculated as an estimate of error
contributed by the instrument when forces measured
in service are calculated by means of the calibration
equation. Uncertainty is defined as 2.4 times the
standard deviation. If the calculated uncertainty is
less than instrument resolution the uncertainty is then
defined as that value equal to resolution
• Standard deviation for error value is calculated as
2 2
𝑒1 + 𝑒2 + ⋯ + 𝑒𝑛 2 The Main and Redundant configuration requirement of Data
𝑠𝑒 = √
𝑛1 − 𝑚1 − 1
𝑒1 = error in % FS
𝑛1 = No of observation
𝑚1 = degree of polynomial equation used
The values which are not in the range of ± 3 𝑠𝑒 will be
discarded.
Fig.6 shows the calibration data wherein the thrust
measured by Master load cell and measure load cell is plotted
and both load cells follow the trend. The values are verified
against the applied known load.
Master LC data
Measure LC data
Figure6: Calibration data
Signal Conditioning:
The low mV output signal from load cell is to be processed
properly by routing to the most versatile Instrumentation
amplifier based Signal conditioner. The Preston make
8300AU Isolated Signal conditioning Amplifiers which has
the system CMRR of 130dB and input impedance of
100Mohm is selected. The signal conditioner provides the
output with a gain accuracy of ± 0.01%. The signal
conditioners are mounted on the Master chassis and controlled
from the front panel of the 8300AU Master Control Unit as
shown in fig-7.
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019
Figure7: Signal Conditioner positioned in Rack
The system provides a 4-pole Butterworth response filter.
Acquisition System is met with identical hardware and number
of channels. The industrial standard PXI (PCI eXtension for
Instrumentation) architecture based Data Acquisition System
is selected for this application. PXI modular instrumentation
leverages the high-speed PCI (Peripheral Component
Interconnect) Bus. PXI offers the same high-performance
electrical features as PCI including 132 MB/sec data rates and
Plug-and-Play functionality. The PXI architecture provides
high performance and PC based measurement system with
modular instrumentation.
As detailed in the previous sections, the various
components of the measurement chain is carefully selected in
order to meet the design requirements. The field mV is fed to
the signal conditioner through TIB and the output of Signal
Conditioner is provided to Main & Redundant Data
Acquisition System through Dual output Isolator as shown in
end to end measurement chain diagram in fig.8.
Figure8: End to end measurement chain for TMS
USAGE AND RESULTS
The Thrust measurement system is designed as part of the
test stand frame and successfully used for testing the
Cryogenic Engine CE20 in High Altitude testing. The
laboratory calibrated Strain gauge based load cell is placed to
convert strain to voltage proportional to the thrust force. The
measurement chain is validated by applying mV signal at the
measurement chain input and the accuracy of the measurement
chain is better than ±0.2%. After mounting, the thrust
measurement system is in-place calibrated by applying known
weights before and after the test to ensure the data integrity
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and correctness. The best Degree of Polynomial Fit is
determined as per the procedure detailed in ASTM E 74-02
Standard. The 4th degree polynomial is found as best suitable
and used during the CE20 Engine testing. The thrust produced
in tension mode by the engine and in compression mode by
test facility with respect to time was acquired by the system.
The amplitude of the acquired data was analyzed to study the
intended characteristics of the engine. The time thrust profile
along with the Engine chamber pressure is plotted as in fig: 9.
Thrust
Chamber Pressure
Figure9: Time thrust profile along with Chamber pressure
From the plot, it is clear that the Load cell measured thrust
in compression mode at -12s due to facility activity and in
tension mode during the Engine firing after T0 sec. The thrust
data is measured with an error of ±0.5% FSO.
DISPOSITION
Careful design of the thrust balance and calibration
procedure and a thorough examination of potential sources of
error based on experience reviewed in this paper, resulted in
very accurate and reliable thrust data. The thrust measurement
system proved to be stable during firing tests. The test results
showed that the designed thrust measurement system can be
easily and reliably used for accurate measuring of the Thrust
in both tension and compression. Experimental results and
analysis results are found to be in harmony with each other.
National Conference on Cryogenics for Space, Thiruvananthapuram, 2019
On the other hand, it was also found that the thrust-time
relationship observed in experiments was consistent and the
thrust behavior of the tested Engine was stable.
The technological challenges encountered during the
realization of Thrust measurement system to meet the
requirements are well explained in this paper. The Thrust
measurement system is successfully used during the
Cryogenic Engine High Altitude Testing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors acknowledge the contributions from the entire
Thrust Chamber Test facility team involved directly or
indirectly in the realization of Thrust measurement system.
Authors also acknowledge the support and guidance extended
by Director, IPRC.
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