R-R powers up new £90m testbed
FIRST ENGINE RUN THROUGH WORLD’S LARGEST SYSTEM IN SINFIN
ROLLS-ROYCE’S new state-of-theart testbed is all set for take-off after a successful first engine run was performed in the city.
The Testbed 80, which at 7,500 square metres is bigger than Derby County’s football pitch, is set to become the largest and smartest indoor aerospace facility of its kind in the world when it is officially opened in the coming months.
It was put through its paces at R-R’s test facility plant in Sinfin earlier this week, carrying out checks on a Trent XWB engine in what the company is hailing as a milestone in the £90 million project.
Chris Chorleton, president of Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace arm, said: “This is an important landmark in our journey towards a more sustainable future for aerospace and aviation. Testbed 80 will not only test engines such as the Trent XWB – the world’s most efficient aero-engine in service – but also the engines and propulsion systems of the future, which will see us take another step towards decarbonisation.
“It’s great that the first engine test has been a success and we are looking forward to the official opening of the facility in the coming months.”
Testbed 80 has been three years in the making and has been designed to test a range of engines, including the XWB and Trent 1000, and the UltraFan demonstrator, which is Rolls-Royce’s blueprint for the next generation of even more efficient engines – along with hybrid and all-electric flight systems of the future.
It can accommodate engines of all sizes up to 155klbf (pound force) of thrust, meaning it has enough power to launch a Boeing 747. The testbed is also equipped with a 140,000-litre fuel tank for different types, including sustainable aviation fuel. This also forms part of Rolls-Royce’s continued decarbonisation strategy. The data systems inside Testbed 80 are more capable and complex than any other existing models, delivering data in the fastest time directly to secure storage, linked for the first time to analytical models and engineers.
Data can be collected from more than 10,000 different parameters on an engine, using an intricate web of sensors that detect even the tiniest vibrations at a rate of up to 200,000 samples per second.
The data helps engineers understand engines better, monitoring how every component behaves in a range of conditions, and consequently providing crucial insights to inform future engine improvements for availability and efficiency.
The testbed is also home to a powerful x-ray machine that is able to capture 30 images per second and beam them directly to a secure cloud, where engineers around the world can analyse them along with the 10,000 other data parameters it can measure.
Rolls-Royce is the only engine manufacturer in the world to x-ray its engines while they are running.
This unique test allows inspections of engines to minute levels of detail and obtain precise levels of data.