United Engine has carried out further water-ingestion tests on the PD-8 engine for the Yakovlev SJ-100, to confirm its ability to withstand heavy rain.
The tests were conducted on an outdoor rig near Rybinsk, where United Engine’s Saturn division has a facility.
Three cycles of tests were involved covering various engine operating modes and thrust settings, simulating the impact of heavy rain on the engine during take-off, climb and landing.
Multiple nozzles spray tonnes of water, at a defined droplet size, under high pressure into the powerplant.
“Water-spray tests simulate rainfall at the engine inlet and are an important step in preparing for the certification of the new PD-8,” says United Engine deputy sales director Fyodor Mironov.
“The objective of these engineering tests is to verify the PD-8’s reliability under one of the harshest weather conditions – torrential rain.”
Mironov says the engine “performed flawlessly” during the tests.
United Engine states that the PD-8 has passed other engineering tests covering acoustics, crosswind performance, and operation of the thrust-reverser – which does not use the clamshell design of the PowerJet SaM146 on the Superjet 100 but rather a cascade system.
