Design, fabrication and test of a gas turbine engine and wave rotor test bed

This thesis examines two core technologies developing within the energy production and transfer discipline: smaller scaled gas turbine engines and performance enhancing wave rotors. A combustion chamber was designed to satisfy the requirements to operate both devices. The chamber was built to be integral within the test apparatus, which was outfitted with a precise data acquisition system to critically monitor and evaluate these technologies in real-time.;Both the wave rotor and gas turbine engine prototype were tested. The testing was done separately to first fully understand these technologies in order to later enhance the gas turbine engine with the integration of the wave rotor as an engine topping performance enhancer.;This thesis will discuss the analysis and decisions made to design and fabricate this test apparatus. Data were collected for both devices allowing for solid evaluation and recommendations on how to further proceed.