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Thrust testing units with a piezoelectric dynamometer have unique traits such as excessive stiffness, tremendous measurement accuracy, dynamic performance and no hysteresis. These are widely used in the applications requiring force/thrust measurements in the aerospace industry and high‐end tool condition monitoring. The performance of these units is necessary to be evaluated. In this study, an improved layout of six‐degree of freedom force/thrust measurement stand is proposed and analysed theoretically and experimentally. The measurement stand is a structural component to measure six components of force, such as axial force/thrust (FX, FY, and FZ ) and other components (MX, MY, and MZ ). Test stand consists of seven piezoelectric sensors in two sections. The front part consists of four piezoelectric force sensors, while the rear part consists of three sensors. The rear section is hexagonal, with three sensors mounted at 120°. The measurement stand can measure the principal force/thrust up to 50,000 N. A mathematical model is derived for every sensor against forces in all directions. To calibrate the stand, a calibration platform is designed and fabricated. The calibration platform can generate a range of forces/moments. Calibration experiments verifies that the measurement stand is fairly functional to measure variety of forces/moments with high repeatability.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to present the optimization of the design and measurement principle of a six-component force/thrust measurement stand. This study highlights some key problems found in previous studies and proposes improvements in design and measurement principles. Design/methodology/approach The numerical simulation approach is used to verify the proposed improvements. An improved design and measurement principle are proposed and to verify the proposed improvements, simulation experiments are conducted. The data obtained from simulations are analyzed through the proposed improved measurement principle. The proposed stand is capable of measuring the main thrust and other components as pitch, yaw and roll. The stand is capable of measuring the main thrust more than 50,000 N and orthogonal thrust components more than 1,000 N. Improved design of measurement stand is also capable of measuring moments in three-axis more than 150 Nm. Thrust stand consists of two main sections: front and rare. Stand consists of seven piezoelectric force sensors to measure all components of force. Findings The simulations experiments and basic theoretical laws of kinematics prove that the proposed design indeed improves the precision of measurement and also enhance the efficiency of design. Evaluation results show that the measurement stand designed is highly functional. Non-linearity, coupling and repeatability errors are found to be within acceptable range during numerical simulations. Originality/value This study is unique in this kind. This study identifies the key problems found in previous studies and proposes an improved design and measurement principle. This study provides evidence for the improvements to be really functional and necessary.