THERMAL ANALYSIS & ENGINEERING

Integrating knowledge on mixtures, combustion, chemical equilibrium, compressible flow, and real devices

HYBRID ROCKET

Group project
Materials: Graphite, HDPE (high-density polyethylene)
Goal: Design a nozzle and fuel grains within specified tolerances to create the highest total impulse
Turned nozzle (graphite) on lathe
Drilled holes into fuel grains (HDPE) on mill
Tolerances for nozzle and fuel grains went down to 0.001"
Fired nozzle with machined fuel grains in lab and collected results
Iterated on fuel grain designs based on previous fire results
Video below shows simulated rocket fire