The focus of this project is to design, build, and test a liquid-gas propellant rocket engine. The rocket will use liquid kerosene and gaseous oxygen as propellants to create a desired 20-lbs of thrust. The ultimate goal for the project is for this engine to be able to produce a reliable and repeated static thrust that could last up to approximately two minutes. A data acquisition system will be used to monitor and log the rocket engine conditions during testing, which will allow for a comparison to the analytical analysis of the rocket engine.
This project is a continuation of a project that John Costa ’17 and I have been working on since the winter of 2016. Initially, research was conducted to gain a deepened understanding of the science behind modern rocketry. The various principles and relations governing rocket engines were used to create a code inside Excel that determined all the key parameters of the rocket engine based on propellants and desired thrust.
My specific focus of the rocket engine concentrated on the fluid dynamic analysis of the rocket engine. I paid specific attention to the design and performance of the propellant feed systems and fuel injector because these engine features drive engine characteristics such as mass flow rates, fuel atomization, and propellant mixing.