Keywords

Hybrid, Rocket, Engine, HTPB, Nitrous, Oxide

Abstract

The design, development, integration and testing of a full-featured, Lab-Scale Hybrid Rocket Engine was not only envisioned to be the chosen method of putting student payloads into space, but to be an invaluable teaching resource. The subject of the present thesis is the analysis, design, development, integration and demonstration of a lab-scale hybrid rocket motor. The overarching goal of this project was to establish a working developmental lab model from which further research can be accomplished. The lab model was specifically designed to use a fuel source that could be studied in normal laboratory conditions. As such, the rocket engine was designed to use Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene as the fuel and Liquid Nitrous Oxide as the oxidizer. Developing the rocket engine required the usage of several electronics modules and a software package. The custom-designed electronics modules were a Signal Conditioning & Data Amplification Interface and a Data Acquisition Network. The software package was coded in Visual Basic (VB). A MathCAD regression rate computer model was designed and written to geometrically constrain the engine design. Further, the computer model allowed for the "what-if" situations to be evaluated. Using ProPep, solutions to the Equilibrium Thermodynamics Equations for the fuel and oxidizer mixture were obtained. The resultants were used as initial input to the computer model for predicting the lab-scale rocket's Chamber Pressure, Chamber Temperature, Ratio of Specific Heats and Molecular Weight. Details on the model, the rocket hardware, and the successful test firing are provided.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2006

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Petersen, Eric

Degree

Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering (M.S.A.E.)

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Department

Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Program

Aerospace Engineering

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0000972

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0000972

Language

English

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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