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Rocket Testing
This shows some of the liquid fueled rocket engine tests conducted on 4-18-99 at the Mojave Test Area of the
RRS.
We built a number of flight vehicles based on this engine.
The first test was of an old Atlas Thrust vernier from the San
Diego State University Aerospace Engineering Department. The test stand was designed and built by Doug Gaylord,
Steve Harrington, and Carl Tedesco. The fuel used was Jet-A and LOX. The fuel and oxidizer were switched on
at predetermined times using solenoid valves controlled by a laptop running LabView. The LabView software was
written by Rick Blanchard. Data was collected on the flow rates, pressures and thrust. For details on the data
reduction and theory see the web page that Carl put together on this test for his combustion class at SDSU.
Not shown is the second run that happened when I left my finger on the run button for too long and and the
program started running again, restarting the engine and startling everyone.
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< Ignition (
20 KB)
The LOX is turned on first in order to prevent a detonable mixture of fuel vapor from forming in the combustion chamber. This chills the chamber so when the fuel is turned on, it does not vaporize unitil combustion is established.
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< Mainstage (
14 KB)
The LOX- fuel mixture was very rich and this resulted in the sudden expansion of the exhaust plume where
the fuel rich plume mixed enough with the air to support a flame.
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< Closeup (
11 KB)
The rocket engine was running at below optimum pressure because the welding regulators could not supply enough helium to keep the tanks at high pressure.
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< Shutdown (
18 KB)
The valves were timed with a slight LOX lead to keep fuel out of the LOX injectors and the LOX was shut
off first to keep the nozzle from overheating. An avi video is available:
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< LOX-Ethanol Engine (
12 KB)
Eric Claypool tested his LOX-Ethanol engine using a data acquisition system of his own design. Notice
the shock diamonds in the exhaust.
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< Zinc Sulfur Solid Fueled Rocket ( 19
KB each)
Also Peter Saueracker launched a Zinc sulfur solid fueled rocket (these three pictures are about 1/30
sec apart).
Many thanks to Dave Crissali, Tom Mueller and the members of the RRS for all their help in conducting
this test.
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