Rocket Engine Design
Summary:
Below you can find various experiments I’ve conducted to test the waters of designing my own small rocket engine. The purpose of these projects is to educate myself on how a simple, pressure fed liquid rocket engine works, from design approaches and calculations to plumbing and manufacturing challenges.
A cross section of the CAD model of one of the nozzles. This one is targeting perfect expansion at sea level. To see a more detailed writeup on how I did those calculations, click the image.
The three cold gas thruster nozzles. From left to right, over expanded, perfect expansion, and under expanded. For more details, click the image.
A 3D printed injector from the top, with ports for air and water to test the aerosolization of the liquid and the mixture of the two fluids. For more details, click the image.
The injector from the bottom, with a spray nozzle for the water in the center and angled holes for the air around it. For more details, click the image.
My attempt at a centrifugal compressor that ended up as a blower fan. To see a writeup of what I did to design this, as well as what I quickly found out I would need to do to make this an actual compressor, click the image.
The blower fan's impeller.
The impeller and housing without the inlet housing.