Hybrid Rocket Motor Test Run 1

This is a hybrid rocket motor built by myself and some other university students. It is a hybrid because it uses a solid propellant (a mix of wax, aluminum powder, and graphite powder) and a liquid oxidizer (nitrous oxide). This test run went fairly well, providing an average thrust of about 80 pounds for about 5 seconds. For a sense of scale, the combustion chamber (dark blue horizontal cylinder) is 2 inches in diameter and 13 inches long. At the end of the run, a snap ring holding the nitrous connection into the combustion chamber failed (the burst of fire out the front end of the combustion chamber), but fortunately nothing was damaged.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• hybrid
• rocket
• motor
• fire
• explosion

[Thecomi]

did you guys measure the impulse?

[jhbwolverine]

yes, indirectly. We used a load cell to measure the thrust and the burn time. We calculated impulse and ISP off of that.

[normellow]

Word

[Christopher7569]

Thats cool!!

[laboo69]

Well, blowing off the head end closure is actually a pretty good "designed failure" mode! But if the snap ring was the culprit, consider using a spring coil instead.

Interesting to see a wax grain burned horizontally. Lots of pooled wax inside after it quit? Nozzle erosion d/t the aluminum?

[blactek]

What caused the blow out at the injector end, looks like a closure/ seal failure ..

[leokimvideo]

nice work

[SmiertSpionem]

COOL!

[ianwhittinghill]

Which university are you guys from? Do you have plans to integrate this motor into a flight vehicle?

[yanlapanic]

ooops !

[44R0Ndin]

what was the "poof" at the end?

[Thecomi]

So, what was the impulse and the burn time?