Hybrid Rocket

For my Senior Thermosciences Capstone Project I worked in a team of four to design, manufacture, test, iterate and analyze a hybrid rocket fuel grain and converging-diverging nozzle, with the aim of achieving the highest specific impulse. Our final design achieved the highest specific impulse in the class, our success hinged upon making small improvements between each of our four test fires and incremental and informed changes to our design. These changes were based on the data from each fire, results form our computer simulation of the rocket, as well as by gauging how the combustion propagated through our rocket – observing the fuel grain after the fire.

You can read more about the development of the project and the analysis of each fire here.

Here's a video of our last fire. Even though the camera was a bit out of focus you can still see the shock diamonds!!