Reddit reviews Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th Edition
We found 5 Reddit comments about Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
We found 5 Reddit comments about Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
A few things should be noted in case people are looking for more information:
If you want to really dive head-first into the subject, Rocket Propulsion Elements is the text we all have on our bookshelves.
For a textbook, try and find a copy of Sutton.
NASA's technical reports server will throw more data at you than you can possibly use, but if you can narrow the search terms enough it's useful.
You can google for particular engines or propellant combinations and find reasonable, but not necessarily authoritative data. The best sources will be from the manufacturers.
Please be aware that if you are in the USA, and make too good a simulation, it can fall under the "International Traffic in Arms Regulations" (ITAR) and be export-controlled. Launch to orbit and long range ballistic missiles are essentially the same problem, so any associated technology can be classed as military. "Export" includes passing a copy to a grad student who is not a US citizen, or posting the code on GitHub where anyone can copy it.
It's a bit dumb, because computers, aerodynamics, and Newtonian mechanics are all public, but I'd rather you didn't get in trouble accidentally. When I worked at Boeing, all our good trajectory simulators were export-controlled, and you had to be a US citizen to work in those areas of the company.
I have read that book. I actually did design a simple rocket a long time ago (10 years now, wow!), but never had access to machine tools to build it.
I was using KNO3 sugar fuel, and there was this great website where a guy had all the performance characteristics of the fuel which was helpful. I wish I could remember that site. It was a terrible geocities style site, but the info was good.
The definitive basic text on rocketry if you're interested
the basic idea you can get from wikipedia pages and the first result of google search. this book is also good http://www.amazon.com/Rocket-Propulsion-Elements-7th-Edition/dp/0471326429
Did something very similar to you OP. Built a rocket engine with KNO3 fuel, and added Fe3O4. Tested small scale with aluminum nozzles, screwed in with three screws 60deg around. The tests resulted in a decent burn, but the aluminum showed sligns signs of melting/shearing at the throat. Not terribly bad, but on a larger scale it would affect flight path quite a bit.
I do think that aluminum would be a good starting point for the nozzle though, then if it doesn't turn out too well, moving to graphite.
Also, check out "Rocket Propulsion Elements." It has fantastic details on solid and liquid propellents, nozzle theory, different analysis process, and tons of other stuff. If you look hard enough you can find a pdf of it on Google.