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How to Design, Build and Test Small Liquid-Fuel Rocket Engines (1967)

153 points by areoform 6y ago

avmich 6y ago
A great historic document. Today some better ways, in some aspects, could be proposed, but this is still a workable recipe.
- jeffreyrogers 6y ago
  Do you know of any more recent resources than this one?
  - FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
    The standard text on the matter is "Rocket Propulsion Elements", by George Sutton. Another recommended reference is "Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines" by Dieter K.Huzel and David H.Huang.
_n_b_ 6y ago
Related (but sadly sold out) plans for a home rocket engine for your bicycle or go-kart: http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28_47 http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28_...
helldritch 6y ago
This book is a great resource, and I would recommend it to to any amateur model rocketry fan. I'm starting University in September as an adult student of Computer Science and I'm planning to start a model rocketry society with the goal of putting a 9ft tube above the Karman line and recovering it safely. I'm still deciding on fuels, but I'm strongly considering a hypergolic combination of catalyzed pure hydrogen peroxide and kerosene (I've already been granted a recipient competent authority from the explosives department for the storage and transport of usable quantities these for the use in a model rocket). The primary reason for hypergolic fuels is because it doesn't require a complex combustion chamber / ignition set up. You can mix them together at ambient pressure and temperature and they will spontaneously combust producing heat, steam and pressure. If you can safely handle the dangerous fuels it's a much easier route to a liquid fueled rocket engine. One of the difficulties in the UK is going to be finding somewhere to launch from: we don't have large swathes of unowned, unmonitored land and the restrictions the CAA (rightfully) place on launching near cities means that it'll have to be out in the sticks somewhere. I'll probably have to convince a farmer to let us blow up a couple rockets on the back of a fallow field a few times before we get a successful launch off the ground. I'm trying to plan as much as possible and get all the requisite licenses (I already have a CAA unmanned surveillance drone operator ID, as well as exemption from the need for a flyer ID because I have my flight competency certificates, and exemption from the 400ft amateur flight ceiling as long as I issue a NOTAM (notice to airmen) 1 week before any test flights, and I'm insured by the UK Rocketry Association) in the hopes that people will "take me seriously" when I found the society. I'm also working behind the scenes to set up partnerships. I've been in contact with Starchaser Industries and a few other aerospace companies nearby to have them sponsor the program, show us around their rocketry factories and hopefully give us contacts at their company we can bounce ideas off to see if there's anything we've missed, or any hazards we are hugely mispredicting.
- Mvandenbergh 6y ago
  There's a proposed spaceport in Sutherland, I suspect that the landowners will let you launch from there.
  - helldritch 6y ago
    Cheers for this, I'll get in contact with them over the next month when I have some more concrete plans. I was thinking it would end up being the peak district/lakes district/Lancashire moors/Scottish highlands we would be launching from.
    - arethuza 6y ago
      The 'spaceport' in Sutherland is quite a long way from actually being operational: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/the-u-k-space-agency-has-a-scottish-peat-bog-problem https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/the-u-k-s...
      - dmurray 6y ago
        He only needs a field and benevolent landowners though, not the rest of the spaceport infrastructure.
        helldritch 6y ago
        This is pretty much right on the money. The expected worst-case failure state would be a rupture in the Kerosene canister resulting in a high pressure, high heat ignition. Infrastructure and support needs are minimal, spatial radius needs are maximal. There would be bits of rocket everywhere in a 20m radius (which we would be dutiful in picking up since it's useful to study for next time) and there is unlikely to be any sort of crater, but there would be a small kerosene fire we would have to put out (so providing and testing fire suppression equipment in the form of extinguishers and blankets will be important). Realistically, we'll be flying something around the 30-40KG mark so we'll have to get it certified by the CAA: http://www.largemodelassociation.com/resources/over-20kg-scheme/over-20kg-revision/ http://www.largemodelassociation.com/resources/over-20kg-sch... I feel like with a youthful charm and the right paperwork from all the respective government divisions (The Explosives Division at the Health and Safety Executive, a certified model design from the Civil Aviation Authority, and our insurance as operators / flyers with the CAA) it won't be too hard to talk a field landowner in to it, in return for a token payment and an offer of a few cool afternoons seeing model rocket launches on the back-end of one of their fields.
discordance 6y ago
Interesting material but shame it uses imperial units
praveen9920 6y ago
Seems like a great resource for rocket engines. Having a simulator to try these out would be very useful before trying anything practical. I'm sure it will be a complicated piece of code with heavy computation requirements
- immmmmm 6y ago
  Combustion and fluide dynamics in a rocket engine are very complicated to simulate. I’m not a SpaceX fan but they have talk on that somewhere on yt.
- uponcoffee 6y ago
  Simulation and validation is a touch improved, when I did this in college we used Ansys supplemented with data from NASA's CEA (Chemical Equilibrium and Applications) utility for validation. Once you get the work flow figured out it's not terrible. Simulating cooling channels//ablation for larger scale rockets is a major PTA though.
jcims 6y ago
This reminded me of the Popular Mechanic's encyclopedia set we had growing up. Basically an encyclopedia of DIY projects. Looking back it's something i definitely did not appreciate enough.
Certified 6y ago
As someone who attempted to build a small liquid fueled rocket engine in high-school, this was one of the only texts I could find at the time that went into the subject in enough detail to be useful. (circa 2007)
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  See also: "Rocket Propulsion Elements", by George Sutton. Now in its 9th edition.
larrydag 6y ago
Is it easy to procure liquid oxygen as an amateur builder? The guide looks like it recommends using gaseous oxygen and gasoline since it is readily available.
- helldritch 6y ago
  The typical way to produce small scale liquid oxygen (LOX) requires liquid nitrogen (you use the liquid nitrogen to cool the gas as it passes through some transport medium like a copper pipe and collect the cooled liquid). Purchasing LOX isn't too difficult, there are many vendors willing to supply large amounts of it, and a few vendors willing to supply small (experimental) amounts of it. Storing LOX is the real challenge, you need to keep it at ~310f (~-190c) which requires a well insulated cryogenic storage chamber. Typical industrial sized storage tanks have a few metres of insulation to keep the heat out, and typical small-scale tanks have around 1-2 feet of insulation. You're probably looking at a viable minimum storage container size of between 500-1000 litres (any smaller and your insulation layer will be so thin that you'll lose 10-20% of your stored oxygen as gases per day), with the typical minimal size being in the 2,500 litres range (which normally lose 1-2% of stored oxygen to gas per day) You can buy very small containers (2l, 5l, 25l, etc, these are for nitrogen but you can get them for oxygen too): https://uk.vwr.com/store/product/2104367/liquid-nitrogen-dewars-for-storage-and-transport-ld-series https://uk.vwr.com/store/product/2104367/liquid-nitrogen-dew... but these lose the liquid very quickly and you would likely want them delivered the same day you need them, resulting in a just-in-time delivery failure point.
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  I have never had a problem getting liquid oxygen delivered in standard dewars to remote test sites. It is cheaper than bottled water.
georgeecollins 6y ago
What depresses me is the section on "The Law". I did a lot of model rockets (just the regular solid fuel type) with my son. A fun educational hobby. There are very few place in Southern California where you can legally launch a rocket, even though they are extremely safe in comparison to the ones described here.
jccooper 6y ago
Perhaps worth noting that this is not the Rocket Lab launching small liquid fuel rockets today. This Rocketlab seems to have been a mail-order publisher mostly of NASA public domain stuff, with some original material and other authors. This book would seem to be their magnum opus and one of their more popular products. They sold this book and Apollo photos and other things out of the back of hobby magazines in the 60s and 70s. China Lake is home to a Naval Air Station, a major R&D location for rockets and other flying things, so it's possible it was a side gig by some rocket scientists there, but that's just a wild guess.
- jeffreyrogers 6y ago
  There is a great book that covers the development of the Sidewinder missile at China Lake[0]. Really interesting discussion of the management/organization of the missile program and how it was so successful given it's small size and limited resources. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Sidewinder-Creative-Missile-Development-China/dp/1591149819 https://www.amazon.com/Sidewinder-Creative-Missile-Developme...

153 points by areoform 6y ago

A great historic document. Today some better ways, in some aspects, could be proposed, but this is still a workable recipe.

jeffreyrogers 6y ago
Do you know of any more recent resources than this one?
- FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
  The standard text on the matter is "Rocket Propulsion Elements", by George Sutton. Another recommended reference is "Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines" by Dieter K.Huzel and David H.Huang.

_n_b_ 6y ago

Related (but sadly sold out) plans for a home rocket engine for your bicycle or go-kart: http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28_47 http://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28_...

helldritch 6y ago

This book is a great resource, and I would recommend it to to any amateur model rocketry fan. I'm starting University in September as an adult student of Computer Science and I'm planning to start a model rocketry society with the goal of putting a 9ft tube above the Karman line and recovering it safely. I'm still deciding on fuels, but I'm strongly considering a hypergolic combination of catalyzed pure hydrogen peroxide and kerosene (I've already been granted a recipient competent authority from the explosives department for the storage and transport of usable quantities these for the use in a model rocket). The primary reason for hypergolic fuels is because it doesn't require a complex combustion chamber / ignition set up. You can mix them together at ambient pressure and temperature and they will spontaneously combust producing heat, steam and pressure. If you can safely handle the dangerous fuels it's a much easier route to a liquid fueled rocket engine. One of the difficulties in the UK is going to be finding somewhere to launch from: we don't have large swathes of unowned, unmonitored land and the restrictions the CAA (rightfully) place on launching near cities means that it'll have to be out in the sticks somewhere. I'll probably have to convince a farmer to let us blow up a couple rockets on the back of a fallow field a few times before we get a successful launch off the ground. I'm trying to plan as much as possible and get all the requisite licenses (I already have a CAA unmanned surveillance drone operator ID, as well as exemption from the need for a flyer ID because I have my flight competency certificates, and exemption from the 400ft amateur flight ceiling as long as I issue a NOTAM (notice to airmen) 1 week before any test flights, and I'm insured by the UK Rocketry Association) in the hopes that people will "take me seriously" when I found the society. I'm also working behind the scenes to set up partnerships. I've been in contact with Starchaser Industries and a few other aerospace companies nearby to have them sponsor the program, show us around their rocketry factories and hopefully give us contacts at their company we can bounce ideas off to see if there's anything we've missed, or any hazards we are hugely mispredicting.

Mvandenbergh 6y ago
There's a proposed spaceport in Sutherland, I suspect that the landowners will let you launch from there.
- helldritch 6y ago
  Cheers for this, I'll get in contact with them over the next month when I have some more concrete plans. I was thinking it would end up being the peak district/lakes district/Lancashire moors/Scottish highlands we would be launching from.
  - arethuza 6y ago
    The 'spaceport' in Sutherland is quite a long way from actually being operational: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/the-u-k-space-agency-has-a-scottish-peat-bog-problem https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-17/the-u-k-s...
    - dmurray 6y ago
      He only needs a field and benevolent landowners though, not the rest of the spaceport infrastructure.
      - helldritch 6y ago
        This is pretty much right on the money. The expected worst-case failure state would be a rupture in the Kerosene canister resulting in a high pressure, high heat ignition. Infrastructure and support needs are minimal, spatial radius needs are maximal. There would be bits of rocket everywhere in a 20m radius (which we would be dutiful in picking up since it's useful to study for next time) and there is unlikely to be any sort of crater, but there would be a small kerosene fire we would have to put out (so providing and testing fire suppression equipment in the form of extinguishers and blankets will be important). Realistically, we'll be flying something around the 30-40KG mark so we'll have to get it certified by the CAA: http://www.largemodelassociation.com/resources/over-20kg-scheme/over-20kg-revision/ http://www.largemodelassociation.com/resources/over-20kg-sch... I feel like with a youthful charm and the right paperwork from all the respective government divisions (The Explosives Division at the Health and Safety Executive, a certified model design from the Civil Aviation Authority, and our insurance as operators / flyers with the CAA) it won't be too hard to talk a field landowner in to it, in return for a token payment and an offer of a few cool afternoons seeing model rocket launches on the back-end of one of their fields.

discordance 6y ago

Interesting material but shame it uses imperial units

praveen9920 6y ago

Seems like a great resource for rocket engines. Having a simulator to try these out would be very useful before trying anything practical. I'm sure it will be a complicated piece of code with heavy computation requirements

immmmmm 6y ago
Combustion and fluide dynamics in a rocket engine are very complicated to simulate. I’m not a SpaceX fan but they have talk on that somewhere on yt.
uponcoffee 6y ago
Simulation and validation is a touch improved, when I did this in college we used Ansys supplemented with data from NASA's CEA (Chemical Equilibrium and Applications) utility for validation. Once you get the work flow figured out it's not terrible. Simulating cooling channels//ablation for larger scale rockets is a major PTA though.

jcims 6y ago

This reminded me of the Popular Mechanic's encyclopedia set we had growing up. Basically an encyclopedia of DIY projects. Looking back it's something i definitely did not appreciate enough.

Certified 6y ago

As someone who attempted to build a small liquid fueled rocket engine in high-school, this was one of the only texts I could find at the time that went into the subject in enough detail to be useful. (circa 2007)

FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
See also: "Rocket Propulsion Elements", by George Sutton. Now in its 9th edition.

larrydag 6y ago

Is it easy to procure liquid oxygen as an amateur builder? The guide looks like it recommends using gaseous oxygen and gasoline since it is readily available.

helldritch 6y ago
The typical way to produce small scale liquid oxygen (LOX) requires liquid nitrogen (you use the liquid nitrogen to cool the gas as it passes through some transport medium like a copper pipe and collect the cooled liquid). Purchasing LOX isn't too difficult, there are many vendors willing to supply large amounts of it, and a few vendors willing to supply small (experimental) amounts of it. Storing LOX is the real challenge, you need to keep it at ~310f (~-190c) which requires a well insulated cryogenic storage chamber. Typical industrial sized storage tanks have a few metres of insulation to keep the heat out, and typical small-scale tanks have around 1-2 feet of insulation. You're probably looking at a viable minimum storage container size of between 500-1000 litres (any smaller and your insulation layer will be so thin that you'll lose 10-20% of your stored oxygen as gases per day), with the typical minimal size being in the 2,500 litres range (which normally lose 1-2% of stored oxygen to gas per day) You can buy very small containers (2l, 5l, 25l, etc, these are for nitrogen but you can get them for oxygen too): https://uk.vwr.com/store/product/2104367/liquid-nitrogen-dewars-for-storage-and-transport-ld-series https://uk.vwr.com/store/product/2104367/liquid-nitrogen-dew... but these lose the liquid very quickly and you would likely want them delivered the same day you need them, resulting in a just-in-time delivery failure point.
FlyMoreRockets 6y ago
I have never had a problem getting liquid oxygen delivered in standard dewars to remote test sites. It is cheaper than bottled water.

georgeecollins 6y ago

What depresses me is the section on "The Law". I did a lot of model rockets (just the regular solid fuel type) with my son. A fun educational hobby. There are very few place in Southern California where you can legally launch a rocket, even though they are extremely safe in comparison to the ones described here.

jccooper 6y ago

Perhaps worth noting that this is not the Rocket Lab launching small liquid fuel rockets today. This Rocketlab seems to have been a mail-order publisher mostly of NASA public domain stuff, with some original material and other authors. This book would seem to be their magnum opus and one of their more popular products. They sold this book and Apollo photos and other things out of the back of hobby magazines in the 60s and 70s. China Lake is home to a Naval Air Station, a major R&D location for rockets and other flying things, so it's possible it was a side gig by some rocket scientists there, but that's just a wild guess.

jeffreyrogers 6y ago
There is a great book that covers the development of the Sidewinder missile at China Lake[0]. Really interesting discussion of the management/organization of the missile program and how it was so successful given it's small size and limited resources. [0]: https://www.amazon.com/Sidewinder-Creative-Missile-Development-China/dp/1591149819 https://www.amazon.com/Sidewinder-Creative-Missile-Developme...