AIR ROCKET TEST STAND
Class: Engineering Experimentation
Year: Fall 2017
GOAL: create a test stand that can measure thrust of an air rocket as it is depressurized.
FEATURES:
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Load cell to measure thrust
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3-way servo valves to electronically control pressurization and depressurization​
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Arduino program to plot and export thrust data to Excel
TECHNICAL DETAILS
This project was adapted from an old, unfinished test stand created by a previous team of students. It was very large and bulky, requiring a long sequence of turning different valves to charge and discharge the rocket. On top of that, as the original design was adapted from a water rocket test rig, there were issues maintaining an airtight seal.
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After making several unsuccessful attempts to create a reliable airtight seal on the old rig, we decided to start from scratch with a new rig using a 3-way servo valve to regulate pressurization and de-pressurization, negating the need for an airtight quick-release mechanism. The bottle rocket is mounted on a sliding rack attached to a load cell for thrust measurements. This rig is much more compact than the original and can be easily clamped to a tabletop.
Old test rig
Our version
Data Acquisition
An Arduino Nano was used to control the servo valve and collect data from the load cell. The data output was then plotted using Python to produce a graph showing the relation of thrust to time after discharge.
