Engineering Education Commons^™

Assessment And Applications Of The Conversion Of Chemical Energy To Mechanical Energy Using Model Rocket Engines, Hüseyin Sarper, Nebojsa I. Jaksic, Ben J. Stuart, Karina Arcaute

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

To provide the first-year engineering students with a hands-on experience in an engineering application using both chemistry and physics, this team project uses a set of chemical and physical energy concepts and MS Excel based analysis. The main objective of the project is to calculate how much of the potential maximum possible chemical energy is converted into propulsion when using model rocket engines with solid fuel. The secondary objective is to determine the effects of increasing conversion rates on the performance of a model rocket. The solid fuel or propellant used in common model rocket engines is black powder. Compared …