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Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Development And Testing Of Additively Manufactured Aerospike Nozzles For Small Satellite Propulsion, Isaac W. Armstrong
Development And Testing Of Additively Manufactured Aerospike Nozzles For Small Satellite Propulsion, Isaac W. Armstrong
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Automatic altitude compensation has been a holy grail of rocket propulsion for decades. Current state-of-the-art bell nozzles see large performance decreases at low altitudes, limiting rocket designs, shrinking payloads, and overall increasing costs. Aerospike nozzles are an old idea from the 1960’s that provide superior altitude-compensating performance and enhanced performance in vacuum, but have survivability issues that have stopped their application in satellite propulsion systems. A growing need for CubeSat propulsion systems provides the impetus to study aerospike nozzles in this application. This study built two aerospike nozzles using modern 3D metal printing techniques to test aerospikes at a size …
Investigation Of Thermoplastic Polymers And Their Blends For Use In Hybrid Rocket Combustion, Spencer D. Mathias
Investigation Of Thermoplastic Polymers And Their Blends For Use In Hybrid Rocket Combustion, Spencer D. Mathias
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
This thesis set out to find a blend of thermoplastics that had better combustion properties than the current ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic or “Lego TM plastic” used by Utah State University. The current work is in an effort to eliminate toxic propellants from small space applications. High and low density polyethylene plastics were used because they are common plastic waste items. In this way rocket fuel can be made from these items to reduce the waste found in landfills. Three plastics were considered for replacement and as mixture components with the ABS plastic, namely low and high density polyethylene, …