Hello,
I am a part of the San Diego State University's Rocket Project Club. Our club is creating a liquid fueled rocket using the fuels RP1 and LOX. We currently are using an LR101.
We want to conduct a flow test without using flow meters or other transducers.
This is our idea so far:
1. We set our tank pressures to replicate operational conditions, accounting for chamber pressure.
2. Flow propellant (water) flowing through the injector (and other orifices to account for pressure drops, ie. the coolant jacket) for a set amount of time
3. Carefully capture expelled propellant in a container
4. Weigh the container
5. Voila, your mass flow is pounds of propellant expelled divided by test duration.
6. Have smart people figure out the density/viscosity conversions to an actual propellant (RP1, LOX)
7. rinse and repeat for the other propellant.
How do we do step 6? I have been searching the internet for awhile without much luck. How do we calculate our Cv?
Thanks
You ought to be able to project the performance of your components by identifying the empirical correction factors for your design calculations. These would be found through your test programme.
Your test programme could be guided by the same principles used to scale wind tunnel models (e.g. Reynolds and Mach numbers). It is understood that you do not have the range of sensors typically available in a test programme, so you'll have to try to project the end effect of all the usual test variables on your result. Again, a thorough understanding of what affects the performance of your system is important. As the designers, you ought to have no problem with that.
Once the appropriate performance coefficients are verified, it ought to be a simple matter of replacing the characteristics of water with those of your propellants in your system =D.
If you're looking for a more detailed breakdown of precisely how to do it, you'll have to share more details about your design and how you went about converging to it.
- Badges
- Science topic