Project Team
Students
Larry T. Covington
Mechanical Engineering
Penn State Harrisburg
Shreya S. Shah
Aerospace engineering
Penn State Harrisburg
Joy N. Gitonga
Aerospace engineering
Penn State Harrisburg
Faculty Mentors
Brian A. Maicke
Penn State Harrisburg
Science, Engineering, and Technology
David J. Lyons
Penn State University Park
Agricultural and Biological Engineering; Applied Research Labs
Project
Project Video
Project Abstract
The main objective of this research is to address the difficulty of generating large thrust & higher regression rates in a hybrid rocket by producing a swirl effect inside the fuel chamber. Theoretically, the solid fuel would burn more efficiently with a swirl effect than a traditional hybrid rocket. This would be caused by having swirl injectors in specific placements to allow the liquid oxidizer to swirl around the solid fuel in a cylindrical chamber. However, the boundary layer thickness of the velocity will cause the swirl velocity to slow down. In previous research, swirl injectors were placed along the cylindrical chamber to keep the developed velocity constant along the axial distance. In this, injectors were placed in sync with the rifled grooves at the inlet of the chamber. The axial distance of the swirl effect was calculated to determine if additional grooves are required along the axial distance of the chamber or if less is required. The flow through the cylinder was modeled using Converge computational fluid dynamics [CFD] in the laminar flow regime. Swirl effect is the combination of the equations, swirl number (SN) and swirl angle (SA), which were used to validate the CFD models.
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