Rocket Design and Testing

Strain gage transducer

• Rocket test-stand for evaluating the thrust curves .
• The physical input converted to an electrical output by means of transducer.
• A strain gage attached on the cantilever beam is used as transducer, which will give the output voltage as function of deflection.

Strain Gage setup

• The base made up of wood was used to hold the strain gage.
• Rocket engine was adjusted at the free end of the rod.
• Bucket full of water was used as a damping system.
• After ignition, measurement were taken and noted in excel spreadsheet.

The graph obtained is shown below.

Altimeter

• The egg with parachute was used as altimeter.
• Circular plastic with diameter of 50 cm was taken and was tied on six different edges with strings of length 50 cm.
• An egg was balanced in six straws using tape and was later on attached with the parachute.

Altimeter was dropped number of times from a fixed height (h=3.556m)
Time of flights were noted and velocity was calculated using terminal velocity equation
Terminal velocity was calculated as 3.9 m/s.

Rocket

• Materials used:
• Smart water bottle
• Tape
• Aluminum Foil
• Engine
• Paper cone

Rocket design

Rocket setup

• The base part of the bottle was cut off to balance altimeter on the top and was covered with a paper cone.
• The engine was fixed on the neck of the bottle with the tape.
• The whole body of rocket was covered with aluminum foil and tape.

result/conclusion

• The rockets ascent was successful.
• The unsatisfactory outcome was not a proper launch of altimeter.
• The altimeter was loosely placed on the bottle.
• As the body was hollow and there was no compartment separating the altimeter and engine, the engine ended up with burning our parachute.