Senior Capstone Design Project for Aerospace Specialization and Student-Faculty Research on Propulsion

Abstract

In Fall 2010 Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) Engineering Department offered Mechanical Engineering (ME) students a new senior capstone design project, oriented towards the Aerospace specialization of the ME program. The main goal of the project was to perform research on the combustion of non-conventional fuels using a smallscale hybrid propellant rocket engine (HPRE), test fixture, and advanced instrumentation system. Paraffin was utilized as the fuel for the first set of tests, which provided verification of the operation of the HPRE. During the 2010/11 – 2011/12 academic years, the CCSU student teams designed and built a small-scale HPRE, test fixture, and instrumentation system for the study of the combustion of non-conventional fuels and the investigation of fuels regression rates. The first sets of research data on the regression rates of paraffin with oxygen were obtained and compared with existing data in 2011/12. The design of the test facility and results of preliminary tests were presented at 50 th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit. This paper illustrates problems the student team was faced with during testing, describes the improvements of the test fixture and instrumentation system, and demonstrates first research results of the tests and numerical analysis. The multidisciplinary nature of the project provided ME students with an excellent opportunity to apply their knowledge, skills, and experience from a variety of courses such as Propulsion Systems, Engineering Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, Instrumentation, and Machine Design to the real-life design and research.