Monday, September 29, 2014

Dextrose Testing

So the TR-1 didn't go the way that I had hoped but it wasn't all bad.  It reinforced the idea that making even a small change to your plan should be very carefully considered.  A lesson worth reinforcement.  The damage was not nearly as bad as it could have been and was, for the most part,  limited to the casing, pressure gauge , and the bulkhead.  The bulkhead will need to be re-drilled and tapped but there is enough space left to do that.  The Casing is relatively easy to fabricate and I have already procured new stock.  The nozzle surprisingly was relatively unscathed and after removing a few bolts that had been sheared off in it, it's good to go.   I have continued going through all of my boxes of rocket and rocket related stuff in an effort to organize my workspace and found that I actually have enough sorbitol on hand to cast this motor.  I will take a more stepped approach geared towards a full scale test before proceeding with another full on motor test.  Hopefully this winter around December or January.  The first step is a smaller single grain test motor sized for the 4" diameter grain segment.

In addition to prepping the TR-1 motor for another test I will be doing some smaller scale testing utilizing Dextrose.   I plan to use the 2.375" motor that designed, tested, and flew back in 2009/10.

 
Originally this motor was designed for sorbitol based propellant.  Ultimately it was fired with KNSB based propellant and a 50/50 sorbitol/Erythitol mix based propellant.   I have constructed a four segment casing for this motor which would produce a low MEOP of 600psi with KNSB and 950psi with KNDX.
SRM screen grab

 
 


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