Welcome To My Library

Here you will find a collection of my favorite research papers/books that I have read over the course of the past few years. I have gained an immense amount of understanding and creativity through this collection and hope that others who stumble upon this will benefit how I have.

Table of Contents

Liquid Rocket Engines

Title: Modeling and Analysis of a LOX/Ethanol

https://www.scielo.br/j/jatm/a/4mwKyLd8TvCCKkxSJPqMX8C/?format=pdf&lang=en

Sams Summary: Approaching the design stages from the very beginning, using c++ Mota FAS; Hinckel JN; Rocco EM; Schlingloff H were able to properly use object-oriented programming to simulate and analyze the different configurations of a LOX/Ethanol rocket engine to ultimately reach their goal of verifying the performance of their engine with the program.

Title: Preliminary design of a small-scale liquid-propellant rocket engine testing platform

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1375729/FULLTEXT01.pdf

Sams Summary: Right from the start, Erik ANDERSSON introduces the ideas and the fundamental concepts of liquid-propelled rocket engines and how they are designed. Using a fundamental thought process allowed for a great way introduction to the complex mathematics and analytical geometric properties that govern the design for safe and effective operation.

Title: HOW to DESIGN, BUILD and TEST SMALL LIQUID-FUEL ROCKET ENGINES

http://www.cientificosaficionados.com/libros/cohetes.pdf

Sams Summary: If you ever want to take a deep dive into the foundations of how a rocket works, this paper is for you. The Rocket lab designed this paper with the idea that anyone can learn how a rocket engine works, including the easy to follow step by step instructions as well as how to manufacture and test your creation.

Solid rocket engines

Title: Introduction to Solid Rocket Propulsion

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1022.5433&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Sams Summary: Solid rocket engines can be a tricky task to design and understand, this paper takes you way back to the beginning and doesn't expect you to know anything prior to reading it. Not only does it touch on the history of where it all started, but it also successfully explains how the complex internal aerodynamics work. Even if you are a well-seasoned veteran in solid rocket engines I still highly recommend this paper as I will guarantee you will walk away from it knowing something new.

Title: Optimization of solid rocket grain geometry

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:513657/fulltext01.pdf

Sams Summary: If you have a decent understanding of how solid rocket engines work this paper is a great place to start for understanding how complex grain geometry will optimize and ultimately create a more efficient burn. Using the Space Shuttle as a primary example, Johannsson tends to emphasize the importance of optimization at the beginning of the design as that will be the next step to a more efficient future, by processing multiple outcomes in a single effort

Title: Solid-Rocket-Motor Performance-Matching Design Framework

https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/1.A33655

Sams Summary: An analytical approach to mathematical models that represent the effectiveness and thrust that regard within the engine. Using real-world data and calculated approximations, Wu Zeping, Wang Donghui, Zhang Weihua, Patrick Okolo.N and Fei Yang all set out to develop "An efficient sequential-field-approximate-optimization algorithm is proposed and used to minimize the average rms error between the desired and designed thrusts"

Rocket Nozzles

Title: Design of Nozzle for High-Powered Solid Rocket Propellant

https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4895&context=ujmm

Sams Summary: This paper came from a recommendation by a peer in my Rocket Lab at my University, at first I figured it would be like any other typical paper written on rocket nozzles, but to my surprise this paper ventures into the process behind the design and configuration of a large high powered rocket. Understanding the past of the project helps picture what truly goes on behind the scenes of this paper where as the history goes back to the start of the SOAR project. I found it really interesting when different nozzle designs were contemplated for optimal use efficiency which ultimately led to the success of the project.

Title: Design and Analysis of Rocket Nozzle

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342065832_Design_and_Analysis_of_Rocket_Nozzle

Sams Summary: Venturing through the detailed analysis of what goes on inside a rocket nozzle I found it insanely interesting that the effects of altitude and pressure detrimentally affect the integrity of the nozzle. Being that the authors Gedlu Solomon and Yeshurun AlemayehuAdde (Kibret) are located in Ethiopia they used initial starting values that are prevalent at nearly 7000 feet above sea level. They also included pictures of these detrimental effects that show how their location hurt their performance and the materials they used reacted to the surroundings.

Title: Recent Developments in Rocket Nozzle Configurations

http://mae-nas.eng.usu.edu/MAE_6530_Web/New_Course/Section1/RaoRecentDevinRockNozConfig.pdf

Sams Summary: The history of the rocket nozzle goes back to WW2 however for most of the 20th century the design stayed the same. This paper presents a breakthrough on how the aerospike nozzles compare to the traditional De Laval Nozzles. This comparison is presented by photographs and mathematical computation that shows the pros of cons of each. I think this paper is great for anyone who wants to reimage the breakthough presented by the change in modern rocket science.

Rocket Fuel Injectors

Title: Experimental Investigation of Showerhead injectors on Performance of a 1-kN Paraffin-Fueled Hybrid Rocket Motor

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335501942_Experimental_Investigation_of_Showerhead_injectors_on_Performance_of_a_1-kN_Paraffin-Fueled_Hybrid_Rocket_Motor

Sams Summary: This paper brings up many different interesting scenarios that occur when creating injector plates. The rocket is a hybrid meaning that it uses both a solid and a liquid for the engine to work which makes the entire process more complicated. To minimize this struggle of the design, they optimally used showerhead injectors for ease of manufacturing and fast turnover for testing analysis. Their main goal was to optimize their regression allowing for a clean and complete burn throughout their fuel grain. In the end, they found the perfect design which led to a clean and efficient burn.

Title: Design and Testing of Liquid Propellant Injectors for Additive Manufacturing

https://www.eucass.eu/doi/EUCASS2017-306.pdf

Sams Summary: As the world accepts the abilities of additive manufacturing, people continuously push the limits of what is known to be possible. Starting with understanding material composition it was declared by testing that it is possible to use additive manufacturing to create these injectors. They were able to run full-scale hot fires using these parts that and they found this is a much more affordable option compared to the standard weld or machined part. SLM in the horizontal direction was deemed stronger than any other manufacturing process.

Thermo-fluid Dynamics

Title: The Application of Computational Thermo-Fluid-Dynamics to the Simulation of Hybrid Rocket Internal Ballistics with Classical or Liquefying Fuels: A Review

https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/6/5/56/htm

Sams Summary: Over the past few decades computers have optimized the ability of testing creating not only more accurate results but a cheaper alternative to live testing. Using modern analysis programs internal combustion can be determined and accurately modeled to optimize fuel regression rate which in turn creates a more efficient design of the hybrid rocket engine. This paper discusses the advantages and the issues with relying on computerized analysis and the assumption that can be made about the flow phase and the thermodynamic properties of these methods.

Airfoil Design

Title: Advanced Technology Airfoil Research-Volume I

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19790011859/downloads/19790011859.pdf

Sams Summary: This is probably the longest paper that I have ever read, written in 1979 NASA compiled everything they know about airfoils, and the physics behind them are documented in this paper. From wind tunnel experimentation with detailed pictures to every type of airfoil and the unique properties each has. This paper is a one-top shop for anything and everything you will ever need to know about air foils.