Design and Development
of a Cost-Effective Reloadable Motor
for Sounding Rocket
Ravikiran, Mohd. Jawad Shariff, H. Kaushil, S. Likhitha, Nikhil Bhootpur,
and Sreejith Mohan
Abstract A sounding rocket, also known as a research rocket, is an instrumentcarrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments
during its sub-orbital flight. This paper reports the design and fabrication of a reloadable motor with a reusable nozzle for an experimental sounding rocket. The motor
can be retrieved after a flight using a parachute mechanism and hence the name
reloadable. A mixture of sugar and Potassium Nitrate in a ratio of 7:13 was used as
the solid propellant. The burning rate of the propellant was measured in open atmosphere and found to be 7.22 mm/s. The nozzle which is the functional part of the
motor was robustly designed to yield the required thrust load for lifting the rocket.
The throat diameter of the nozzle was estimated to be 8 mm corresponding to a thrust
load of 688 N which could raise the rocket to an altitude of 1500 ft from the ground
level. The time-dependent variation of thrust, pressure and propellant mass flow rate
inside the combustion chamber was analyzed using the Meteor software. The pressure, temperature and velocity distribution within the nozzle were estimated through
computational analysis using ANSYS fluent. The maximum velocity at the nozzle
exit was found to be 2.86 M. Further, the cost-effective analysis of the proposed
design was carried out in terms of the fuel and materials used for fabrication of the
motor assembly.
Keywords Sounding rocket · Reloadable motor · Nozzle · Thrust load ·
Cost-effectiveness
Ravikiran (B) · Mohd. J. Shariff · H. Kaushil · S. Likhitha · N. Bhootpur
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysuru, India
e-mail: nayak.ravikiran@gmail.com
S. Mohan
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_48
443
of a Cost-Effective Reloadable Motor
for Sounding Rocket
Ravikiran, Mohd. Jawad Shariff, H. Kaushil, S. Likhitha, Nikhil Bhootpur,
and Sreejith Mohan
Abstract A sounding rocket, also known as a research rocket, is an instrumentcarrying rocket designed to take measurements and perform scientific experiments
during its sub-orbital flight. This paper reports the design and fabrication of a reloadable motor with a reusable nozzle for an experimental sounding rocket. The motor
can be retrieved after a flight using a parachute mechanism and hence the name
reloadable. A mixture of sugar and Potassium Nitrate in a ratio of 7:13 was used as
the solid propellant. The burning rate of the propellant was measured in open atmosphere and found to be 7.22 mm/s. The nozzle which is the functional part of the
motor was robustly designed to yield the required thrust load for lifting the rocket.
The throat diameter of the nozzle was estimated to be 8 mm corresponding to a thrust
load of 688 N which could raise the rocket to an altitude of 1500 ft from the ground
level. The time-dependent variation of thrust, pressure and propellant mass flow rate
inside the combustion chamber was analyzed using the Meteor software. The pressure, temperature and velocity distribution within the nozzle were estimated through
computational analysis using ANSYS fluent. The maximum velocity at the nozzle
exit was found to be 2.86 M. Further, the cost-effective analysis of the proposed
design was carried out in terms of the fuel and materials used for fabrication of the
motor assembly.
Keywords Sounding rocket · Reloadable motor · Nozzle · Thrust load ·
Cost-effectiveness
Ravikiran (B) · Mohd. J. Shariff · H. Kaushil · S. Likhitha · N. Bhootpur
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysuru, India
e-mail: nayak.ravikiran@gmail.com
S. Mohan
National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_48
443