Rapid Rocket Engine Testing | Spring 2024 Hotfire Compilation

This semester we hotfired 10 times in one month on our new Helluva Engine Test Stand (HETS). HETS is a pressure-fed system designed to flow high-pressure kerosene and liquid oxygen into our engines. After completing HETS earlier this Spring, we began testing various engines and injector designs at a rate of up to three tests per weekend. We tested our subscale heatsink engine with new coaxial swirl and pintle injector designs in short and long duration burns, and we also tested an ablative engine and a regeneratively cooled engine for the first time. We tested a ramp up sequence as well where we started at low injection pressures and increased them across the burn by adjusting the propellant tank pressures with bang-bang pressurization control. The data and lessons learned from these tests will help us develop engines for our next launch vehicle, Vespula, which we will begin testing engines for in the Fall.
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The Yellow Jacket Space Program (YJSP) is Georgia Tech's Liquid Rocketry club. A student-led team working to launch the first collegiate liquid rocket to space.
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[@nosbig6462]

What is the function of the cinder blocks? It doesn’t seem like they are built up high enough to absorb the impact of a RUD.

[@bradenanderson3215]

Wooooooo

[@robwilkins698]

Is this engine regeneratively cooled, or does it use an ablative liner?

[@yjspgt]

The majority of this testing is with a heatsink engine which is just a big chunk of steel to absorb the heat and a graphite nozzle that undergoes a small amount of ablation. The second to last test is a fully ablative engine, made of carbon fiber and silica composite. The last test is a half regeneratively cooled engine, the chamber liner is copper with channels for fuel and the nozzle is graphite.

[@jacjson]

Wow, how many pounds of thrust can that deliver?

[@yjspgt]

Around 800 lbf depending on the flow rate of propellants