Date 05/22/02
These are test fire of color flame motors that I have built. The Tiger Tail formula is what I based these motors on except for the colors. I used my own color combinations from some testing I did. The camera did not do the color justice in the these videos. I still have a little work to do with these motors to get the colors right. This was my first try with colored flames.
TT Blue - The was a good test fire. Very powerful motor. Fired on May 28th, 2002. (1.3 meg)
TT Green - This was a high solids loaded motor. Test fire on May 28th, 2002. (1 meg)
TT Red - This a just an atmospheric test fire. It is not in a motor case. The motor never fully cured due to little curing agent. The actual motor burned for about 3 minutes. Fired on may 28th, 2002. (2.3 meg)
TT Purple - This motor was great. You can see the shock wave diamonds. Most of the flame was transparent. Fired on May 25th, 2002. (1 meg)
These grains are my first attempt at building APCP motors.
TTtest1 - This is the Tiger Tail (TT) formula from Ted Proseus and Darren Wright. Test grain in casing tube only. (6.7 meg)
TTBlue - This is TT blue formula that is modified for a blue flame. Test grain in casing tube only. (5.6 meg)
These are test fire of motors that I have built. The Tiger Tail formula that I based my motors from comes from Ted Proseus. Please visit his site for more information. The first two test fires are the basic formula from the same batch. They both looked really good. I did not a have a load cell to test with for exact measurements, but these are just to see if I'm in the ballpark. These motors where lit using my igniter's with a 12 volt battery.
Tiger Tail Test 1 - The burn time is about 1 second. Tested on May 25, 2002. (1 meg)
Tiger Tail Test 2 - The burn time is about 1 second. Tested on May 25, 2002. (.5 meg)
Date: 10/13/02
Rocket Motor Static Test Fires, MB Rocketry TT Motors.
There are three motors being tested today. The first is the rest of the first batch of TT Green with a build date of 5/8/02. Test the function of the solid 14 inch grain, still soft and pliable. The consistency of the grain is correct for the time and curing agent added. Pushing my finger nail into mix leaves dent but slowly comes back out to original shape. Easy to cut and drill without pulling propellant apart. There are very few air bubbles indicating a good mix and good propellant packing. The case being used to test this motor is MB Rocketry 11 inch 38mm case with MBR forward closure and Loki nozzle. The case holds four 2.125 inch grains with a .328 core or 19/96 drill bit. Inside case liner and grain equal to 8.5 inches. Data was captured using a Celesco 100lbs load sensor, INA125 amplifier and a DataQ DI-194RS A to D converter. An HP Omnibook 4150 laptop was used to collect data from the A to D converter using WinDaq software .The data sample rate was set at 240 samples a second. The results of the test conclude the motor output:
Burn Time 1.75 seconds TT Green specs: |
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The motor output had a nice progressive curve. Straight up, slow climb and slow drop off. The flame was great shape with ok color. This formula has since been changed but this was leftover from the first test batch of motors. The actual visual test resulted in several shock wave diamonds visible in the flame and very little smoke. There was a slight to moderate build up of sludge on the nozzle. I was very happy with test fire and output from this motor.
The second motor the TT Blue is the rest of the first test batch made on 5/9/02. Test the function of the solid 14 inch grain, still soft and pliable. The consistency of the grain is correct for the time and curing agent added. Pushing my finger nail into mix leaves dent but slowly comes back out to original shape. Easy to cut and drill without pulling propellant apart. There are very few air bubbles indicating a good mix and good propellant packing. The case being used to test this motor is MB Rocketry 11 inch 38mm case with MBR forward closure and Loki nozzle. The case holds four 2.125 inch grains with a .328 core or 19/96 drill bit. Inside case liner and grain equal to 8.5 inches. Data was captured using a Celesco 100lbs load sensor, INA125 amplifier and a DataQ DI-194RS D to A converter. An HP Omnibook 4150 laptop was used to collect data from the D to A converter using WinDaq software. The data sample rate was set at 240 samples a second. The results of the test conclude the motor output:
Burn Time 1.47083 seconds TT Blue Specs:
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The motor output had a very nice flat curve. Straight up, straight across, then straight down. The flame was barely visible. This formula has since been changed but this was leftover from the first test batch of motors. The actual visual test resulted in flame pattern some what like Aerotech blue thunder motors with very little smoke. I was very happy with test fire and output from this motor.
The third motor is the TT purple. This test was setup as a failure test on purpose. I did for get to remove the load cell and when the motor cato’ed, it popped the load cell and may have ruined it. Anyway, the test was setup to verify rear blowout of nozzle if too much pressure resulted in chamber. This test started with the complete motor being built with the four grains drilled core and forward closure in place. Over pressurization was achieved by using a quick-burst igniter that just fit into the nozzle hole. It was placed into the motor all the way to the top and setup to be ignited. Once everything was setup, including video tape running the button was pushed the motor came up to pressure and immediately blow the nozzle out. The recorded thrust pressure was at 219 lbs. max for the sensor. All of the grains were recovered as well as the liner all intact. Only half of the nozzle was found with the O-ring. The snap ring and retaining washers were not found. The case inspection showed a slight gouge from the snap ring exiting the case. This could be machined out and hydro-static tested. Inspection of the grains show’s slight charring, but they can be cleaned up and used in another test.
Videos from the day.
These video's are of what was left over colored propellant batch's (blue, green and purple) using my own 38mm 11 inch motor case that I built. I wanted to test my motor case and used the leftover propellant that I had made back in may. It is the first time I recorded some thrust curves for my propellant. The third motor (purple formula) cato'ed. I kind of did this on purpose to test the nozzle blow out safety feature. It was a test to test the design of the nozzle blowout. I designed the snap-ring groove a little shallow so the nozzle goes first. This should save the rocket from being blown apart from the forward closure. It worked for this test and I recovered all the grains. With a little sanding on the cores I could light these grains again. Test date 10/13/02.
Green I-287- This of course looks more blue, as noted before in previous video's, I'm still working on the colors. Just left over batch grains. (1.2 meg)
Blue I-306 - Flame is hardly visible, but over 87 lbs of thrust. Kind of looks like Aerotech's Blue Thunder. (.8 meg)
Purple Cato - This was the test cato for motor case blow out design. (.9 meg)