Date 01/25/03
Here are a few videos from out Jan 25th 2003 at the Swank Aerospace test facility.
MBR red - My first try at a 29mm red motor.
MBR TT Hot - A modified version of Tiger Tail.
White Lightning clone - Here is a 38mm two grain White Lightning Clone formula.
MBR Delay - My first attempt at a 29mm delay charge with tracking smoke. Needs work on the seal.
Kens AN1 - Ken tests his 54mm AN motor.
Kens AN2 - Ken tests his second AN 54mm motor.
Date 04/23/03
Here area few videos from the April 23rd 2003 static tests at the Swank Aerospace facility.
MBR 38mm blue formula - Needs some work.
MBR TT Hot - A 54mm version of the modified Tiger tail formula.
MBR 38mm red formula - I was trying a different formula and It needs work as well.
MBR Aqua1 - This is the same batch of Aqua I made earlier. Cato city.
MRB Aqua 2 - Another try wit ha bigger nozzle and still, cato. Way too much AP 90 in the mix.
Ken AN1 - Another AN 54mm test that has an issue. Cato.
Ken AN2 - Kens tests a bigger 54mm AN motor without mishap.
Date: 05/16/03
MB Rocketry and Swank Aerospace (Colorado EX Groups) get together to static test several motors including AP and AN motors. With a few mishaps and more learning done, we test fired 10 motors from 29mm G132 up to a 54mm L-3009. The weather was just great. No clouds or wind, about 77 degrees and just all around nice.
This was the inaugural test of the new thrust stand I just completed. Boy did we test it hard. Of course with the first horizontal motor, we thought the frame would be heavy enough to hold the stand in place. So it was loaded up with a 38mm J motor. Count down from 5 and I pushed the button, as we watched in awe as the thrust stand flipped right over and started rolling down a steep hill. After being stopped by a tree 100 yards down, we climbed down to retrieve it. The stand frame and parts all survived. The motor did pop the nozzle and took out the load cell but other than that it was fine. So we packed it back up the hill and got it setup again.
Next, we loaded up the 54mm L3009 on the 500 pound load cell. The motor burned great for about 8/10ths of a second when the rear snap ring groove gave way. The flame was about 8 feet long and was very impressive. Just like the previous motor the 500 lbs load cell was taking out, but not before taking a peak reading of 458 foot pounds output from the motor.
Ken loaded up his motor in his test stand and the count-down began, about 1.5 seconds into the burn the case split half way down the case. Looking at the load and pressure data, the pressure just kept increasing to the point the case ruptured. This of course took out his load cell as well. So starting out the day with the first three motors, we ruined 3 out of the 4 load cells we had, the 4th load cell (2400lbs was not used because it was not hooked up yet).
Anyway our day went better from there. I had a MBR standard formula test firs that went really good, along with a few others. The remix of White Lightning clone made with aluminum rather than magnesium did not do so well. It chuffed several times before burning correctly. Ken's second test fire was much better. Again as with any testing and failures we learned more today with the data collection we were able to get about the formulas being used.
Photo's from the 5/16/03 static test day.
Video's from the days static test fire:
Test Stand - This is where the test stand was put to the true test of strength (.6meg) Don't laugh too hard.
54mm L3009 - Here is my 54mm L blue formula. The case gave way on the nozzle snap ring groove with a small split. The grains we found also indicated several small air bubbles in the mix. The output averaged about 425 lbs. (1.4 meg)
Kens AN Motor - Here was Ken's first mishap of the day. (1 meg)
MBR WL Clone - Here is my take on the WL Clone using AL instead of Mg which is why it chuffed.(2 meg)
MBR Green - Yes, finally a green formula that I like and works. The color of course washes out in the green trees. (1 meg)
MBR Hot - This is my hot formula to get rockets of the pad quick. (.7 meg)
Ken's Second AN - This motor did much better. (2.5 meg)
MBR Blue Hot - Here is another one of my blue hot formulas. (.7 meg)
MBR WL Clone - Another WL clone from the same batch using AL instead of Mg. (2.6 meg)
MBR Aqua - An aqua mix that had too much AP90. Cato. (.7 meg)
Date: 10/08/03
MB Rocketry and Swank Aerospace (Colorado EX Groups) got together again for more static tests. Ken had the biggest motor, a 3 inch case with 21 inches of propellant. I had two 54mm 6 inch (grain length) test fires and two 54mm 12 inch (grain length) motors to test. The weather was just great. No clouds or wind, about 75 degrees and just all around nice.
I came back to the test area armed with much better information than the last test. I had built a burn chamber to burn test strands of propellant to get the burn rate of my propellant under pressure. I was then able to dial in the motors by using the correct core size and nozzle size to make sure my motors would perform as predicted. Using a program called Burnsim by Greg Deputy, I calculated the Kn values and motor performance with the core size and nozzle sizes I needed. With numbers from the burn chamber to help dial in the core and nozzle sizes we did not have any cato's.
The only mishap was a bulged case in Kens 3 inch case from the long burn AN motor he had. We learned that due to the heat collecting at the forward closure was not as cool at the other end due to the hot gases exiting the nozzle. These gases were going down the outside between the liner tube and the aluminum case. We decided that we need to put a lip and possible seal the upper forward closure to the liner as well as the nozzle. This only happens in long burn motors but we have seen this problem three times now. Other than that the other 4 motors tests were 100%.
We made a change on the thrust stand and added a brake cylinder and pressure traducer in place of a load cell. The initial test in the shop show good response time. We had some trouble with the hydraulic pressure transducer setup. All testing before and after the motor firing it worked great. During the motor firing the reading were about 4 to 5 times lower than expected. This was due to an alignment problem with the brake cylinder and the way the motor case sets on top of the brake cylinder. With the last motor we tried moving the motor more directly over the brake cylinder to be in line with the cylinder piston and that seems to make a difference as I got about half of what was expected. Anyway we will need to do more work and testing on that setup to make sure we are getting correct readings. Now on to the good stuff, video's and pictures:
Photo's from the 10/18/03 static test day.
Videos
AN1 - Ken's three inch motor with only 14 inches of AN propellant. (3.3meg) This video was shot on a previous day.
AN2 - Ken's three inch with 21 inches of AN propellant that blew over the wall. (3.1 meg)
75mm.rtf - Ken's motor data.
MBR1 - MBR yellow cone (modified TT) 54mm with 6 inches propellant. (2.3 meg)
MBR2 - MBR purple green that had too much pressure to see the colors, 54mm 6 inches propellant. (1.9 meg)
MBR3 - MBR lemon lime 54mm 12 inches propellant. Yellow flame with a green outer tint that the camera doesn't catch very well but has a nice flame. (2.6 meg)
MBR4 - MBR purple blue 54mm 12 inches propellant with a slightly too high pressure. (1.3 meg)
Date: 12/11/03
MB Rocketry and Swank Aerospace (Colorado EX Groups) got together again for more static tests. Ken had another 3 inch case with 23.5 inches of propellant for a n very nice L motor test with over 200lbs of thrust for about 6 seconds. I brought out three 29mm motors including a motor with an updated seal to test delay and motor ejection. It was a cold day, about 22 degrees. because we both had to be back early, we started about 7:00 am But the sun slowly came out and it turned out to a great day.
Ken was first up with his L motor test. Even though the motor was in a concrete bunker and we where about 25 feet away, man did the ground shake. That motor was loud and thunderous as it roared to life. It was very impressive. Ken was up next with his first 54mm AP motor. It was a mix of bimodal AP and zinc. He was trying to simulate his AN motors for a slow majestic lift off. Well, I think it turned into a burn rate modifier. It barely came to life before it blew the nozzle and forward closure. We found the case and all the grains. Well back to the drawing board for Swank Aerospace on AP motors.
My first motor was a 11 inch 29mm motor case with a left over MBR hot blue formula. The burn is short and sweet and very fast. The second motor was an 8 inch 29mm motor with MBR standard hot formula. Again a nice quick burn. The last was the real test of the day for MB Rocketry. My 4 inch 29mm test case with delay charge and motor ejection. the last test of this earlier this year did not seal well and blew the charge during the motor burn. I tried an o-ring at the bottom of the well and friction fit (tight) the delay grain. It should have been around 18 to 20 seconds and it work perfect including the tracking smoke. Now on to the good stuff, video's and pictures:
Pictures
Sorry there are no pictures as I realized when we go to the site, I did not have the memory card for the camera so I was not able to take any pictures. I did get videos though.
Videos
AN1 - Ken's three inch motor with only 23.5 inches of AN propellant. (3.3meg) Ken's first "L" motor.
AP1 - Ken's first attempt at an AP motor. (2.2 meg)
MBR Fast Blue - Another 29mm fast blue motor from MBR. (1.2 meg)
MBR Hot - Here is one of my 29mm fast formulas. (.8 meg)
MBR Delay - My first working tracking smoke/delay charge that works and works well. The delay was set at 18 to 20 seconds and went off about 20 seconds. YEAH! (5.3 meg)