Summary

This engine was made with the sole purpose of validating the newly developed NILE — Nitrous-oxide and Isopropyl Liquid Engine test stand. Before firing any of the more experimental engines, we wanted to ensure that the stand and all its systems function as intended.

This engine was designed and built in one quarter: fall of 2025. I was responsible for deriving key characteristics such as mass flow rate, mixture ratio, and orifice sizes from test stand constraints, as well as all of the injector geometry. I did manufacturing work on the injector manifolds, chamber sleeve, phenolic nozzle, and sealing gaskets.

Details

Thrust: 1000lbf
Mass Flow Rate: 2.0 kg/s
Oxidizer/Fuel Ratio: 3.0
Total Elements: 20
Oxidizer Hole Diameter: 0.0888"
Fuel Hole Diameter: 0.0544"
Chamber Length: 8"
Throat Diameter: 1"

Current Status

By virtue of NILE's higher thrust capabilities, it is located off campus, posing new logistical challenges. Having moved the stand to the test site midway through winter quarter, it is now fully assembled and awaiting final calibrations of load cells and pressure transducers. Cold flow is scheduled for this weekend (03.14.26) in preparation for a hotfire the following week.

Reflection

I really enjoyed working on this project as it gave me a reason and motivation to create more useful matlab scripts as well as an opportunity to familiarize myself with NASA's CEARUN. While I didn't go the full nine yards and make a script that would automatically interface with CEARUN, I was able to plot mass flow rates for given O/F ratios using tabulated data from CEARUN pasted into matlab variables, thus allowing me to select an appropriate point using just the target thrust and the test stand pressure.