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#1 to #160 (Updates)

 

FLIGHT LOG

Each flight log entry usually represents a launch or test day, and describes the events that took place.
Click on an image to view a larger image, and click the browser's BACK button to return back to the page.

 

Day 164 - Liquid Density Experiment - Part 1
Date: 29th August 2015
Location:
Whalan Reserve, NSW, Australia
Conditions:
 Calm to light breeze ~5km/h, sunny  21C,
Team Members at Event:
 GK and Paul K.

Liquid Density Preliminary Experiment - Part 1

This week we performed a preliminary experiment that we plan on carrying out next week. A common question we get asked all the time is if there is something that can be added to the water to produce more thrust. Since Paul also had to choose a science experiment to do at school, we decided to combine the two and take this launch opportunity to do a trial run to see if we could detect a difference as simulators predicted that the difference was going to be small. In this experiment we wanted to compare a denser liquid to water alone.

Please see Day 165 for a full write-up of the liquid density experiment.

For the denser liquid we made up a sugar solution by putting 700g of sugar into a jug and then added warm water until we had 1100mL of solution. The density turned out to be 1.25 g/cm^3

For the rocket itself we decided to use a single bottle rocket as that represented the typical rocket kids fly in school projects. We just put our regular fins and nosecone on it as the ultimate altitude didn't matter because it was going to be a relative comparison.

Rocket Parameters

Parameter Value
Weight 280 grams
Capacity 1.3L (measured)
Diameter 90mm
Nozzle 9mm
Launch Pressure 120psi
Liquid Amount 450mL

Results

Following is a table of all the flights and their recorded altitudes. We alternated the solutions to try to eliminate any changing environmental conditions.

Flight # Fuel Altitude (feet) Comments
1 Water 180 Good flight
2 Sugar 177 Good flight
3 Water 175 Good flight
4 Sugar 176 Good flight
5 Water 180 Good flight
6 Sugar 173 not-quite-vertical flight
7 Water 183 Good flight
8 Sugar - self launch invalid data
9 Sugar 194 Good flight
10 Water 182 Good flight
11 Sugar 171 not-quite-vertical flight
12 Water 183 Good flight
13 Air 54 Late deploy and crash

Here is a graph of the flights grouped by fuel.

From this experiment we can see that there is only a slight difference between the performance of the two densities, although when you average the altitudes for each fuel we can see that on average the denser liquid performed worse. The water reached an averaged altitude of 180.5 feet and the sugar solution reached 178.2 feet. Although there was one sugar flight that reached 194 feet which looked out of place with the other flights. If this flight was removed from the calculation then the average would have been closer to 174 feet. The water flights were quite consistent. The difference here is close to the 3 feet difference the simulator predicted.

We will perform this experiment again to see if it also gives similar results and we will also try alcohol as a lower density liquid to compare against.

Here are some images from the experiment:


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also learned from the experiment that the sugar solution makes everything very sticky, though it was easily cleaned up with fresh water. I am sure the ants had a field day ... mana from heaven?

Go to Part 2 of the Experiment

Other Flights

Other than the experiment flights, we also flew a number of other rockets at the launch. Throughout the day we flew a total of 3 Axion II's with foam which are always fun to watch. Paul also launched his Pod 2 rocket and recovered it safely. He's been flying this rocket for quite a few years now and it always performs well.
 
While performing the density experiments we were asked how much of a difference the water makes to the flight of the rocket, so when we finished the experiment we launched the small rocket with air only. The rocket only went up to 54 feet, before tipping over and crashing just as the parachute was coming out. No serious damage was done though. This was significantly lower than I expected, but the rocket was slightly on the heavy side.

Flight Details

Launch Details
1
Rocket   Pod 2
Motor   C6-5
Payload   None
Altitude / Time   ? / ? seconds
Notes   Good launch, and good recovery.
2
Rocket   Axion II
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   1400mL
Flight Computer   ST II - 5 seconds
Payload   None
Altitude / Time   ? feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
3
Rocket   Axion II
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   1400mL
Flight Computer   ST II - 5 seconds
Payload   None
Altitude / Time   ? feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
4
Rocket   Axion II
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   1400mL
Flight Computer   ST II - 5 seconds
Payload   None
Altitude / Time   ? feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
5
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - water
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   180 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
6
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   177 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
7
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - water
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   175 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
8
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   176 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
9
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - water
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   180 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
10
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   173 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing, Not quite vertical.
11
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   ? feet / ? seconds
Notes   Self launch and good landing,
12
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   194 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
13
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - water
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   182 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
14
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - sugar
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   171 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing, Not quite vertical.
15
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   450mL - water
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   183 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Good flight and good landing,
16
Rocket   Exo-1
Pressure   120psi
Nozzle   9mm
Water   0mL - air only
Flight Computer   ST II - 3 seconds
Payload   AltimeterOne
Altitude / Time   54 feet / ? seconds
Notes   Late deploy and crash.

 

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