Senior Design

Thursdays are a great reminder that this project is rooted in Stevens Senior Design.

Thursday mornings, the team gathers at 11:00am in TG-404-I. “Technogenesis” teaches business aspects co-curricular to the graduating class’s engineering projects. The professor, Sandra Clavijo, leads discussions ranging from market share development to pitch delivery.

Then, we retreat into our cave at CPR HQ to work for hours straight on the most challenging segments of the rocket. Typically.

Once every couple of weeks, we take an hour or two from our Thursday schedules to meet with our Technical Advisory Group (TAG). The day-to-day attendance changes, but TAG members include Stevens professors, industry professionals, and esteemed researchers. Yesterday was one such day.

As an added bonus, yesterday’s TAG meeting doubled as our team’s satisfaction of the Mechanical Engineering “Phase Four” report. Phase Four requires information on alpha prototyping and a testing plan for the integrated system.

The eight members of the team presented 26 slides to the TAG, followed by a period of questions and discussion on various subsystems designs. Most important were the progress made on the circuitry systems and the prototyping being done by our partner companies.

The TAG seemed pleased, which makes us happy, too. Actionable items included sourcing more wire rope for our static fire test and running another heat flow simulation on our injector/engine assembly.

DIY Pressure Test

The tests are evolving! Friday afternoon found Nate, Will, and Abe in the Griffith Lab doing another round of tests on the injector. Despite an injector print with no top and a few construction workers milling about, the test was a success.

The injector hung from a plywood-and-8020 cantilever held together by that giant C clamp. A machined panel of acrylic lay flush to the misprinted top to prevent backspray. Pressurized water ran from a 5-gallon jug (located in the makeshift closet in the back corner) through the tubes and past the acrylic shield. A barrel borrowed from the teaching lab caught the outlet water, and our camera sat a safe 20 feet away to prove we were there.

To avoid the possibility of our water jug exploding, a computer regulated the pressure in the hose and that information was screen-cast to Abe. Will manned the pump and Nathan watched the camera.

When the valves were opened and the pump switched on, Abe stepped us through pressure testing up to 44 psi. The water came whooshing, we only got a little wet, and the injector performed wonderfully.

Chalk this test up as a victory — Nathan analyzed the video file and found appropriate atomization. All without causing a big boom and a gush of water from our tank! After sufficient congratulations, we tore down and cleaned the lab up for classes and other senior design teams over the weekend.

Stay tuned for more exciting injector updates!