Model Rocket Report

Daniel Kane
Academy for Math, Engineering, and Science B4 Mr. Hendricks Dec 2012

Abstract
This report analyzes, predicts and reports the measured components of a combination of several model rockets and engines. Engine thrust and impulse, air resistance,firing angle, and the mass of the rocket all play a part in determining the flight of the rocket. In this project an Excel spreadsheet was used to predict the characteristics of the flight path. After the predictions were made, the rocket was fired and the maximum height was measured. Only one of the two rockets was used on the launch day due to some complications. The rocket used had a mass of 70.1 grams (.0701 kg). When used with the C6 engine the predicted height was 237.84 meters and the measured height was 134.8 meters. The B6 engine was predicted to go 89.73 meters high and actually reached 48.1 meters. The measured height was close enough to the prediction considering the uncertainty of the flight and measurement.

Introduction
Mathematics play an important role in predicting the position and speed of a model rocket during flight. This project is a group of reports each analyzing a factor acting on the rocket used in the project. The purpose of this project was to apply the concepts of physics in a real world situation to predict the nature of the results, more specifically the height and speed of the rocket. This project is centered around the use and application of kinematics (the study of motion), dynamics (the study of forces and their effect on motion), momentum (the product of mass and velocity), impulse (the change in momentum produced by the force), drag force (the force opposing a moving object due to air resistance), and the drag coefficient (a coefficient used to measure the amount of air resistance for an object). The impulse momentum theorem is impulse=P. This can be derived from the definition of impulse, force multiplied by time. The derivation is shown below. Impulse=Ft =mat F=ma =m(v/t)t a=v-t =mv =m(vf-vi) v=(vf-vi) =mvf-mv P=mv =Pf-Pi =P P=Pf-Pi Rocket engines are classified using a letter and a number. The uppercase letter represents the impulse in Newton seconds, with A representing 2.5Ns, B 5 Ns, C 10 Ns, D 20 Ns and so on. The number is the average force in Newtons. In this report only the C6 and B6 engines are used. Numerical iteration is the process of predicting a value and finding the exact measured value. Numerical iteration is commonly used with spreadsheets which make complex computations easier. Numerical iteration was ideal for this project to predict the height and speed of the rocket using an Excel spreadsheet.

Engine Thrust Analysis

Model rocket launching is commonly viewed as a sport rather than a scientific experiment. Mathematics isnt normally thought of as a vital part of the process. This report will determine the type of engine used in a test rocket with a random type of engine based on the average force and the impulse. The setup for the experiment rocket engine included a random unknown sized engine attached to a box on wheels, a low friction track for the box, a digital force gauge, a triggering device, and a calculator to record and store the data. Standard rocket engines are classified with an uppercase letter representing the total impulse, a number telling the average force in newtons, and another number representing the time delay. The time delay isnt important to this experiment so all that is needed is the force and impulse. Before the engine was fired, the force gauge was tested using human power to make sure the gauge and datamate program were working. Datamate is a calculator program designed to measure the magnitude of force acting on the gauge. The program was set to measure the force at tenth second intervals for five seconds. To get accurate results the track had to be set at the desired angle and the gauge zeroed. A triggering device is basically an automatic stopwatch that can sense when the engine starts pushing the force gauge. The triggering device was not necessary, however it made the measuring process easier. Below is a diagram and photograph of the setup.

Impulse is defined as force x time. The impulse-momentum theorem is impulse=P. The engine size A represents a total impulse of 2.5 Newton seconds, a B engine has an impulse of 5, and a C engine has an impulse of 10. Each letter is double the impulse of the previous

one. Impulse is determined by finding the area under the curve when graphed. The unknown engine used in the experiment had an added up impulse of about 7.9 Ns. 7.9 can be rounded up to 10. The impulse is found by multiplying the force by the time interval and finding the sum of all the intervals. Based on this information, it can be concluded that the unknown engine is size C. The rocket when fired, lasted about 2.1 seconds with an average force against the gauge of about four Newtons. The average force is found by dividing the total force by the time interval. Below is a graph and table of the data collected. The graph shows that the engine gave a sudden burst then leveled out then went out. The impulse and average force show that the engine is a C4 engine. The total force equals 78.525N. The total force divided by the time becomes 3.93 this indicates that the engine is a C4 however, the engine was really a C6. The reason why the data didnt match up with reality is because the box on wheels slipped off the track during the thrust. If more care had been taken to not let that happen, the results could have been more accurate. Time
.6 .7 .8 .9 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 2 2.1 2.2 2.3

Force
2.35 8.39 5.64 4.4 4 3.86 3.83 3.8 3.77 3.73 3.78 3.81 3.8 3.77 3.77 3.84 3.75 3.86

2.4 2.5

3.88 .495

Drag Force
Air resistance is often ignored because its such a small force however, in the real world at high speeds, the drag is very noticeable and real. While moving at rocket speeds, air resistance cannot be ignored because at high speeds the rocket will be pushing the air aside with a large amount of force. The goal of this lab was to determine the drag coefficient of a model rocket by finding the drag force using the equation F d=Kd V2 where Fd is the drag force, Kd is the drag coefficient, and V is the velocity. The equipment used in this lab was a wind tunnel, a model rocket, an air speed gauge (anemometer), and a protractor for measuring the angle the rocket was blown at. The wind tunnel has honeycomb structures which just makes the airflow straight rather than hitting the rocket at multiple angles. The rocket was hung inside the wind tube by two strings. When the fan in the wind tunnel was turned on, the wind gauge measured the speed of the wind while the angle was measured using the protractor. Below is a

diagram of the setup. The equation used to find the drag coefficient is Fd = Kd V2, this equation rearranged to find the coefficient is Kd=Fd / V2. This is the form that will be used to find Kd. The wind speed was measured to be about 36.3 m/s. To find Fd the mass, and angle the rocket is being blown at are needed. When measured the mass was 61g (0.061kg), the gravitational pull of the earth is 9.8N, and the angle was about 25 o.Fd is found using the equation Fd=mg(sin/cos). The derivation is shown below.

(T)Cos=mg T=mg/Cos (T)Sin=Fd Fd=mg(Sin/Cos) Substitute T into

Sine divided by cosine is equal to tangent so Fd=mg(Sin/Cos) becomes Fd=mg(Tan). When the numbers are plugged in the equation becomes Fd=(0.061kg)(9.8N)Tan25o when calculated it becomes Fd=0.278758N. Now that the drag force is known, it can be plugged into the equation for the drag coefficient. Kd=Fd / V2. With the values of Fd and V, it becomes Kd=0.278758N / 36.32, this comes out to be Kd=0.0002. The value of Kd depends on how aerodynamic the object is and how much surface area it has. In the case of a model rocket with a smooth pointed nose, the coefficient is fairly low. If the same test was done with a big lumpy bag, the coefficient would be a lot higher.

Numerical Model
Model rocket launching has a lot of factors that determine the height and speed the rocket travels. Some of these factors may include type of engine, mass of rocket, air resistance, the earths gravitational pull, and angle of the launch pad. This report will predict the height and speed of two sample rockets and two engines using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for each rocket with each engine. The Excel spreadsheet calculated the average thrust, drag force, average net force, average net impulse, initial velocity, final velocity, average velocity, initial height, and final height. The user inputed the thrust for each time interval, the total mass of the rocket and engine together, and the drag coefficient. Below is a table showing the equations for each column of the spreadsheet.

Average thrust

Drag force

Average Average net force net impulse

Initial velocity

Final velocity

Average velocity

Initial height

Final height

(T1+T2)/2

Fd=Kd*V2

Tavg-mg-Fd

Fnet(t)

Last rows Vf

Vi+Fnett/m

(Vi+Vf)/2

Last rows Hf

(Hi+Vavg*t

The spreadsheet outputs data for 12 seconds in tenth second intervals making a total of 120 rows. The blue rocket and engine together have a mass of only about .0658 kg and has a drag coefficient of 0.0002 so it is safe to assume that it will go fairly high, so the maximum height can be estimated to be near the end of the 12 seconds in the lower part of the list. The exact height is predicted to be 160.99 meters from ground level at 6.1 seconds from the time fired. The same spreadsheet with slightly different inputs was used for the other four rocketengine combinations to predict the maximum height for each set. Below is a table of the maximum height and time it took for each combination. Height is measured in meters and time is measured in seconds. From this data, it can be inferred that the C6 engine has more thrust than the B6 engine.

Height Blue rocket White rocket 237.84 89.73 C6 B6

Time Blue rocket White rocket 7.5 5

C6 B6

324.46 160.99

8 6.1

Air resistance is a very important factor that cannot be ignored even though it seems like such a small force. The reason that air resistance is so noticeable, is because at high speeds the rocket has to use force to push aside the air in its path. If the drag coefficient was set to zero, the maximum height and speed would be much higher. For example the blue rocket with the B6 engine normally should reach 160.99 meters in 6.1 seconds. If the drag coefficient was set to zero, the maximum height would be 260.57 meters in 8.2 seconds. As shown in the spreadsheet example, if the rocket was to be launched in space with no atmosphere, it would go a lot farther than it would in the earths atmosphere; in fact it would never stop.

Flight Results
The final step of the rocket flight project was to launch the rockets and measure the height to compare with the predicted heights. The process of measuring the height included three people standing in a triangle around the launch pad with protractors to measure the angle above the ground at the highest point of the flight. Model rockets are fairly unpredictable in the path they go when launched. Rockets very seldom go directly up, which would be ideal. In reality rockets go up at an angle, requiring angle measurements from at least three different points. To get the most accurate results the three angle readings for each rocket-engine combination were averaged. The height of the three people measuring angles was estimated to be about 1.5 meters. Below is a diagram for the B6 engine in the white (70.1 kg) rocket. The average of the angles measured was 43o. Tangent=Opposite/Adjacent Tan 43o=Opposite/50m (50)Tan 43o=46.62m 46.62m+1.5m=48.1m X=48.1 meters

The C6 engine with the white rocket unexpectedly reached its highest point beyond one of the angle observers, so instead of averaging all three angles only the other two were averaged. Since only two of the angles were used the distance had to be found between the two observers. It was assumed that the rocket was exactly 90o above observer 2. Below is an overhead view of the three observers.

In order to eventually find the final height, the distance in between the two observers needed to be found, in the diagram above X is the distance wanted. To find the value of X, the triangle can be split into two symmetric right triangles and the the value of X can be found by using trig and adding the two triangle leg values together. Sine=Opposite/Adjacent Sin 60o=Opposite/50m (50m)Sin 60o=Opposite Opposite=43.301 43.301+43.301=X X=86.602

The average angle measured by the two observers was 57o so now the problem can be solved just like the B6 engine flight was. Tangent=Opposite/Adjacent Tan 57o=Opposite/86.602 (86.602)Tan 57o=h h=133.352 133.352+1.5 h=134.852

Conclusion
The purpose of this project was to apply the concepts of physics in a real world situation to predict the nature of the results. The results found by measuring the actual flight were close enough to the predictions to believe the math. Below is a table of the maximum heights in meters. White with C6 Predicted Measured 237.84 134.852 White with B6 89.73 48.1 Blue with C6 324.46 Unavailable Blue with B6 160.99 Unavailable

Obviously the results dont match up very well with the measured heights. There are a few reasons why the prediction and the measured results are different. In the predictions the rocket was expected to go straight up 90o from ground level. In reality the rocket went at an angle which caused it to travel horizontally, making the vertical distance decrease. Another reason the results dont match up is that the drag coefficient was tested on a different rocket than the actual rocket used in the launch, the rockets were similar in size but not perfect. Some of the equipment used could potentially be inaccurate as well. For future projects to increase the precision, the predictions need to take account for the fact that the rocket doesnt go directly upwards. To achieve totally accurate results, more complex equipment would be needed and more variables accounted for.

Reflection
Writing this report has really helped my understanding of physics by making me look closer at how things work in the real world and exercise my math skills. This report was a challenge but I enjoyed the whole process a lot. I think the main thing that was most enjoyable was the realization that physics really can be fun if enough effort is put in. This report was important to me not only because of the physics, but also to strengthen my writing skills.