Saturday 1 February 2014

The week

I was planing on testing some variations of the vessel we tested last week but I didn't have time to print them this week. Once I get better at printing I will feel more comfortable leaving the printer unattended.

 Buren and I played Squash today and talked about development. We pretty much decided that until we get the tensile tester going there is not much we can do on pressure vessel development. The concept is proven anyway, going forward it will be about optimisation. Since the parts for the tester will take a few weeks to get here we decided to press ahead with a proof of concept combustion chamber. It will be basic; no nozzle/throat, just a fitting, injector and tube. After pressure vessel I think the injector will be the next hardest bit. I think cooling will be hardest bit. So the aim for next weekend is to test a basic chamber using GOX as the oxidiser. I always planed on using nitrous oxide but I figure GOX will give us a good feel for the heating issues and is cheaper. I have ordered all the parts we need have am reading up on the safety aspects of GOX as i've never worked with it before. I have a few really cool non-conventional ideas for all-plastic 3d-printed injectors. I have also been thinking about nozzles.