Building a Liquid rocket engine! - I built a bipropellant rocket engine as a student engineer!
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- My name's Callum, and I've built a rocket engine
Specifically, over the last 6 months I have designed, built and tested a liquid bipropellant rocket engine. I did this after failing to secure an internship with any launch companies in the UK, so I decided to do it myself. Seeing as I've already done 2 years of aerospace engineering at the University of Manchester I figured how hard can it be.
The video shows a very small amount of the total work actually taken to get the rocket to the test stand, however it shows all the good bits!!
This is my first attempt at a real TH-cam video and I hope you find it entertaining. If you've got any questions about the rocket, suggestions on the video or other ideas comment and I'll respond!!
I don't just build rockets either, so maybe subscribe to see what other stuff I might make and find out where we go next with the rocket engine.
Normally you would expect something like that from a professional you tuber. But the fact that you are a british student filming asynchron videos with your grandmother in the background doing advanced diy engineering just makes it so much better!
Means a lot mate!!
@@Callum-Long ⚠️ God has said in the Quran:
🔵 { O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous - ( 2:21 )
🔴 [He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him]. ( 2:22 )
🔵 And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. ( 2:23 )
🔴 But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.( 2:24 )
🔵 And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom, they will say, "This is what we were provided with before." And it is given to them in likeness. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally. ( 2:25 )
⚠️ Quran
That's what I was thinking big TH-camrs just made solid rocket 2 stage rockets and he's making a liquid rocket
Most amazing things have come out of a good ol British garage or shed 😅
Actually we expect that from a professional aerospace industry expert 🎉 he is awesome
You're a terrifically good engineer. Your methods in test procedure are spot on.
Thanks mate that means a lot !!
Callum, thanks so much for documenting this and posting it. That obviously makes it take a lot longer. One concern I have for you though is safety. Pressurizing an experimental object is dangerous. It appeared neither your camera person nor yourself were behind a barrier when you were testing. You also didn't have a way to remotely turn valves on or off from behind a safety barrier. I know it will take more time, effort, planning, and money to create a safer testing setup, but I hope you invest in that. Much better to do it before anyone gets seriously hurt than afterwards.... If you check out old Mytherbusters episodes where they were blowing up water heaters, they had some simple but good safety precautions put in place that are doable ... thick plexiglass shield, sandbags, locating people a considerable distance from the pressurized vessel, extra valves in place to turn on and turn off pressure flow with long ropes attached to activate the valves remotely. Also had a valve to depressurize the vessel remotely. All good things to consider ... Thanks again for all your hard work!!
Ehh, there is always that safety guy.
Really nice first video. I can definitely see how much work went into this project. I am crossing my fingers that the hot fire test will be successful
Yes dude!!! I’ve wanted to do this for so long but haven’t seen anyone on TH-cam do one this size. I’m rooting for ya!
Thanks mate, I know, it’s a pretty scary thing when your close to it, means a lot people are behind me on this !
@@Callum-Long Nice job! try to use solenoinds before the valves ,as safety cutoff ,if motorrized valves doesnt work.. greetings from Greece..
Yes solenoid valves rated for the pressures a flows that you need. Possibly doubled up and plumbed in series so that if one fails, the other will be the redundancy.
I will be following your progress because I want to follow in your footsteps.
Great Video! Remember valves timing and actuation speed will be important too and safe venting procedures are a must. In liquid propulsion valves are very big issue especially when building the first one. Oh just before I forgot, do a couple of water test pressure on your tank and also you may want to test the injector plate with high pressure water to see if there is proper mixing of the droplets. Water is a good and cheap substitute and in UK we have plenty xD. Good luck Man!
could this be done with foam board?
My favorite part about getting my aerospace degree is that once you know the physics, building a rocket engine is not that complex for a singular person (relative to the struggles youtube amateur engineers go through and make it seem)
I'm so inspired by your optimism and willpower. Even after massive disappointment you keep pushing so hard. This video really changed the way I look at challenges in my life. With such determination it is a question of time until you'll succeed. All the best mate :)))))))
Thank you so much!!
Hmm, there are a few things I'm not sure about with your design, but good on you for showing initiative & figuring stuff out yourself.
The only thing I'll comment on is safety:
It is good practice to do a static water press test of tanks before going for gaseous tests. It probably also a good idea to keep some more distance when doing such a test for the first time.
Also, what are you planning to use as an igniter?
who are you again?
So good to see it all come together. You spent years avoiding work in our further maths lessons in preparation for this day. Really proud of you Callum, always knew you were destined for greatness 👏👍.
Lots to discuss in our next Further Maths get-together!!
Mr A
Thank you Sir, that means a lot coming from you! Really miss those days sometimes and am so great-full for all the time you put into us guys, no way I would have the confidence to do something like this without some great teachers like you along the way.
Id really like to organise something next time I’m Suffolk-side, maybe you could give me a message on twitter and we can stay in touch?
twitter.com/callum_long419?s=11&t=wRqxYjur8XI0p7T6l2t1xg
For a first video this is incredible! I've really been into rockets and design the past year and a half, and when looking for DIY or hobbyists who've created rockets it's been incredibly frustrating and hard to come by. Then TH-cam did something right for once and recommend you. This is the best video hands down that I've seen about fabrication of a garage/homemade rocket engine. I think it's also one if not the only one of a liquid rocket engine! You've got some amazing talent and look forward to seeing more!
very kind mate thanks very much
Jesus Christ what was that cring ass song in the beginning? What was it called "respect your elders"? Lol. 🎵Yeah yeah do good things and good things will happen to you yeah brush your teeth before bedtime "boobop lollipop" drink your milk yeah🎵. 😆😆
Great first video! I look forward to seeing more of your journey. I would highly recommend much faster valve motors, or possibly even open them with a pneumatic actuator. You already have nitrogen in the plans you could use as your pressure source. I mention this mainly for shutting down the engine, if/when something goes wrong during a live burn. You'll want to be able to close the valves as fast as possible. I'm also curious to see your engine will produce shock cones with your tip design. They're a sign of it being inefficient, but always a beautiful sight. Keep up the good work.
Already got the new motors!! And shock comes would be very cool!!
Great project man 😎👊🏽
instead of ball valves alone, it would be a great idea to to also have solenoid in conjunction as you can open and close fast remotely just to mention a few benefits.
as you know you need to regulate the flow rate and pressure of you set up ball valve are not so great at that task especially on this project.
i honestly do know anything about rocket 🙈😅
Thank for the feedback mate, so the pressure is regulated at the cylinders by two regulators the hall valves are only really on/off valves for the fuel and oxygen, if I wanted to control the flow better I could incorporate some needle valves but for now just want to get it up and running
Why would you even attempt to show anyone this without a hot fire. Very disappointing.
not everyone who made scientific inventions was a scientist its a calling some get from the garage
I am a mechanical engineer myself and I love your determination. This has encouraged me to put more effort on some personal projects I am doing.
Take a look at the folks of copenhaghen suborbitals, they made a specific video about the nightmare of high pressure high reliabiliy big vales. They already tackled that issue, maybe you can get some useful info there.
i will indeed, theyre doing some cool stuff over there
Do you really need a bell for such low altitude?
Woow I'm really impressed with how the engine turned out and I'm waiting impaciently to see it work and burn some stuff, I'm also really impressed that this is your first TH-cam video because it is really really good, well done!
Just a little constructive critic as you said that you want some feedback so you can improve, for me the music was too high and I would also love to see you enter in more detail about the setup and where does each tube go, what does each valve control, what fuel do you used and the proportions of fuel and oxygen, maybe talk a little about the code and of course about the 3D printed parts that you used, as I'm also an engineering student who also owns two 3D printers I'd love to see all those details and it would help me a lot. I think most of the people watching this is in a similar position and would like it too.
Anyways it's completely awesome, I instantly liked and subscribed. Keep on with the hard work!!
Hello! I own and run a CNC machine shop in Bristol. Normally we do pro bono work a couple of times a year for a university engineering team, would love to give you a hand with this if/when you need any componants made. PM me or reply to this if you have anything in mind.
that would be amazing mate, maybe you could give me a message on my socials and we could stay in touch?
Excellent! Great project, great vid, great music, amazing job! Would like to see more info about how you plotted and converted the 2d to 3d design and maybe open source the files or references to design. I get that it's extruded but be nice to know the reference for the design and math behind it.
Also, on small circuits like that you can use conformal coating to insulate.
You have a problem, in critical scale must be radius, but you had sharp angle.
Not sure I understand what you mean mate
Man that’s impressive! Subscribed already, I want to see the next instalment.
I know many liquid fuelled rockets have issues with cryo valves, the severe cooling you get with the expansion of those compressed gasses causes havoc with icing and material shrinkage. I certainly wouldn’t want to return to a rocket still venting from a stuck valve, so you _really_ want to fix that before a hot fire.
I have a keen interest in rocketry but no direct experience with liquid fuelled engines. However I have decades of experience in engineering including embedded control, so if you’d like any input on best practice in safety and control engineering, I’d be glad to help out.
Thank for the sub mate!! My fuels aren’t cryo so don’t have any problems with things getting too cold just problems with high pressure causing a lot of resistance.
Thanks for the offer of help mate, I’m working on a new control system with some new valves now so I might be in touch
@@Callum-Long Expanding oxygen will still cause a lot of cooling that might affect valve performance
@@andreasvox8068 That's why he is going to use the wall of the enging to heat the liquid oxygen... He just hasn't gotten to that bit yet
Great video mate 👌
Rocket engineering is not easy but your almost there.
More ambitious and certainly more knowledgeable than most.
🚀
Callum, may I suggest using ball valves with a pnuematic cylinder actuator to open close. They are readily available on the surplus market. Good luck.
Fact that he doesn't get paid after doing these but still puts his time and money on them is just awesome!
Keep going man love from india! ❤🔥
Some more information would have been welcome. What were the design parameters. Exit velocity, heat dissipated, the form of the nozzle... Eg the whole chamber was made from magnesium to save weight....
Great work. Be carefull, keep distance when doing hot fire. Use eye protectors.
Why are you making the fuel tank so thicc, You're using steel and 300 psi is nowhere near being able to rupture the tank. Even 1 mm thickness would be enough and with sufficient margin. That would make your rocket way more lightweight
the beginning hit quite close to home, third-year engineering student looking for work in anything space-related and found nothing. however you managed to design, build, code, and test a rocket engine in your own garage and I think that's promising and it's the first step of the career that you wish. I suscribed and hyped for the next video, congratulations Callum and best of luck
Lot's of jobs at RocketLab here in NZ :-)
This is your first video?!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!
Amazing dude!
Love from Montréal
@Callum-Long >>>
(1) I just found your TH-cam channel. Subbed.
(2) Building a rocket engine is NOT STUPID!
Luckily the pressurized gaz bottles were not really pressurized, as there were no safety procedures followed
*_"And then, things started going wrong."_*
*WELCOME TO ROCKETRY.* 😉
I am in 0 year of Uni but I can see a problem with the convergence of gasses just before it exits the nozzle, the face is too flat, slightly conical with a very smooth exit (polished if need be, heat has the tendency to build up in places where the surface area is bigger than need be, even just a slight protrusion of a weld seam can be the catalyst for a rapid disassembly). The gasses will hit the flat spot and reverberate backwards and forwards like an echo in a cave, and back into the detonation area, kind of like gasses instantly gets "reversed" at hyper velocity putting enormous pressure on the backplate as well as the nozzle area. I tried that before and the engine was one of the worst performers I ever built. It had that splutter like you would expect from a the V2's the Germans built. terrible things on both ends of the war, the poor German who had to get close enough to light the darn thing and the poor bastards in East London having to listen to this screaming cat from hell that could drop out of the sky at the drop of a hat so to speak, the glass that shatters that send the darn thing to drop just about anywhere. I just wonder why one of those "Rockets" never hit Chelsea Football Club, LOL!, Nice work be like Elon and dream BIG. PS. mix the Fuel and Oxidizer before entering the combustion chamber.
Just a note your bio says college no money ... Dumpster dive. Plumbing biz. Thrift store. The Sunday porch of the donation center is always a good spot.
Safety tip - Pressure test with WATER not anything gaseous! Try and stay safe! Looks like you got away with it here, but if a tank fails with water in it pops a little bit; if it fails with gas in then you get a big explosion. You can buy hand pumps for this for not that unreasonable of a cost, and it's a great investment. You also should test to 1.5x max operating pressure (Is the guideline most hobby rocketry competitions require for remote systems), and much higher (maybe 3x) if you want to be able to stand next to the thing when pressurised.
There was a paper put out by a US government rocket lab I think in 1973 on building liquid rocket engines. It's on the internet. Have you seen it. Might give you some ideas. I was expecting to see some hard numbers on your design.
I think a threaded end cap on th fuel tank would have worked as well if only producing 300psi
Can you explain what drove your choice of two different materials for the valve-assembly brackets?
Bro why tf are you using freedom units? Even here in the US we convert to metric then back to freedom afterwards lmao (only for aerospace, the other engineering fields don't really bother)
In terms of everyday life, 300 psi is a scary amount, but for rockets, especially for the more advanced kinds, it’s not really a whole lot which is crazy
Saudações do Brasil, excelente projeto, muito interessante, é a primeira vez que vejo alguém fazendo um em casa, tenho alguns projetos, mas não executados espero poder fazer também. Sucesso para você e que seja um de muitos que virão.
Great, but please, why the loud music? Yeah, I know, it's cool, but it's annoying to have to turn down the volume for the noise (music?) and then up again to hear you. Have mercy on your viewers. And good luck building and flying!
That's the only rocket type, that we Europeans can build, because unlike in the US it's illegal to get the chemicals for a solid rocket motor or even building it.
I tried my hand at making one
Hardest part for my was fuel delivery
First I made a centrefugal pump using drone motors. Wich worked but as soon as I bloked the flow it's started cavatating so pressure dropped
Second problem was the injection I made 4 difrent variants and I got one that worked fine wich was a pintel injector
Tbh you would be better just using normal motorized ball valves. They sell them on Amazon for like £30
dude i have the same mentality as you, we rocketeers build rockets because they're so cool
Your so right, do what you love !
Not sure what type of engineering you’re getting into whether it’s mechanical or aerospace… Make sure your valves can turn off quickly and completely as you noticed because engine shut off is equally shocking to the entire system as is the ignition process. If the pressure behind the flow gets too low, the flame can travel up past the injection plates and pressurization will occur where you definitely do not want it to be. Some of your heat transfer equations would also be nice to implement or even through cad to see how the nozzle may deform under sustained high pressure and temp conditions. Great work so far! Love it!
I'll be that guy, alright?
Where are the pumps? You think the pressure from tanks is enough for a continuous work?
Brother , will you provide me the references which you have used for this project, It will be great help for us as we are also building a liquid rocket engine for our project.
Bro buildshit who cares if your hired. If you take that approach they will be begging you.
Hey Callum You might rethink the type of valves your using. The ball in the ball valve tends to bind against the sealing surface under higher than normal pressures. I've used ball valves that have normal ranges of pressure of up to 500 psi. At higher pressures the ball becomes very stiff and jams that makes operation impossible. If a needle valve can work it might be better and adjustable. Nupro valves can use gas pressure to operate instead of electric motors and are fast. motors are heavy and gears are point of failure. Art
couple of things:
1. I found giving my channel a name instead of my name gave me like 30% more followers
2. remember that samuel rocket the inventor of rockets died by rocket
great job mate ... Do you mind sharing your matlab code cz I am working on a similar personal project?
really nice work
me and a friend wanted to do a similar project but lacked the tools and capital for it. so nice to see another person doing what we couldnt
Callum we definitely need you in Cornwall. Our first rocket launch didn't go to plan.
Nice video. How did you manage to machine the nozzle taper using a manual lathe? Is a CNC lathe not required for precise control?
This isn't gonna make since to you both ta right trust me I have built a lot of rockets you need a detonating n inside with thermal blankets and elongate the thruster area as that is where I'd have to draw a picture of it but where you actually get the thrust as your rodeo g a shock wave ideally it'll be two one a hydrogen bubble that explodes to bist you up and then second detonation like David what his name in FL he by lt one it has a nuclear engine in it .....this would be the same thing only reusable and you would have to catch it ...but yea think Detonation.....for lift instant exceleration no fule no e=mc2 and then just catch it thst hard get to where you can launch it and land it I have some areas on designe thst I have came up with how do these engines perform ....I 💬 nk gas might be a good way I mean can you emagine a five mile weather balloon sling shot on a rocket with a engine on it? You could go to the moon ....
You have a bright future young man! Make them beg to have a talent like you work with them. Find your own sponsors too! You dont have to be an employee anyway be your own boss
You look like the younger brother of my Norwegian friend Thor. Great video by the way.
For your own sake (and perhaps your viewers as well) please observe some common sense safety considerations, like a dust filter mask and eye protection. Other than that your presentations are golden!
Just from YT watcher that love to see all kind of rocket's building, I would love to follow you as well but please make sure that the music is never louder then your voice is at all times, i do not like any background music the sound of your working is most of the time enough. In this video i needed to reduce the volume to the bar minium and lost some of the statements you made outside, because your volume was to low at that time.
Anyway good luck with your journey. i hope to see a follow-up to see soon.
nice lathe! Do you have solidworks personally or from the university?
To all those who don't believe they can become an astro engineer with grades that aren't the best, you can do anything, intelligence isn't measured by what a piece of paper says, it's shown through capability.
Your nozzle have too wide convergance angle, it shoudl be around 30-50 degrees.
Great job and i think you will totally get that rocket engine-ness.
As a form of safety you could use pneumatic cylinders power from the nitrogen to actuate the ball valve for fast shut off and motorise a pair of needle valve similar to how you did the ball valve previouo for flow control
14:15 is not to slow?
And if you use 3D printed part at leas i sugest you use diferent teet gear deasing. the arrow teeth (>>>>) more surface contact and no skip if to much presure in the chamber and cant close the valve.
What’s that power tool that you used to make the body of the rocket?
can i get the diagram for the nozzle? I'm just trying to build a rocket motor.
I can't help but notice in your solidworks shots that the "floor" is above the part every time.
Why does the fuel thank have to whitstand the same pressure as the combustion chamber ?
It's cool how are you designed I came up with the safety mechanism so it doesn't blow up but I didn't even get to see the rocket shoot a flame see how fast the vapors coming out of the exhaust or anyting it's kind of a bummer I was really excited to see how much thrust and how powerful the motor is that you came up with
Got this recommended under a Steve Mould video, looks like the yt algorithm is doing a good job!
I think you are showing them that knowledge is universal and nobody has monopoly on that. By making this youtube those universities should be ashemed of themself by not at least writing back to you.
Read Ignition! by John Drury Clark...
what type of fuel did you use? hydrazine? kerosene? hydrogen?
You need a nitrous oxide solenoid from a car or something not that shity Keurig coffee maker valve solenoid
Can i join u buddy from India? I am currently working on thrust vectoring for model rockets.
Kepp going. I will watch you in 5 years time with version 75 that flies.
Nice video. Tip, lower the music volume, it's too high compared to your voice.
The car plate at 15:58 could be read as AVIO, the italian rocket company, lol
Great engineering. But my man is trusting his life to some 3d printed gears if something goes wrong. Id suggest maybe just buying some steep ones that fit or designing them in cad and getting someone else to print them in metal for you if you really want to do it all yourself. Stay safe man.
Seriously cool stuff! Congratulations on the cold flows and good luck on the hotfire!
Thanks mate, saw some of the stuff you’ve been working on too and it’s very sick!!
Use constant volume spool valves instead of ball valves they care a lot less about working pressure
Awesome project. best of luck going forward. Great video, just a little advice. Maybe shorten the montage scenes a bit. ;-) Peace. 🦘
Isn’t it great as soon as the young one mentions rockets it got all 3 generations outside even if your rocket failed you made a great memory
Props to you for building something that is honestly very tough to design! I have a few recommendations however. 1. The injector might not be the best at mixing the fuel and oxidizer because the streams don’t cross each other’s paths. You could sim the 2 fuel injectors at each other for the second tip. The fuel injector needs to atomize the fuel streams into mist to mix with the oxidizer well, especially as it is a gas-liquid interaction.
A british man in a shed, I think we're all heard of a a similar story. Good luck
From Blue Origin, you're doing great work! Looking forward to the hot fire
You need to something to detect thrust otherwise you just have a like I acetylene and oxygen cutting torch
audio levels all over the place, the awful "music" is way too loud and your voice way too quiet
I'm no engineer but you gears for the valves needs to mesh to gather better there is to much gap from the motor gear to the sender gear so you are no going to get correct information back to your computer
A fully closed signal might mean a slightly open valve so gases can still be leaking out
UK launch companies: No, you can't build a rocket with us.
Callum: Fine, I'll do it myself
that is awesome.i"m from sri lanka and i would like to build a rocket engine one day by myself.
That is amazing! Will you be making a n injector plate?
This man needs a job with spacex
Sombody forward this to Elon.
I am so incredibly proud of you. Can’t wait to see what’s next!!