A presentation by

Ashwin Gandhi CONTENTS

(i)

Acknowledgement Introduction About Techkriti 2011 The team from DSI Objectives Ideas, designs and our working Strategies The innovation in rockets structure The rocket recovery systems o The glider rocket
o

The parachute deployment mechanism

The launchers o The cork mechanism o The locking-unlocking mechanism

The launch pad Maximizing the range of a rocket

Merits and demerits of each design

Ideas and our team in action The Techkriti experience Total expenditure Plans for tomorrow

(i) Acknowledgement

Though we have come up with a project in the 1st semester itself, it would not have been possible without few people who we would like to thank. We thank our parents who have funded us with all the projects that we have ever done till now and all the support that they have given to us all these years, and finally let us choose Aeronautical Engineering as our branch for graduation. They have always motivated us and have been with us at every hurdle. We would like to acknowledge our HoD Dr. Vaggar for letting us get on with the project with the departmental support and providing us with a wonderful room to work. We thank our department faculty Dr. P. Soma and Ms. Nirupamma for all the technical support which they gave us and also for the emotional support that they gave us to boost us up when we were down on confidence. We are really grateful to the chemical engg. Dept. HoD Dr. Vijaysarathy, who not only helped us with the construction of the rocket, but was also ready to make us the adhesives in his lab for us.

We would also like to thank Mrs. Teresa, marketing head of Manjushree tech. who gave us the PET bottles for making the rocket. Last but not the least; we thank our Principal, Dean of academics, friends, classmates and our seniors who helped us with their needy help from time to time.

INTRODUCTION

WINGZ is an initiative taken up by a small group of 1st year aeronautical engg. students of DSCE. Though it was originally formed to make a club as our college lacked one, its aim now, is to promote our colleges official aeromodelling club which was formed quite recently. The team WINGZ takes up project initiatives for research and innovation in science and thereby tries to encourage classmates, college club members and the college youth to come up with few of their own inspiring and innovative ideas.

Its objective is to team up with the DSIs official aeromodelling club FALCON, and to effectively work in co-ordination with them to convey everyday news and upcoming events to 1st and 2nd year students and to organize events related to aeromodelling in DSI campus.

The present projects that were done were not only for IIT-K, but were also done for creating awareness in the 1st year classroom of B.E. students and to set up a path for them to trod on later, making things simpler and easier for them.

ABOUT TECHKRITI 2011

Techkriti is a technical festival of IIT-Kanpur which is conducted every year in the month of February. There are many companies and organizations that sponsor most of the events in this techfest right from CII to Boeing. So, a lot funds flow in and flow out during this mega event. The cash awards for winners is so designed that it can not only get them back all the money that they had invested in their project but will also leave them with enough money to work on their next projects for techfests in IITs.

This techfest has competitions and workshops related to all fields ranging from robotics for mechanical and electrical engineers to paper presentations for chemical engineers and aeromodelling and rocket designing for aeronautical engineers.

Techkriti 2011 had 4 main events for aeronautical engineers under the name Take Off. They were: 1. Cruise control - for the ones who are good at flying aeromodels to check their skills at flying and their aerobatics. The teams that could accomplish the given tasks efficiently in given time were adjudged as winners. 2. Backfire - for those who love making and flying boomerangs. 3. Eagle - for the geeks who like to design one of their own aircrafts rather than go for the time tested models. It was a paper presentation on innovative flying objects. 4. Impulse - for those who love rocketry science and getting their hands dirty with mud and water during every launch of their rocket. It was about designing rockets powered only by water and pressurized air to accomplish the two tasks given to the teams a month prior to the competition.

The prize money for the Take-Off events was about 1.5 lakhs!

 THE TEAM FROM DSI

There were two teams from 1st year aeronautical engineering, one for Eagle and one for Impulse. It was a team of 3 for the Impulse water rocket competition. The following are the team members: Ashwin Gandhi 1st year B.E. Aeronautical Engineering Nagajyothi P. 1st year B.E. Aeronautical Engineering Salik Altamash 1st year B.E. Mechanical Engineering Later, as it became difficult to complete the project on time we had got a helping hand from Pranshu, one of our seniors from 2nd year B.E. Aeronautical Engineering. Our teams name was The SeventyPSI and was named after the competitions only condition which was to maintain the air pressure inside the bottle rocket at 70psi. The teams that exceeded this mark were liable to be disqualified.

 OBJECTIVES OF IMPULSE

There were two rounds in Impulse. The rounds were aimed at testing the precision/accuracy and the controllability of our rockets. Round 1: The first round was about the maximum time taken by our rockets to go up and come down and hit the ground. The time was measured in seconds and the score was 10 times the number of seconds. Round 2: the second round was about hitting a given target at 50m from the launch pad with you rocket. There were three concentric circles each made of 2, 4 and 6 m radius, their center lying at 50m from the point of launch. The team that hit the bulls eye got 100 points, the team that hit the middle circle got 80 points and the team that hit the outermost circle got 60 points.

The total score was the score in round 1 plus the score in round 2. The winner was the one with maximum score.

IDEAS, DESIGNS AND STRATEGIES

A water rocket or an aqua-jet is a rocket made of bottles generally propelled by water and pressurized air. These rockets can also be propelled by vinegar, soapy water (for a tail), or sugar or salt solutions to increase the density of the water and thereby increase the height of the flight. As far as the fundamentals of water rockets are concerned, an amateur has to know only four things ie. the rocket (bottle) radius, the nozzle radius, the capacity of the rocket (bottle) and the volume of water to be taken before the launch to have an efficient and best of flights. These rockets are made and flown for entertainment by the men having an interest and inclination towards rocketry science. Though it sounds simple, as we get down to the actual mathematical equations and science concerned in building even a small water rocket becomes a bit tricky. Moreover, there is a lot of engineering involved behind the scene of any aqua-jet launch.

THE INNOVATION IN ROCKETS STRUCTURE

(Idea dated to 30th Jan 2011)

Our research on water rockets was running parallel to the construction of the water rocket. Though we failed at the beginning because of inadequate knowledge, at a much later stage we started getting a zest of the basics of this rocket stuff. We read online books, checked out aquajet simulators and tried contacting people who have done it before and also tried to learn few of

the actual equations involved in real rocketry stuff. Having done all this, we came with a sound design which was very innovative and appealing. We solved one of the greatest challenges of balancing the C.P. (center of pressure) and C.G. (center of gravity) of a water rocket in an easy way without using fins! The previous figure explains the difference between the existing water rockets and our design for C.P. - C.G. For any flying object, may it be a rocket of an aircraft; the C.G. should be in front of C.P. in the direction of flight. This makes that flying object stable. As all flying objects usually have three degrees of freedom, this is the only condition that can make it stable i.e. having the C.G. placed ahead of C.P. In the previous figure, (a) denotes the normal water rocket. And as one can see the C.G. is placed well below the C.P., giving -3 caliber stability. Such a rocket is highly instable and to reduce this instability, water rocket enthusiasts use fins to bring down the C.P. of the rocket or they make the nose heavy to raise the level of C.G. by introducing an unwanted weight to the rocket. But we believed in a much effective method of taking the C.G. up instead of getting the C.P. down by adding fins. And the design that we ended up with is as shown in (b) and (c). We planned to insert another pipe inside the rocket of 45% of the total rocket volume and fill that with water during the launches. By this, the height of C.G. shoots up considerably and the rocket thus has 0.75 caliber stability. This implies that we need to add fins to the rocket only to make up for the remaining 0.5 to 2 caliber stability that is usually required for a perfect flight. If it were not for this idea, then one would have had to add fins and make to nose unnecessarily heavy to compensate for the whole 6 caliber stability (3 calibers to level the C.P. and C.G. and 3 more for a stable flight)!!

THE ROCKET RECOVERY SYSTEMS

(Ideas dated to 4th Feb 2011)

The glider rocket: for recovering our rocket successfully, we had designed a retractable wing structure to be attached to the bottle rocket which would open up with the help of a hand held radio controlled unit at the time of descent. The wing structure was something like this

The idea was to roll the wings and keep it at the sides of the rocket during the upward flight to reduce the drag and to reduce the shearing stress action on the wing roots at 30 to 40Gs of flight. At the time of descent of the rocket, these wings will be opened by switching on a motor inside the rocket which will roll the nylon

wire running through the ribs of the wing and thereby make the separate units unite together to make a single wing. As the nylon wire is relaxed at the beginning, the wings can be easily rolled, and as the wire is held taut the units get together to make a series of ribs and spars and make a whole wing. (The above figure is of a stretched wing). Once the wings are open, the rocket can be guided to us using the rudder and the elevators. These stabilizers will be attached to the rocket body near the nose cone. As we also have to balance the C.P. and C.G. for the glider (i.e. the rocket becomes a glider once you open the wings up) the glider will have to be a canard winged aircraft. The following figures explain the structure of the rocket during its ascent and descent.

The parachute deployment mechanism: the figure below explains how the nose cone opens up and the parachute is let out. There is a rubber band holding the nose cone and the body of the rocket together. This rubber band is stretched over the nose cone and wound about a servo. When this servo -that is being controlled by a

radio from the ground- is rotated, the rubber band is let loose and thus the nose cone opens up about the point that is hinged to the rocket body. -For guiding and maneuvering the rocket: for guiding the rocket down to the landing spot we designed a propulsion system attached to the body of the rocket at its C.G. (when it

is empty). These propellers will be battery driven and the batteries will be contained in the nose cone. There will be two propellers and their axis of thrust will intersect perpendicularly at the C.G. of the rocket. The propellers can be rotated in both the directions, clockwise and anti-clockwise. This will give the rocket a free movement in any direction that we need. THE LAUNCHERS
(Ideas dated to 10th and 25th Feb 2011)

The cork mechanism: we had used a cork with a bike valve at the center for launching the bottle rockets. This let us pressurize the bottle from outside while the pressure built inside pushed the cork out and the bottle would fly up.

The locking-unlocking mechanism: there is a locking unlocking mechanism that we designed which let the rocket will fly only when we let it go at a pressure we want. We have tried to explain the mechanism in the following figure.

THE LAUNCH PAD

(Idea dated to 14th Feb 2011)

We designed a launch pad for the measurement of angle of the rocket launch and for holding the rocket in a stable position. We constructed it out of plywood and a protractor and a hinge was attached to the launch pad for this purpose. The launcher was so designed that it could also hold the launcher in it, may it be the cork mechanism launcher or the lockable launcher. But, the design of the launch pad had to be changed a little bit.

MAXIMIZING THE RANGE OF A ROCKET

At times you are asked to launch the rocket at an angle to find out the maximum range of the rocket, and this happens in water rocket competitions usually. But, the fact is that no one understands that the winner in a competition with this kind of an objective just gets lucky. The rockets flight and range is entirely dependent on the climatic conditions at the time of its flight. If the wind and other factors are in favor of that team, then that team wins. And at the same time, if the conditions for flying are not suitable, then the team loses. Such kind of objectives in a competition tests not the structure, but the stability of the rocket.

But again, we had designed a structure which will not only be stable but also give a much farther range as compared to normal water rockets. What happens in a normal rocket is that although its mass is not constant throughout its flight, its motion can be assumed to be as a projectile motion. It travels just like a particle with some mass launched at an angle. Now, if you give this rocket (which has a cylindrical structure as it is made up of bottles) a shape of an airfoil then this new structure is going to create some lift of its own during the flight. Due to this lift, its pretty obvious that the rocket is going to go a bit higher than usual, glide a bit further than usual and eventually giving the rocket an extra 10% to 20% range.

Because of this dolphin shaped structure of rocket, the range will increase. Not only that, the parachute deployment of the rocket will also be much easier as

compared to other designs. The following figure compares the flight of a normal water rocket and the dolphin shaped water rocket.

MERITS AND DEMERITS OF EACH DESIGN

The innovation in our rocket structure: though our design solves one of the most important problems encountered while making a water rocket -i.e. the C.P. and C.G. stability- it increases the weight of the rocket leading to a decrease in the maximum height attained by normal rockets by few meters. But, at the same time, we dont know by what amount this decrement would be. Above all, the construction of this rocket is extremely difficult, and if we go on about fabricating it, it becomes quite expensive for a water rocket.

The rocket recovery systems: in the recovery of the rocket using a foldable glider wing, the mechanism is not a reliable one; the primary reason why we have postponed the construction and testing of this idea. This is because; the nylon wire used might get tangled, which wont let the motor open the wing fully. In the rocket with the parachute, using battery powered propulsion system for guiding the rocket would mean an addition of weight cum addition of an energy source other than water and air pressure. This, for few, might mean that the rocket is no longer a water rocket or an aqua-jet. In the cork launching system, we never know at what pressure the rocket is going to push the cork out and leave the ground. Moreover, the rocket leaves the launcher at a very early stage and thus flies to a very low height.

IDEAS AND OUR TEAM IN ACTION

COMING TOGETHER IS A BEGINNING, STAYING TOGETHER IS PROGRESS AND WORKING TOGETHER IS SUCCESS!! -HENRY FORD Honestly speaking, I never got to know what team work was in my life till this project on water rockets. It has always been I for me and never WE and

only when I started working on this rocket with my superb team members that I got to know how it feels to have something to say with a WE in it. Our days have been hard for the past two months, filled with most wonderful times of college life that one should cherish. It was studded with almost all emotions and feelings for our rocket and each other; a bit of joy, a bit of disappointment, a bit of anger, a bit of confusion, a lot of compliments, inspirations and self-motivation and yes the most tiring sleepless nights. Even now if we turn back and see the intensity with which we worked, we dont believe that we actually did it! In spite of all this hard work, we have been able to do only a small part of the rocket. We have finished the launcher, the launch pad and the parachute part of the small rocket. But, have not yet tested the big rockets and the gliding mechanisms for them. We still wait for the day when we can go out and launch the big ones with multi stages and a beautiful and impressive landing mechanism with the perfect launches and a heart gripping flight

THE TECHKRITI EXPERIENCE

Our experience in IIT-Kanpur was amazing. We have no words to correctly explain the fun time we had there. The techfest was organized exceptionally well. The students who had come there were very talented and well versed with the concepts of science and engineering with which they were working.

The water rocket competition too went on well. We had a tough competition as there were 93 teams in total. In round one we got 46 points as our time of flight was 4.6 seconds, and in round two we got 100 points for hitting the bulls eye of the concentric circles. That was a proud moment for us even though we didnt win the competition as only 4 or 5 teams out of the 50 teams that had turned up. The reason for our loss was our ideas that were not implemented on time. We had not finished our project and tested it even once before we went there. And the biggest mistake was that we had expected too much of innovation in the water rockets by the other participants who came to IIT-K.

PLANS FOR TOMORROW

The team WINGZ is not only hard working, but also a team that dreams big. Having done a lot for the first project, we believe that we can do better if we keep the good work going. We are keen enough to complete our rocket and

start with new projects and techfests. We have designed a set of projects that we would like to undertake as soon as we complete our rocket stuff. They are:

Wind Tunnel

An Astronomical Telescope Ornithopter Micro Airplanes

Fly-Bot

Bucket-Bee Flying Bicycle These are the innovative ideas that have already been put on paper by our team. We only need the time to work and test on these things. As we work on these projects, we will also be making R.C. Aircrafts and other things and will be working with the colleges aero club to organize the big and small events in our college. For now, we can just hope that we succeed in our endeavors and work towards it.