Hybrid Rocket Modeling

In the winter of 2018/2019 I began to mathematically model UVic Rocketry’s (UVR) hybrid rocket in order to improve understanding of the system, develop an improved testing plan, and perform design optimization of the eventual flight engine. UVR has been pursuing hybrid propulsion for approximately two years, but development has been held up by availability of testing locations and budget constraints. The development of a higher fidelity model than simple steady-state approximations was necessary in order to ensure that the testing timeline could be focused on validating the most important features of the rocket engine.

The bulk of this work was done for my honours thesis under Dr. Henning Struchtrup at UVic (MECH 498). Over the course of a few months an extensive literature review was performed, the major components of a self-pressurizing paraffin-N2O hybrid rocket were modeled (oxidizer tank, injector, combustion chamber, nozzle), the model was validated against similar rocket designs and tests found in literature, design parameters were optimized with respect to specific impulse and altitude targets using genetic algorithms, and a global sensitivity analysis was performed to identify the most influential parameters on rocket performance. This work has helped UVR size their Ramses-1 rocket and clarify testing goals and procedures.

The mathematical model developed in this work was implemented numerically in MATLAB and interfaced with Microsoft Excel for program input and output. A presentation outlining the project is embedded below and you can find the full thesis here.