Rocket Candy (Potassium Nitrate and Sugar)
While working on my rocket projects I read up on homemade rocket fuel. The only two that are viable are black powder (gunpowder) and rocket candy. Since Black Powder is not available where I live, I chose to make rocket candy as an experiment. The formula that I followed was 65% Potassium Nitrate and 35% […]
Phoenix Avatar: Finished 3D Print
I have received my first ever 3D Printed model. Some tiem ago I ordered a stylised Phoenix Logo printed in stainless steel and plated in plished gold. I am very happy with the result. The piece feels solid, and the details are exactly as they appeared in the .STL file I sent to the printers. […]
P151: VTOL Aircraft
I have become very interested in aircraft, and in particular ground effect and VTOL aircraft, since I began working on my previous project (P150). I realised during the P150 project that a supersonic ekranoplan would not really be feasible, not just because of the difficulties in navigating at high speed that close to the ground, […]
P-150: Ekranoplan: Candidate CFD models
I have completed most of the CAD modelling of the prospective ekranoplan models. I have created six different models to test in the OpenFOAM wind tunnel. One with a Standard delta wing (the length of the tip chord being 0) , one with a trapezoidal delta wing (with tip chord being 10% of the root […]
P-150: Ekranoplan: Mathematics and Preliminary Wing Planforms
I have completed the calculations for the wings of the supersonic ekranoplan. I have come up with a series of options, all of which I intend to test in openFOAM. I have two wing plan forms: Delta, and Trapezoidal delta. I may also creae an Ogival or Compound delta wing. With each of these two […]
(P150) Sears-Haack Body: Inventor Model
The Sears-Haack body is the shape which has the lowest possible wave drag while travelling at supersonic speeds, and is therefor the optimum shape for a vehicle operating at these speeds. At low speeds, the majority of drag on a flying vehicle is induced and parasitic drag. At Transonic and Supersonic speeds the effects of […]
OracleVM and CAELinux: Setup and Testing with OpenFOAM: Part 2
I have succeded in configuring OpenFOAM to load my own custom models. This was relatively complex, but I can now load models at will into OpenFoam for analysis. I still need to spend some more time researching the various dictionaries and configurations files that OpenFOAM uses for it’s analysis, as well as the various options […]
OracleVM and CAELinux: Setup and Testing with OpenFOAM
I have succeeded in getting OpenFOAM working. I wasn’t able to install it correctly on windows, despite several attempts, but I did discover an excellent distribution of Linux called CAELinux. This distribution is designed for engineers and programmers, and comes with a whole host of tools, including OpenFOAM. It also has code editors, the Arduino […]