Week 3: Continued Simulations and Many Phone Calls

Monday:

I continued simulating with RockSim and OpenRocket, defining relationships between different rocket alterations and the resulting altitude. For example, I established that—all else equal—the optimal amount of fins on a rocket for optimal flight was 4, and that the optimal fin cross section shape is that of airfoil.

 

Number of Fins	Apogee (m)	Fin Cross Section (Shape)	Apogee (m)
1	107	Square	237
2	107	Rounded	246
3	249	Airfoil	249
4	244
5	239
6	234
7	230
8	225

 

 

Tuesday:

I attempted to contact my professor, informing him of the results of my simulations, but he replied back telling me that he was on a trip. He will be on that trip for the next two weeks, and he gave me 3 tasks to complete.

 

1. Finish Simulations, including optimal fin rotation angle and optimal fin material.
2. Graph those simulations—basic graphs are fine
3. Figure out where to order all of the materials to build the optimal fins derived from these simulations

 

Wednesday:

I began wrapping up simulations, running trials for the two categories that my professor told me to do.

 

Fin Rotation (º)	Apogee (m)	Thickness of Fin (cm)	Apogee (m)	Fin Material	Apogee (m)
90	249	0.1	253	Balsa	246
80	249	0.2	245	Depron	249
70	249	0.3	237	Styrofoam (0.032g/cm/cm/cm)	249
60	249	0.4	230
50	249	0.5	224
40	249	0.6	218
30	249	0.7	212
20	249	0.8	206

 

Thursday: I graphed the two relationships that my professor asked for. (They don’t show on WordPress).

Friday:

I spent the day calling different fin design companies about potentially designing fins for my project. I called the three that my professor and I had decided on last week: Altus Metrum, Glenmarc, and Noris Rocketry. While I did not decide on one company just yet, I got an idea of the cost necessary to build my rocket.