Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering

Improving our system thanks to ifm electronic!🛠️

Last week, the Stratos V team tested the Firebolt engine! Testing the engine is crucial to better understand and improve its performance. We would like to express our gratitude to ifm for their support during our latest engine hot fire campaign and over the last few years. They provided us with pressure sensors, specifically the PT5402 and PT5423 models, enabling us to measure pressures accurately throughout the entire system. 🔥🚀🔧

ifm's pressure sensors have proven to be highly reliable, demonstrating remarkable shock and vibration resistance. This exceptional durability makes them the perfect choice for our demanding rocket engine test environment. With a wide pressure measurement range of 0 to 100 bar, depending on the model, these sensors have been seamlessly integrated into various components of our system. As pressures fluctuate across different parts, these measurement ranges enable us to accurately capture pressure peaks at specific locations, aiding us in understanding our engine's performance. ⚙️📊

The invaluable support provided by ifm has been instrumental in our achievements, and we extend our heartfelt appreciation for their continued partnership. We anticipate utilizing ifm's high-quality pressure sensors in future tests and campaigns. With their commitment to excellence, we are confident that ifm will continue to be an essential collaborator in our pursuit of groundbreaking advancements in reusable rocket technology. 🤝🚀✨

Successful cold-flow test from Stratos V! 💦

In February, Stratos V did a cold-flow campaign to validate our pintle mass flow and sizing tool, calibrate our venturi for accurate mass flow data and test a new capacitive level sensor. We performed 5 cold flows with water for each of the four different pintles. We also did 5 cold flows with ethanol for one pintle, measuring the amount expelled in 5 seconds.

Our current pintle injector had higher than expected mass flow, so we tested several pintle diameters to design a new pintle with our target mass flow and OF ratio of 1.49. This will make our engine more efficient, wasting less ethanol.

Using the gathered data, have designed and will test the new pintle injector in the near future. We'll also make changes to the capacitive fill level sensor and test it again, and manufacture a second venturi for the LOx side to calibrate it too.

Stay tuned for more updates on our engine development! 🚀💫