Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Rocket Team Project Hyperion: Bi-Liquid Pump Design for Rocket Engine

In course

ME-314: Concurrent engineering project

L'étudiant apprend à appliquer les compétences acquises en travaillant dans une équipe responsable d'une portion d'un projet plus vaste. ...

Description

This lecture covers the project Hyperion of the EPFL Rocket Team, focusing on the design of a bi-liquid pump for LO2 and ethanol for a rocket engine. The presentation includes an overview of the project, the team members, and detailed technical information on materials, properties, and frequencies related to the pump design.

Official source

Related concepts (18)

Liquid-propellant rocket

A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Gaseous propellants may also be used but are not common because of their low density and difficulty with common pumping methods. Liquids are desirable because they have a reasonably high density and high specific impulse (Isp). This allows the volume of the propellant tanks to be relatively low.

Rocket engine

A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordance with Newton's third law. Most rocket engines use the combustion of reactive chemicals to supply the necessary energy, but non-combusting forms such as cold gas thrusters and nuclear thermal rockets also exist. Vehicles propelled by rocket engines are commonly called rockets.

Rocket engine nozzle

A rocket engine nozzle is a propelling nozzle (usually of the de Laval type) used in a rocket engine to expand and accelerate combustion products to high supersonic velocities. Simply: propellants pressurized by either pumps or high pressure ullage gas to anywhere between two and several hundred atmospheres are injected into a combustion chamber to burn, and the combustion chamber leads into a nozzle which converts the energy contained in high pressure, high temperature combustion products into kinetic energy by accelerating the gas to high velocity and near-ambient pressure.

Aerospike engine

The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes. It belongs to the class of altitude compensating nozzle engines. Aerospike engines have been studied for several years and are the baseline engines for many single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) designs and were also a strong contender for the Space Shuttle main engine. However, no such engine is in commercial production, although some large-scale aerospikes are in testing phases.

Ethanol fuel

Ethanol fuel is fuel containing ethyl alcohol, the same type of alcohol as found in alcoholic beverages. It is most often used as a motor fuel, mainly as a biofuel additive for gasoline. Several common ethanol fuel mixtures are in use around the world. The use of pure hydrous or anhydrous ethanol in internal combustion engines (ICEs) is only possible if the engines are designed or modified for that purpose.

Related lectures (31)

Variable Mass System and Accelerated Frames

Explores variable mass systems, rocket thrust, takeoff conditions, and accelerated frames.

Spacecraft Propulsion MOOC: Space Mission Design and Operations

Explores spacecraft propulsion principles, including thrust, acceleration, efficiency, and chemical propulsion in space mission design.

Salarie de la peur

Covers modeling a truck carrying nitroglycerin and analyzing forces on a rocket in space.

Pioneers in Astronomy and Rocket Science MOOC: Space Mission Design and Operations

Covers the pioneers in astronomy and rocket science who shaped our understanding of celestial mechanics and propelled us into space.

Variable Mass System: Rocket