Purdue School of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Propulsion Web Page

Sponsored by Allied Signal

Welcome to the home of smoke and fire. The following pages contain images and specs for many of today's rocket and airbreathing propulsion systems, as well as a compilation of useful data for propulsion analysis using fundamentals of compressible flow and combustion. In addition, you can find out more about Purdue's Propulsion program here.

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Engine Types, with Pictures and Statistics

Rocket Engines

• Solid Rocket Motors
• Liquid Rocket Engines
• Satellite Propulsion Systems
• Advanced Concepts

Airbreathing Engines

• Some Basic Concepts
• Turbojet Engines
• Turbofan Engines
• Turboprop and Turboshaft Engines
• Ramjet and Scramjet Engines
• VTOL and other advanced concepts

Useful Propulsion Data

Fundamental Properties of Internal Fluid Flows

• 1-D Isentropic Flow
  • Gamma=1.4
  • Gamma=1.3
  • Gamma=1.2
• Normal Shocks
• Fanno Flow
• Rayleigh Flow
• Rocket Thrust Coefficient Tables
  • Gamma=1.4
  • Gamma=1.3
  • Gamma=1.2
• U.S. Standard Atmosphere

Combustion and Thermochemical Data

• Periodic Table of the Elements
• Specific Heat Data for Common Gases
• NASA Thermochemistry Code - Sample Input Files
• Heats of Formation and Chemical Composition
• Constant Pressure Equilibrium Constants (Kp Data)

Cool Video Clips

Test Firing at Allegany Ballistics Laboratory, Alliant Techsystems, Inc.

• Gas exit velocity  : 7000 ft/sec.
• Max horsepower : 70,000 HP.  (It is almost same horsepower generated by 80 Indy cars! (Maximum horsepower of a typical Indy car : 800 HP ~ 900 HP) )
  

Links

Technical Societies/NASA

• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 
• Chemical Propulsion Information Agency  
• NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center Space Transportation Site 

Rocket/Space Links

• USC Spacecraft/Rockets Site  
• Hitchikers Guide to Model Rocketry  
• Rocketry Online  
• Mark WadeÆs Encyclopedia Astronautica û an awesome compendium of lots of rocket/engine/propellant data (see also http://www.astronautix.com/ )
• AndrewÆs Space and Technology Page û launch vehicle, current launch events
• Heavens Above û find your coordinates or where objects in space will be. 
• Snecma website û large aircraft engines and rocket engines:
• The Wired Chemist û lots of good chemistry info
• NIST Chemistry book û search engine for chemistry info  
• NASA Tech. Reports Server  
• NASA SP-125 Design of Liquid Rocket Engines   

Mini-Jet Engines

• http://www.amtjets.com/
• http://www.turbinetechnologies.com/
• http://www.ramicrojets.com/

How a jet engine works

• http://www.multimania.com/bailliez/aerospace/engine/
• http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/aturbj.html

DonÆt try this at home pages

• http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~spenceat/explosives/

This webpage is Copyright 1998 Purdue University.

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