AMP-1 Rocket Engine

On Sunday, March 24th, 2019, the AMP-1 Rocket Engine was fired up for the first time and ran a complete (3) second full duration firing. At this time the data from the test is still being evaluated to find how much thrust the engine produced. Pictures and videos of the test are below.

These flow tests were mostly to do a check in and out of the control systems to make sure the valves will operate and function at the right time and with a high degree of precision. Flow testing with water does not necessarily give an accurate reading to the amount of propellants that will be consumed during the test as water and kerosene are vastly different in weights and density. 

A good mounting area was needed for the power supplies and Arduinos so that they could be securely mounted and not moved. Doing this eliminates additional risk of wires getting caught if the electronics were free floating.

As a preliminary test for real flow tests, the plumbing was all hooked up and a simulated 100PSI pressure drop over the injector was tested with water and compressed gas. The results were quite promising but the programming needed some serious work as the valves acted abnormally under certain circumstances. 

One of the next big things to do was to create a custom made board to house some electronics on it for control of the ignition, servo motors and load cell. The 16 bit I2C plugs into the female port in the upper right to enhance the signal from the load cell. There is a relay that is hooked up to pin D12 on the Arduino Mega 2560 that will allow 12VDC to flow through the nichrome igniter in the engine and start the ignition sequence. None of the circuits were too difficult to conceive and thus allow for simple plug and play into the two Arduinos to complete test and run the engine. 

Over the course of a few days, the second propellant valve mount and coupler were machined for the oxygen ball valve. This was a very straight forward process as it is identical to the first one made. The last picture in the series is the two valves set up for testing in the bench vise. 

These tests were conducted on March 10th to evaluate some of the stream characteristics of water flowing through the injector. Though this post is titled for the fuel orifice, the impinging streams of the oxidizer flow were tested as well. Some videos will be posted on this post or under the Pictures & Videos tab.  

The Blast Plate was constructed to prevent any damage to the sensitive components of the test stand from a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the engine. The plate is made out of 1/8" mild steel and bolted to the test stand frame.