Strand Burner

• Michael Baureis
• Kyle Mcdougall
• Ghanshyam Patel
• Aakarsh Srivastav

Advisor: Michael Brown, PhD

Sponsor: Patrick Lynch, PhD

This project was assigned to the team by the organization AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics). The desired objective is to finish the design and setup of a strand burner. A strand burner is an apparatus that is used to collect the burn rates of solid propellant simulated inside a rocket. The strand burner provided to us was pre-assembled and the team was responsible for writing the code to run and collect data from the apparatus as well as create a ventilation and plumbing system. After these tasks were completed, the team sketched and implemented an electrical wiring system followed by the ventilation systems and the input power setup. After researching and gaining a deeper understanding of the principals and functionality of a strand burner, the team assessed the crucial steps that needed to be taken in order to fulfill the sponsor’s expectations of a fully functioning strand burner. The strand burner was successfully completed and satisfied the sponsor’s requirements of being able to ignite a piece of propellant and gather the burn rate and pressure readings in the desired analytical format on LabView. The strand burner is now ready to execute its primary objective; effortlessly and autonomously.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.