Performance analysis of water ballast rockets

Discussion about deployment systems including altimeters, timers, air speed flaps, servo systems, and chemical reactions.
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bugwubber
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Performance analysis of water ballast rockets

Post by bugwubber »

I've been having a lot of fun with these water ballast rockets that have a hole in the tip of the nose cone. But I've often wondered what performance hit these were taking to not have a sealed nosecone.

I was finally able to launch a single pressure bottle in two configurations, once with a conventional nosecone and parachute recovery, and once with a water ballast nosecone with about 1/2" opening in the tip. I should point out that I was not precise with amt of water so this was really just a ballpark check.

Here are the results:
HK-A_2014426_2048.png
HK-A_2014426_2048.png (154.47 KiB) Viewed 33 times
And the launch video:
[youtube][/youtube]

The pressure bottle was my 1 liter 30mm nozzle widemouth bottle with triangle 1/4" plywood fins.

Launched at 100psi.
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U.S. Water Rockets1
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Re: Performance analysis of water ballast rockets

Post by U.S. Water Rockets1 »

Nice work!
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bugwubber
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Re: Performance analysis of water ballast rockets

Post by bugwubber »

U.S. Water Rockets1 wrote:Nice work!
Thanks!

Here are the onboard camera videos from both flights.

Texas Express (water ballast) Video Cam Car
[youtube][/youtube]

Lucy (parachute) SG Wide Angle Free View
[youtube][/youtube]

The wide angle cam lets me pan and rotate the video around to help keep the video oriented to the best angle.
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