Author Topic: Personal research into aerospace engineering  (Read 11756 times)

Offline ScorpRocket

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Personal research into aerospace engineering
« on: 10/18/2018 10:33 pm »
Hello,
I am a student at a university that doesn’t have a heavy focus on aerospace, and I am wanting to learn some for myself. Are there some reference materials (textbooks, papers or other) on rocket structure and design? I have been somewhat striking out in my area.
Thank you.

Offline Coastal Ron

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #1 on: 10/18/2018 11:06 pm »
Is this for personal interest, or are you planning to transfer to a college that offers an aerospace engineering degree program and want to get a head start?
If we don't continuously lower the cost to access space, how are we ever going to afford to expand humanity out into space?

Offline Eric Hedman

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #2 on: 10/18/2018 11:57 pm »
Here's a book that's been put online which is a basic start to rocket engine design:

http://risacher.org/rocket/

The book, "HOW to DESIGN, BUILD and TEST SMALL LIQUID-FUEL ROCKET ENGINES" from Rocketlab is a book I bought when I was in high school a million years ago.  It is something that is a good place to start if you're interested in propulsion.  And being available free online is a pretty good price.

Offline speedevil

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #3 on: 10/19/2018 10:06 am »
As a perhaps informative site:
http://nakka-rocketry.net/
This investigates how to produce solid amateur rockets, and the general testing process and issues are pretty similar to what goes on with full size solids.

There are excellent resources on the NASA site, hidden away - and some less hidden.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710019929.pdf - for example.
Huzel&Huang - Design of liquid propellant rocket engines. (revised edition https://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Propellant-Progress-Astronautics-Aeronautics/dp/1563470136 )

Offline ScorpRocket

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #4 on: 10/22/2018 06:11 am »
Thank you for all the replies, To answer some questions:
My question is in regards to personal interest, specifically regarding some of my friends and I starting our own rocketry project. Apologies for the late response.

Offline Fequalsma

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #5 on: 01/19/2019 10:12 pm »
Try searching in ntrs.nasa.gov.  NASA archives all of its public papers and reports there. For structures, look for Elmer Bruhn, Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, and C-Y Niu, Aiframe Structural Design. You can also talk to the Civil and Mechanical Engineering departments, as the basics are pretty much the same at your level.
F=ma

Hello,
I am a student at a university that doesn’t have a heavy focus on aerospace, and I am wanting to learn some for myself. Are there some reference materials (textbooks, papers or other) on rocket structure and design? I have been somewhat striking out in my area.
Thank you.

Offline tyrred

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #6 on: 01/20/2019 05:46 am »
Thank you for all the replies, To answer some questions:
My question is in regards to personal interest, specifically regarding some of my friends and I starting our own rocketry project. Apologies for the late response.

Welcome to the forum!

Offline gtae07

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #7 on: 01/11/2020 08:29 pm »
Try searching in ntrs.nasa.gov.  NASA archives all of its public papers and reports there. For structures, look for Elmer Bruhn, Analysis and Design of Flight Vehicle Structures, and C-Y Niu, Aiframe Structural Design. You can also talk to the Civil and Mechanical Engineering departments, as the basics are pretty much the same at your level.
F=ma

Personally I'd go to the civil/mechanical departments, too.  Instruction from a person really beats out trying to self-teach from the texts (which are almost universally written in a dense, deductive style that's great for presenting material you already know, but horrible to try and learn from).

Structures classes could be far better taught if they use physical models, real-world examples and explanations, etc. instead of "consider arbitrary body B with generalized forces R, S, and T, where it can be shown that..."

I think about the experiences coworkers had in controls classes (where the professor explained things well and demonstrated concepts and what actually happens with physical items) and compare them to my experience (professors who geeked out to lots of math and tried to be as rigorous and formal as possible) and it really makes me angry.  Or the KU structures professor who has his students design, build, and static test a "wing", versus my professors who stuck exclusively to whiteboards and emphasized doing finite element calculations by hand.

I've become quite disillusioned with my alma mater, particularly the aerospace school, over these issues.  I look at what places like Purdue, KU, and Delft do in their AE programs (like real hands-on projects, teaching with physical examples) and compare them to Georgia Tech's almost purely theory-based program, and I start to wonder why GT is so highly ranked...  what happened to the North Avenue Trade School?

Offline david2019

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Re: Personal research into aerospace engineering
« Reply #8 on: 05/27/2020 03:56 pm »
Thanks for the post.

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