Interesting background.
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~einstein/waxyrockets.htm
Andrew MacMillen
Perhaps it's a mix of Jewlers wax with straight parafin. Jewlers wax is harder than straight parafin and a deep blue in color. I was planning on running some parafin grains through my mycrohybrid. I was also considering making a semi-composite propellant using parafin and KNO3.
Does anyone happen to know any descent values for Isp, a, and n that could be used as rough estimates for some calculations using N2O and parafin?
Mark
There are a large verity of jewelers waxes available, from very soft to very hard. Rio Grande carries a few, and sells in reasonable quantities:
<http://www.riogrande.com/>
> Perhaps it's a mix of Jewlers wax with straight parafin. Jewlers wax is> harder than straight parafin and a deep blue in color.
Could be. Jeweler's wax comes in a wide assortment of colors, generally
keyed to hardness. I did notice a dark particulate in a small melted puddle
after a burn, no idea if it was a solid or just that the dye came out of
solution during the melt.
> I was planning on running some parafin grains through my mycrohybrid.
Let us know your results.
> I was also considering making a semi-composite propellant using parafin
and
> KNO3.
I tried this once and was very disappointed by the open air burn. I couldn't
get a 65:35 blend to maintain combustion. It will probably do better under
pressure though.
> Does anyone happen to know any descent values for Isp, a, and n that could> be used as rough estimates for some calculations using N2O and parafin?
Propep shows a peak Isp at 300 psi in the neighborhood of 228 with a N2O/Wax
mass ratio of 7.3:1.
The a and n values are probably pretty similar to asphalt, I found these
numbers on the web for N2O-Asphalt: (I posted this information earlier, but
it doesn't seem to be distributed. Sorry for the duplication if it ever
arrives).
a - 0.06
n - 0.65
density:
1.107196 g/cc
0.04 lb/in
3
Dr. Cantwell and his students have published results in AIAA Journal of
Propulsion and Power for gaseous oxygen/wax and possibly other oxidizers.
The patent application for this work is :
High Regression Rate Hybrid Rocket Propellants and Method of Selecting
United States Patent Application-20020036038
"The fuel composition of claim 1 wherein the fuel is selected from the
n-alkane class of hydrocarbons and mixtures thereof, having the general
formula of C.sub.nH.sub.2n+2, where n is a mean carbon number and is in
the range of 18 to 40."
That class has several examples already disclosed in a number of hybrid
and solid patents already. These also include microcrystalline waxes
etc. They claimed polyethylene oxide but missed polyketone wax and a few
others.
"The fuel composition of claim 1 wherein the fuel is selected from the
group of alkhylnaphthalene compounds, anthracene and mixtures thereof."
These are Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. These chemicals exhibit high
sublimation rates. Moth balls are the two benzene ring version.
Anthracene has 3 benzene rings and just doesn't disappear at room
temperature. Already demonstrated and deployed in the Russian SA-6 ram
rocket and other examples.
Many of these compounds have been researched in propellant schemes more
than people realize.
Good luck to them. They need some good data aside from just GOX if it's
going to fly. Lots of political pull on the that team. Good for them.
Anthony J. Cesaroni
President/CEO
Cesaroni Technology/Cesaroni Aerospace
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