openrocketengine is an open source project designed to help with the design and development of liquid rocket engines The equations used in this program were taken from Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines by Huzel and Huang.
To run openrocketengine, execute engine_builder.py with a python 2.7 interpreter from the enginebuilder directory.
Pre-release - Version 0.0.1
Currently, the program does not compute propellant curves. Consequently, chamber pressure can not be optimized, and a value of 75 atm is chosen. This is a dangerous assumption. Until curves.py is complete, the results obtained with openrocketengine should not be consulted in the design of any liquid rocket engine.
Currently, all analysis is done at steady-state.
Community support is welcome.
For problems with calculations and equations, open an issue and it will be corrected by one of the admins.
For improvements to algorithms, create a pull request that details what has been changed.
For all other contributions, use issues and pull requests at your discretion.
openrocketengine undergoes verification and validation testing in accordance to IEEE 1012-2012.
Currently, the program supports liquid engine design with propellant combinations seen in propellant.json. Vacuum engine design is not yet fully supported. Namely, there is currently no method used to optimize the exit area of the nozzle. This will likely require more user input as it will be the optimization of nozzle weight, material selection, and expansion area ratio.
What parameters need to be optimized, and what is an optimized engine design?
Parameters to Optimize
- thrust/weight ratio
- material cost
- manufacturing difficulty (this will be hard) Using the DEAP library, a genetic algorithm will be used to optimize the liquid engine design across these parameters.
Currently, openrocketengine creates an excel file with some design parameters that can be used to design an engine. Future support for generating '.IGES' files would be great.
Looking at using/improving this library to generate .IGES files.
openrocketengine should have the ability to take test data inputs and use that information to improve the engine model.
Generate latex calculations output using template.
openrocketengine is released under the MIT license.