M E M O R A N D U M

To:

CP Nozzles

From: Jose Delgado

Date: September 30, 2015
Subject: Desired Rocket Calculations
Thank you, for considering me as one of your candidates for hire. I have received all the data regarding
the initial testing, of the liquid N2O as the oxidizer and Plexiglas as the fuel grain, and also reviewed
your testing video to give you the best calculations, graphs and files of code I can produce.
Below I will explain the processes by I obtained the information you needed all split up into a Methods,
hand-calculations (Appendix A), graphs (Appendix B), MatLab code (Appendix C) and Function Files
created (Appendix D). These sections will be explored in depth to understand my actions and give insight
to the issues that aroused throughout the process.
MethodsThe problem itself was broken down into a simple Force Body Diagram and Kinetic Diagram (Appendix
A). From these two diagrams I was able to deduct that the only two forces contributing to the rockets
acceleration were the thrust and gravity. With simple summation of forces in the vertical direction I ended
up with the equation,
m*a=FThrust-m*g,
where FThrust was given in the data sheet, m was given in the description and g being standard gravity, 9.81
meters per second squared. With the use of the given data I was able to solve for a (acceleration) in the
equation and plot it versus time. With the myTrapz function file I was able to create arrays of velocity and
position from the acceleration array to create the other plots (Appendix B).
GraphsThe graphs are a simple plot of the arrays created versus their corresponding time array. The graphs were
created using the plot function in MatLab, which is just a plot of all the points in a given array. Graphs are
attached in Appendix B.
MatLab CodeThe MatLab code was a simple yet time consuming part of this project. The main issue for me was
uploading the xlsx file into the MatLab program, but once that was done all ran smoothly. As seen in
Appendix C the uploaded spreadsheet was converted into two arrays T and F, the uppercase letters were
used because the arrays included extra data that was used in the graphs and also F (force) was to be later
converted to a (acceleration). The function file myTrapz was a tricky one to formulate as I had difficulty
creating an array of the values added up, while reviewing some previous notes I encountered the zeros
function which perfectly closed up those problems. The myMax function was much simpler since it was a
type of function file I knew well and had done before in different ways.
To conclude all that was done with your Desired Rocket Calculations assignment I gathered that the
maximum velocity of the rocket was about 438.1 meters per second and the maximum height reached
with respect to where the rocket was launched was about 4130 meters. I hope this fulfills all that was
requested and feel free to contact me for another assignment.

Attachments (4)

Appendix B

Appendix C
%% Rocket Lab 1
% Jose Delgado
% ME 326-05 Lab
%% Clearing of values
clear;
close all;
clc;
%% Givens of the Problem
m=10;
% This is the mass of the rocket in kilograms
% We are assuming there is negligible mass loss
g=9.81;
% This is the value of gravity to be used in our problem
%% Rocket Thrust Data Import
% Using the xlsread command to input the data spread sheet
[num,txt,raw]=xlsread('326_Rocket_Thrust.xlsx');
T = num(:,1);
% Assigned the entire first value to t in seconds
F = num(:,2);
% Assigned the entire first value to F in newtons
%% Converting each force into the acceleration
% The force gets the force of gravity subtracted to find accel SEE
Apen A
% That is then divided by the mass
A=(F-m*g)./m;
%% Removing Nonusable data
a=A(1:length(F)-1,1);
% Little a is the new acceleration vector losing the average
t=T(1:length(F)-1,1);
% Little t is the new time vector without the NaN
%% Making the Acceleration Vs Time plot
figure;
plot(t,a)
title('Acceleration vs Time');
xlabel('t (seconds)');
ylabel('a (meters per second^2)');
%% Using myTrapz to find velocity
% myTraps uses the trapezoidal rule to integrate acceleration
% myTraps outputs a new velocity vector same length as the time
v=myTrapz(t,a);
figure;
plot(t,v)
title('Velocity vs Time');
xlabel('t (seconds)');
ylabel('v (meters per second)');

%% Using myTrapz again find displacment

s=myTrapz(t,v);
figure;
plot(t,s)
title('Distance vs Time');
xlabel('t seconds');
ylabel('s (meters)');
%% Using myMax find the max displacement and velocity
MaxV=myMax(t,v)
MaxS=myMax(t,s)

Command Window Answers:

MaxV =
438.0800
MaxS =
4.1294e+03

Appemdix D

The Trapezoidal Method function file:

function myIntegral = myTrapz(t,a)
%UNTITLED7 Summary of this function goes here
%
Detailed explanation goes here
myIntegral=zeros(length(t),1);
for i=2:length(t)
q=t(i)-t(i-1);
r=a(i)+a(i-1);
myIntegral(i)=q*r*.5+myIntegral(i-1);
i=i+1;
end

The Max Value function file:

function myValue = myMax(X,Y)
%UNTITLED6 Summary of this function goes here
%
Detailed explanation goes here
i=1;
t=0;
n=length(X);
while i<=n
if Y(i)>t;
t=Y(i);
else t=t;
end
i=i+1;
end
myValue=t;
end