Acta Astronautica 61 (2007) 1116 – 1120

www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro

Hands-on education system using water rocket

Nobuyuki Tomitaa,∗ , Rikio Watanabea , Alexander V. Nebylovb
a Musashi Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan
b St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, St. Petersburg, Russia

Received 14 June 2005; accepted 11 December 2006

Available online 17 May 2007

Abstract
Trial of hands-on education of rocket technology for university students using water rocket, which consists of structural study,
propulsion system study, aerodynamic study, stability study, and flight trajectory study, has been performed. Integrating each
subject into a group of tasks, a hands-on education system of aerospace technology will become feasible. Advantage of the
system is that students can verify the theory by hands-on practice. Development of recovery mechanism for water rocket will
be a good subject of hands-on innovative design. Although the system has been developed mostly for university students, it can
easily be converted to hands-on education system for school children and high school students.
© 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Water rocket is one of the most popular amuse-
ments among school children in festive events in Japan,
particularly in summer. It uses pressurized water as
a propulsive substance. As a tank for a water, a PET
(Polyethylene terephthalate) bottle for soft drinks is
usually used.
Water rocket is also attractive as an educational tool
for students because it is:
• a self-contained rocket with a unique rocket propul-
sion system,
∗ Corresponding author. Now, Visiting Professor, School of Sci-
ence for Open and Environmental System, Keio University, KZ
Campus, Bldg. K, 144-8 Ogura, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki 212-0054,
Japan. Fax: +81 3 5707 1139.
E-mail addresses: tv8n-tmt@asahi-net.or.jp (N. Tomita),
rwata@sc.musashi-tech.ac.jp (R. Watanabe), nebylov@aanet.ru
(A.V. Nebylov).
0094-5765/$ - see front matter © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2006.12.029
• safe,
• cheap,
• easy to make,
• easy to test.
A shortcoming of water rocket is its low payload
capability. Although, it raises restriction on application
of water rocket, education is exceptional, since it does
not require high payload capability.
Safety is the most important concern when we
deal with any kind of rocket. There were two major
safety concerns when we started our study. One was
structural strength of PET bottle under pressure. The
other was inconsistent behavior of water rocket flight
trajectory.
Several studies were performed particularly on the
second concern and a guideline to make water rocket
flight with consistency was established.
A study to investigate practical application of water
rocket by examining it from an engineering stand-
point was started in 1996 in Musashi Institute of
Technology.
 N. Tomita et al. / Acta Astronautica 61 (2007) 1116 – 1120
The following studies have been performed and some
of them are progressing.
(a) Structural study (1996),
(b) Propulsion system study (1997–),
(c) Aerodynamic study (2001–),
(d) Stability study (1996–2003),
(e) Recovery system study (1998–),
(f) Flight trajectory study (1998–),
(g) Launcher (1998–),
(h) Robust design study (2000–).
2. Structural study
2.1. Destructive testing
Destructive testing of PET bottles was performed to
identify the strength of the PET bottle and the behavior
when it breaks under pressure.
The 90 mm in diameter ×325 mm in length standard
1.5 l PET bottles (15 used ones and 10 new ones) were
tested.
Yield pressure and burst pressure of PET bottle are
shown in Table 1. The table shows that used bottles have
less strength compared to new bottles and that the min-
imum burst pressure for used bottles is approximately
1 MPa.
When pressurized, past yield pressure, the volume of
the bottle increased reaching more than 1.5 times the
initial volume. At the time of the burst, a crack appeared
in the skin at the middle of the cylinder section and in-
stantaneously the crack became wider turning the skin
over. However, the bottle skin did not break into frag-
ments. The skin kept itself still in one piece. We con-
cluded that, from a safety view point, the behavior of
the PET bottle at the burst is acceptable but to ensure
safety, it will be desirable to keep the pressure less than
0.5 MPa (approximately half the minimum burst pres-
sure of used bottles).
2.2. Tensile strength testing
Tensile strength testing of PET using standard JIS
specimens and tensile strength test machine was per-
formed. Ultimate tensile strength distributed between
134 and 180 GPa, and there were no observable differ-
ences between strength in axial (parallel to the axis of
the bottle) and transverse directions.
Young’s modulus was 1.3–1.5 GPa for the axial di-
rection and approximately 2 GPa for the transverse di-
rection. It was observed that when the loading speed
gets higher, Young’s modulus gets smaller.
1117
Table 1
Yield and burst pressure of PET bottle
Yield pressure (MPa) Burst pressure (MPa)
Min. Max. Min. Max.
Used bottle 0.75 1.25 1.08 1.50
New bottle 0.85 1.25 1.45 1.68
The results of pressure testing were evaluated using
the data from tensile strength testing and were found
agreeable.
3. Propulsion system study
Mathematical model of propulsion system was made
and verified by thrust measurement testing.
A crucial part in water rocket propulsion system is the
nozzle. In the beginning, straight nozzle with a diameter
of 7.5 mm, which is the standard nozzle for water rocket
in Japan, was used. Later on, different nozzles with
different configurations and sizes were examined.
Typical thrust–time history with 7.5 mm standard
nozzle and 0.5 MPa pressure is shown in Fig. 1
(0.5 × 10−3 m3 water). The device is an assembly of
nozzle and a cylindrical flow regulator, with many small
holes on the cylindrical surface of the regulator (Fig. 2).
This assembly was named as “flow regulating nozzle”.
Maximum thrust is approximately 50 N. Specific im-
pulse was approximately 4 s.
In the early phase of operation, single phase flow
of water came out of the nozzle. At about 0.3 s after
initiation, flow through the nozzle changed into two-
phase mixed flow of water and air.
With a standard nozzle, behavior of water in the bottle
was turbulent. It swirled like a flow in a sink.
One of the students who worked on water rocket
investigation invented a simple device which stopped
swirling in the tank (PET bottle) and changed turbulent
flow into smooth laminar flow.
Although with a flow regulating nozzle, the specific
impulse became a little lower, oscillatory movement of
the data got smaller. The device also helped to improve
inconsistent performance of the rocket in flight, which
will be addressed in the next paragraph.
Another student who worked on optimization of noz-
zle diameter as well as number and size of small holes
on the cylinder found that with increasing diameter of
the nozzle, specific impulse increased until nozzle diam-
eter became 8.5 mm. It was also found that smaller the
size of small holes and the larger the number of small
holes, the better the characteristics of flow regulation.
1118 N. Tomita et al. / Acta Astronautica 61 (2007) 1116 – 1120

100 4.1. Wind tunnel testing

90
80 Static stability is one of the most important factors
theoretical
70 experimental for stable flight.
Thrust [N]

60
50 Empirically static margin of about 20% was selected
40 in the design of fins for water rocket.
30 A wind tunnel testing was planned for the purpose
20 of verifying calculated lift coefficient and observing be-
10 havior of the rocket with large angle of attack.
0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 It was confirmed that calculated lift coefficient
time [msec] coincided with experiment within acceptable tolerance.
It was also observed that rigidity of the fin and attach-
Fig. 1. ing point of the fin to the body have an influence on
static margin because low rigidity of the fin and weak
adhesion of the fin to the body diminishes effective
surface of the fin. It was concluded that paper fins and
vinyl tapes, which are usually used for attachment of
fins to the rocket body by reason of convenience, were
not appropriate from the viewpoint of stability.
Boundary layer control by means of vortex gener-
ator was examined in wind tunnel testing. Although
there was slight advancement of aerodynamic center of
the rocket, oscillatory motion of the model in the wind
tunnel at high angle of attack largely diminished, and
obvious improvement in consistency of trajectory was
observed in flight testing.
Zero lift drag of 0.24 was obtained from wind tunnel
testing, which coincided with 0.24 which was obtained
Fig. 2. from analysis.

Mesh was tested instead of solid cylinder with small
holes. The result was that there was a problem in
structural strength of mesh structure. It was concluded
that although mesh is the best from a functional view-
point, it is not practical because of vulnerability in the
structure.
4. Stability study
Stability of flight was another concern from safety
viewpoint. It was common recognition that flight tra-
jectory of water rocket was inconsistent.
The problem is that sometimes vehicles, which have
the same configuration, show different flight trajectory
when launched with the same amount of water and pres-
sure.
Many times the water rocket takes an unanticipated
trajectory, hitting a car, building, or a player playing a
football game in the adjoining playground.
Exhaustive investigation of the cause for anomalous
flight has been performed.
4.2. Sloshing test
Sloshing of water in the tank was suspected as a major
cause for inconsistent flight performance.
Slosh testing was conducted by a student. Slosh fre-
quency was taken and was compared with numbers
calculated from the theory. Slosh phenomena in flight
was observed analyzing high-speed camera images of
water in the tank in flight. It was found that turbulent
water surface swirled and oscillated taking the shape of
a funnel.
From investigation of the vehicle and launcher, it was
also found that natural frequency of the launcher rail
was very close to the fundamental sloshing frequency.
Two actions were taken. One was to apply “flow reg-
ulating nozzle” instead of standard and the other was to
make the launcher rail stiffness higher.
It was observed that sloshing motion had gone when
flow regulating nozzle was used. With flow regulating
nozzle and stiffened launcher rail, water rocket started
to fly more consistently.
 N. Tomita et al. / Acta Astronautica 61 (2007) 1116 – 1120
4.3. Body divergence
Body divergence is a combined aeroelastic phenom-
ena. Theory of body divergence had been established
as early as 1960 and a failure of rocket due to body
divergence has been reported. A student challenged to
confirm the theory with water rocket. He made a rocket
with a joint with low stiffness in the middle of the body.
Stiffness of the joint was determined so that calculated
body divergence velocity coincides with maximum ve-
locity of water rocket (approximately 25 m/s).
In flight testing, at around maximum velocity, the
rocket lost its stability and stalled. Probably, this may
be the first experience of witnessing body divergence in
flight.
5. Trajectory observation
Analysis of flight trajectory is a good exercise for
students. However, the difficulty lies in verifying the
analysis by flight testing because there is no established
method to get flight trajectory data from flight testing
with high accuracy.
Several students challenged to get flight trajectory us-
ing two-point observation method from manual tracking
data resulting in large error in altitude.
5.1. Application of image processing
Joint effort of obtaining trajectory data from images
taken by two video cameras was conducted under joint
study of Musashi Institute of Technology and St. Pe-
tersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation.
Flight trajectory was assumed to be on a single ver-
tical plane and using elevation and azimuth angle data
obtained by calculating pixel number of the image of
the rocket, the position of the rocket was estimated.
The problem with this method was found to be the
great dependency of accuracy of trajectory on accuracy
of setting of optical axis of two cameras.
It requires tremendous effort to settle optical angle
correctly.
Another attempt to take data of any point from flight
trajectory from video data is going on at the Musashi
Institute of Technology.
With this method, a reference axis unit, which is used
to convert pixel number into actual distance, is placed
in the picture at the launch point, and optical axes of the
cameras are calculated using pixel number of the center
of the picture from the launch point in the picture. Two
vectors pointing to the image of the rocket in the picture
1119
will be calculated and the location of the rocket will be
determined as an intersection of two vectors.
With this method, maximum altitude will be calcu-
lated quickly.
6. Robust design
Robust design is a method of design to get high-
quality products at low cost [1].
This method is particularly useful when analytical
method is not fully applicable and quantitative infor-
mation is not obtainable. With water rocket, there are
some ambiguities concerning design parameters like
static margin, fin rigidity and fin attachment rigidity,
nose shape and boundary layer control.
An attempt to establish standard water rocket config-
uration using robust design method assuming the above-
mentioned design parameters as control factors, was
made.
As an evaluation function, deviation of the flight path
from predetermined flight path was taken.
Noise factors were selected as individual workman-
ship and launch condition (wind and weather).
Some of the results obtained from robust design are:
• static margin of 25% of dry rocket is preferable,
• there is no significant difference between cone nose
and semi-spherical nose,
• plastic fin is better than fin made from paper.
It was confirmed that the design of water rocket could
be a good exercise for robust design.
7. Recovery
Recovery is another important issue for rocket sys-
tem. Three types of recovery systems for water rocket
have been developed.
Type 1 uses propeller driven shaft for trigger of sepa-
ration mechanism and after separation the whole rocket
will be lowered by a parachute.
Type 2 uses a small bottle which is connected to the
top of the PET bottle. When pressure in the PET bottle
decreases, pressure in the small bottle will be decreased
too triggering separation mechanism. This type uses a
parachute to lower the rocket.
Type 3 uses servo actuator operated by radio control
from the ground. This type uses a parachute, too.
8. Educational program
All of the above mentioned activities have been per-
formed by students of Musashi Institute of Technology
1120 N. Tomita et al. / Acta Astronautica 61 (2007) 1116 – 1120
for eight (8) years. The total numbers of students who
participated in the project was 24 in total.
Every student conducted analysis, ground testing and
flight testing with rockets manufactured by themselves.
Everybody supported each other during flight testing.
It was a kind of team operation.
In an occasion of festive events of the university or
towns of the local area, students participated in the event
with water rockets, and instructed children on rocket
technology.
It could be said that water rocket is not only a good
tool for aerospace education, but it also gives a good
opportunity for cooperation and public service.
A complete set of half year course of water rocket
using tools which have been developed so far will be
possible. The program consists of:
• lecture on rocket propulsion,
• propulsion system testing,
• lectures on structural engineering,
• structural testing,
• lecture on aerodynamics of rocket,
• wind tunnel testing,
• lecture on stability of rocket,
• design of rocket with recovery system,
• structural and aerodynamic analysis,
• stability analysis,
• flight test,
• trajectory analysis.
Special test equipment for the course is as follows:
• material testing machine,
• propulsion system test stand with instrumentation
(thrust, pressure),
• vibration testing machine,
• wind tunnel,
• two video cameras,
• launching equipment (including pressurizing device).
9. Educational short program
Other than standard engineering programs, there are
some short programs for university students and school
children.
9.1. Program for university students
Introduction of water rocket as an aid for hands-
on education of the third grade students of aerospace
systems course of mechanical systems department,
Musashi Institute of Technology got started in 1996.
At Musashi Institute of Technology, a short program
of approximately four classes has been offered for third
year grade students as a part of hands-on education. The
course consists of a lecture on water rocket technology,
calculation of aerodynamic parameters, estimation of
static margin, design and manufacturing of rocket with
recovery system and launch.
Competitive factors were introduced by measur-
ing maximum altitude and time between launch and
landing.
References
[1] R. Watanabe, N. Tomita, T. Takemae, Thrust characteristics of
water rocket and their improvement’, Journal of the Japan Society
for Aeronautica and Space Sciences 49 (2001) 382–387.
Further reading
[2] T. Ota, A. Umemura, Parametric study of water rocket for
optimum flight, Journal of the Japan Society for Aeronautica
and Space Sciences 51 (2003) 314–320.
[3] M.S. Phadke, Quality Engineering Using Robust Design,
Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1989.
[4] N. Tomita, R. Watanabe, T. Takemae, Experimental study of
engineering education via water rocket, JSME, 2002, Congress
[in Japanese].