Rocket Engine

Texas A&M University Rocket Engine Design

Overview

While working as a graduate advisor and an avionics and control systems engineer at Texas A&M University Rocket Engine Design (TAMU RED), Devin participated in the design, manufacturing, and firing of the first ever liquid bipropellant rocket engine at Texas A&M University. This rocket engine, named "Elysium", utilized Ethanol and liquid Nitrous-Oxide as its propellants, and had been developed from start-to-finish over the course of about 6 months.

The team successfully fired the rocket engine for the first time in College Station, Texas on December 3rd, 2024, marking a major moment in both the student organization's and the university's history.

Devin also worked in the early development of Elysium 2, which was to feature engine throttling and thrust-vector-control, opening a path to eventually use a liquid rocket engine on a controlled vehicle.

Blast_Shield_Fire(1).mp4

(VOLUME WARNING!)

Technical Work

Devin spearheaded the design of the control system configuration and the graphic user interface (Python & C++) that would handle the display of all sensor data and valve control. Additionally, Devin programmed the on-board micro-controllers (C++) and conducted component level-testing for verification and validation of the data acquisition and control system. As the team's graduate advisor, he gave insight into other technical decisions along the design process of the overall rocket engine, as well as the DAQ & control subsystem.

The software Devin worked on was a part of the overall communications system, which handled digital and analog signal transfer between the various hardware of the DAQ and controls system. Additionally, Devin worked on assembly the electronics hardware and operating Elysium's graphical user interface on the day of the engine fire.

The graphic user interface for Elysium was built off of the work done on the Fluid System Test Bench. It was desired to use a more efficient programming language for the time-sensitive operations of the engine, so the language was swapped from Python to C++, requiring an entire rewrite of the GUI.

Devin spearheaded the development of a Thrust-Vector-Control (TCV) system into the next iteration of Elysium, allowing the engine to gimbal 5-7 degrees. Additionally, Devin worked on the controller design for the engine throttling system (MATLAB & Simulink), laying out the testing procedure and analysis needed to continue the project. These upgrades to the rocket engine were to allow it to change its thrust and direction during a hot fire.