Comparison of a 6DOF Simulation to a Real Launch

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Posted on October 23, 2015 by Engineering

Engineering

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Students: Andrew Tindell and Nghia Huynh

The Launch Society this year will be working on creating a fully non-linear 6 degree of freedom simulation to estimate lift and drag characteristics on their rocket launches. They build the entire rocket in house and perform their launches about 3 hrs away from campus. The rocket is fit with position sensors in order to compare the flight data with the simulation results.

Andrew and Nghia can be seen hard at work putting together the rocket. In the left photo you can see Nghia putting together the intricate pieces of the motor while on the right both students inspect the fins and motor housing.

After waking up at 4:30am and working for over 6 hours the rocket is finally complete! Take a look at the video below to see the rocket launch.

Currently the Launch Society is fitting the next rocket with Altimeters and GPS to obtain in flight data of the rocket. Combined with their rigid 6DOF model they will attempt to measure as many aerodynamic coefficients as possible. Seen below is an Altimeter (the black circle with a whole in it) and a GPS (brown square) circuit complete with a lipo battery. A quarter is pictured beside the device to show size.

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