
Adding charcoal to rocket fuel
#1
Posted 22 June 2022 - 08:08 AM
#2
Posted 23 June 2022 - 12:10 AM
I'm assuming you mean nozzled rockets. If you add airfloat, most of it is consumed in the rocket, and it does slow the burn rate by changing the formula. If you add coarse charcoal like -36 or -80 mesh, most of it is consumed in the off-board reaction outside the motor (sparks). 'They' say that adding coarse charcoal slows the propellant down, but that's not actually true. The burn time is actually shorter because there is less propellant to burn when coarse charcoal is added. I tested this on the Acme to prove that point. In the end, the result is probably about the same as far as backing away from the red line goes, whichever way you go.
I don't know if you have standard BP tooling or not, but it does give you a lot more versatility than the weaker universal tooling. There are so many combinations you can use with either kind of tooling. With the universal tooling, you can mix your sparky, weak BP propellant with some whistle and get good power with a nice tail- without a nozzle of course
#3
Posted 23 June 2022 - 02:37 PM
BP burns approximately completely, BP with extra fine charcoal burns more slowly and supposedly burns to CO (rather than CO2) leading to smaller molecules supposedly exiting the nozzle faster.
If you check in Lancaster's book he has lots of formulae using various cuts of BP with more or less extra fuel to make rockets of all sizes, gerbes, fountains, wheel drivers etc.
#4
Posted 19 July 2022 - 11:09 AM
Mixing different grades of charcoal and meshes will give your rich tails. For spark purposes, some slower burning charcoals can be used as well. Thicker particles could be even saturated in oxidizer (nitrate) solution and could give a brighter/more interesting effect.
Edited by 50AE, 19 July 2022 - 11:09 AM.
#5
Posted 19 July 2022 - 12:24 PM
I like the idea of nitrating the charcoalMixing different grades of charcoal and meshes will give your rich tails. For spark purposes, some slower burning charcoals can be used as well. Thicker particles could be even saturated in oxidizer (nitrate) solution and could give a brighter/more interesting effect.
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