Recent content by BrandonBerchtold

Summary:: Not looking for concrete answers, just want to spitball some ideas about the basics of Algae cultivation and implications of scaling to large scale. So the idea is this: Build massive ponds and seed them with an initial culture of algae. Wait one doubling period and filter out half...

Oh wow, that's perfect @bigfooted! I am definitely going to have to read up on combustion physics before touching the code but that looks like it'll be perfect for my project.

Thanks for the suggestions boneh3ad. I haven't worked much with real gases so I will definitely be getting myself a copy of Anderson's Hypersonic and High-Temperature Gas Dynamics to hopefully get a better understanding of treatment of such gases.

From what I found in "Rocket Propulsion Elements" and "Modern Engineering for Design of liquid Propellant Rocket Engines", generally nozzle design can be done by assuming frozen composition flow throughout the nozzle (which generally underestimates temperatures), equilibrium composition flow...

I am familiar with CFD theory though I have limited hands on experience with implementing it. I took an FEM course during my undergrad where we solved thermal conduction problems using our own FEM code. I'm currently half way through reading "Modern Compressible Flow: With Historical Perspective...

I would like to write a program to calculate the equilibrium concentrations of 10 or more chemical species at any axial location along a quasi 1D isentropic methane-liquid oxygen rocket nozzle. Is anyone aware of any good textbooks that cover this topic in depth, specifically dealing with large...

Hi All, I'm trying to get a better understanding of the momentum thrust given by an over-expanded rocket nozzle (I realize this case voids the isentropic flow assumption used for the 1D isentropic gas expansion equations typically used for rocket engine design since the normal shock is not an...

Perfect, that's just the answer I was looking for! I'll have to find me a copy of those references you recommended. And that's very interesting, I was wondering how the boundary layer would be dealt with but simply modifying the contour based on the boundary layer thickness certainly makes sense.

Hi all, I'm working on programming a simple 2D method of characteristics program to design the nozzle wall contour for a supersonic rocket nozzle. I'm wondering roughly what sort of difference I should expect from a 2D vs 3D method of characteristics program and where I could find a good...

Wow, thank you for this response! Evidently I have much to learn about material science. The resources you mentioned will certainly be of great use to me.

These look absolutely glorious and are exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

I'm looking for a book series tabulating various mechanical and material properties for metals and alloys. There is a book series called "Thermophysical Properties of Matter" and it details the thermophysical properties of hundreds of elements and compounds (even including some obscure uranium...

I'm working on programming a particle simulation that visually shows the nuclear fusion reaction rate of deuterium at different densities and temperatures, but I'm having trouble understanding exactly how nuclear fusion cross section diagrams are supposed to be interpreted. (The simulation...

If you were to positively contact charge a small ~1 mm diameter sphere using a Van de Graaff generator, and were to charge it sufficiently high enough that field evaporation began to occur, what would happen? Would the rate of evaporation increase exponentially as the field strength would...

What sort of limits would be encountered if you tried to charge a magnetically levitating sphere to as high a voltage as possible in an ultra high vacuum by using an electron beam aimed at the sphere? Assume the sphere is highly spherical and polished. If electrons have sufficient energy to...