6DOF Flight Rocket Simulation

Overview:

In preparation for the design and manufacture of our new liquid methane rocket, I was tasked with more accurately identifying the capabilities and goals of our flight. In order to increase the fidelity of our earlier simulations, I decided to expand our simulation fidelity from 1 to 6 degrees of freedom, and use a new aerodynamic model that could determine the effects of structural modifications on the rocket flight path.

First Version:

The first version of the program successfully simulated the trajectory of the rocket without a parachute system. However, the simulation did not have the capability of predicting the landing point of the rocket or testing characteristics of its recovery system.

Second Version:

The next version of the program simulated the recovery system of the rocket, which allows one to estimate the landing location of the rocket and determine the stresses on the parachute and rope systems.

User Interface:

A user interface for the program was created so that users could easily change rocket parameters and simulate the result.

With this interface, the user can modify various rocket structural parameters, mass parameters, recovery parameters, simulation settings, launch location, and environmental disturbances. They can also customize the plots that are reported to them, load saved rockets, load saved simulations, or save certain rockets or simulations. The user interface makes it much easier to run multiple simulations and store the results from these simulations.

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