Proposed use of Wrap-It moldable sheets by Cotronics for use in isolating and insolating the nozzle for the METEOR Rocket.
Since this material is in a “wet felt” form, I believe that it can be formed around the nozzle, encasing it tightly. I liken the “wet felt” description to much like a wet washcloth, where while it won’t be able to stretch much, it will be fully pliable to be able to cover sharp corners and will stick somewhat to what it is formed around if desired. I also believe that it can be used to insulate the post combustion chamber as well. To achieve this, both an inner and outer mold would be used. The inner mold will consist of the combustion chamber and nozzle to be used on the rocket while the outer mold will be a tube of the same inner diameter dimension as the engine core shell to be used plus an extra 1/16” or so to account for shrinkage in the drying period. The main concern is the seam point. As we already have high temperature adhesive from cotronics, I believe that it will be able to easily hold in the added stress on this point. This is further proven by cotronics’ claim that the Wrap-it sheets can be used as stress relieving insulation, meaning that it can bear structural loads.
Procedure:
· The first step would be to arrange the nozzle and post combustion chamber.
· Next a sized sheet would be wrapped around the assembly and formed tightly around the corners of the nozzle and down the neck to gain more surface area to reduce the overall pressure held by the sheet.
· Next, the seam would be filled with some of the high temp adhesive already purchased to bond the two ends together.
· Once hardened, the assembly can be inserted into the engine core behind the fuel grain.
Pros: can be used to structurally support and thermally isolate nozzle and post combustion chamber, can integrate nozzle and chamber into one subassembly, 3600F (almost 2000C) melting point
Cons: thick (1/2”), still requires support onto the shell, if badly manufactured, then entire nozzle and chamber may need to be scrapped, seam stresses