The Propulsion and Combustion Lab has recently been modernized and enlarged with the construction and establishment of the Sylvia and David I.A. Fine Rocket Propulsion Center.
The Sylvia and David I.A. Fine Rocket Propulsion Center accommodates research activities in rocket and ramjet propulsion and related areas (e.g., combustion, heat transfer).
It includes faculty members, some four scientists, a number of graduate students (typically about 10), and technical personnel. It has been hosting Visiting Professors, Visiting Scientists and Post-Doc Fellows.
The main research programs involve the following subjects:
- Solid, liquid and hybrid propulsion
- Gel fuels and propellants
- Combustion instability
- Solid fuel ramjets (SFRJ's)
- Supersonic combustion
- Solid propellants combustion and formulation
- Metal and boron combustion
- Combustion synthesis (SHS) of intermetallics and nitrides
- Underwater jet propulsion and bubbly flows
- Hall thruster research
The Center has a number of reinforced test cells, specially built for static firing tests and for high pressure experiments. It includes an installation of high pressure air and gas supply, high and low speed video facilities, computerized data acquisition systems, and a number of specific setups.
Undergraduate students conduct experiments in the Center on a regular basis as a part of their undergraduate training.
Currently the Fine Rocket Propulsion Center has also hosted an undergraduate student project to design, build and launch a two-stage rocket-ramjet missile.