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Space & Aeronautics (SA)

Space & Aeronautics (SA)

Space & Aeronautics (SA)

Multidisciplinary design optimization of hybrid rocket composite propulsion.


Goals

  • Breakthrough developments in the design, manufacturing and experimental testing of structural components for rockets.
  • Contribution to the establishment and use of the spaceport in Azores.


Key Tasks

  • Multidisciplinary design optimization of hybrid rockets.
  • Design of lightweight cryogenic propellant advanced composite tanks.
  • Systems design of lightweight composite space launchers.


Outputs

  • New high-performance thermoplastic matrices, to provide enhanced toughening and opening the possibility to have demisable cryogenic tanks.
  • Integration of carbon-based nanomaterials, for enhanced mechanical properties, and self-sensing, for SHM systems.
  • New experimental testing capabilities of novel COPVs under cryogenic conditions.
  • A multidisciplinary design optimization framework and an optimal conceptual design of a N2O-paraffin wax hybrid rocket, focused on maximizing the specific impulse and minimizing the total rocket weight.

Featured Publications

Teixeira, P., Akhavan‐Safar, A., Carbas, R. J. C., & da Silva, L. F. M. (2021). Influence of the cure state on mechanical properties of an epoxy‐based adhesive: Experimental characterization and numerical simulation. Polymers for Advanced Technologies.
DOI: 10.1002/pat.5589
View publication
De Souza, A. G. et al. Comparison of the Satellite Attitude Control System Design using the H method and H8/MLI with pole allocation considering the parametric uncertainty. WSEAS Transactions on Circuits and Systems, 20, 88-95.
DOI: 10.37394/23201.2021.20.12
View publication
Morgado, M. Development of a Multidisciplinary Framework for Hybrid Rockets (2021) MSc Thesis, IST. Supervisors: F Afonso and and A. Suleman.
View publication

Global Coordinator

Afzal Suleman

Other Institutional Coordinators

André Resende Rodrigues Silva
Nuno Miguel Marques Pereiro Rocha

Team

Alain de Souza
Paulo Reinier Teixeira Gonçalves