3D Printed Aluminium Regenerative Rocket Engine

I led the research, design, manufacturing and testing of ICLR's first regeneratively cooled rocket engine with a small team of freshers.

Key Details

4 kN thrust, 2.5 O/F ratio, 1.3 kg/s N₂O, 0.5 kg/s methanol, 20 bar chamber pressure.
First successful regen-cooled student engine in the UK. First 3D printed aluminium student engine in the world.
16 hot fire tests on our student-built test stand (UK record at the time), plus 1 RUD on AEL's stand with the LOX injector modification.
From design start (Oct 2023) to first hot fire (Feb 2024) — just over three months.
DMLS AlSi10Mg printed by Alloyed Ltd, depowdered nozzle-down. Lathe post-processing and pintle injector manufactured in-house.

Won the CPLC TVC prize ($15,000) — first student TVC system in Europe.
Won the CPLC Throttle challenge ($15,000) — throttled from 2,500 N down to 800 N (20% of max).

Fuel: 75% methanol, 23% water, 2% PDMS.
Initially used a Python Bartz solver, switched to RPA when film cooling was required.
Threw water into the fuel and increased film cooling to 20% — the requirement wasn't a good engine, just a working engine.
The engine now rests with a giant crack from LOX detonating in the injector channel. Fun while it lasted.