Sunfire II

About

The Sunfire II engine was the first student-made engine to use regenerative cooling in the UK and the UK’s first student-made engine that used additive manufacture.

On the 3rd of July 2023, the team completed a hot-fire test of the Sunfire II engine, setting the record for the most powerful student-built bi-propellant liquid rocket engine test in the UK. It produced a thrust of 3.4kN, coming within approximately 3% of its design thrust. Following localised cooling channel failure the thrust dropped to approximately 2.9kN for the remainder of the burn.

A huge thank you to Airborne Engineering Ltd for their help during the test day; it wouldn’t have been possible without their expertise. Thank you to Satellite Applications Catapult, AMRC, Royce at the University of Sheffield, and European Astrotech Ltd for supporting the Sunfire II project.

Technical Specification

Below you can see a table outlining the technical specification of our Sunfire II engine:
FuelIPA
OxidiserN2O
O/F2.75
Thrust3.5 kN
PC20 bar
MaterialIN718

Cooling Channel Failure

At approximately 2.7 seconds into the burn, a major disturbance was detected in by both the load cell and pressure transducers in the feed line.

This indicated the instance of cooling channel failure, and addressing this was a key design criteria for Sunfire III.