SUNFIRE I

SunFire I is the first of our Bi-Propellant Liquid Fuelled Rocket Engines (named SF1) built by Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) by its Masters level students in 2020.

The project is well under way at Sheffield Hallam University who have been working closely with their newly established sister team at the University of Sheffield.

SF1's goal is to demonstrate proof of concepts' by running a successful static cold flow and hot fire testing program.

The thrust chamber will be a specialised Copper Zirconium Alloy with a Stainless Steel cooling jacket both manufactured in-house at SHU using CAM milling and turning. It is intended to use a bi-propellant combination of Isopropyl Alcohol and Gaseous Oxygen of a 1:2 mixture ratio respectively.  SF1 is targeted to produce 1kN of thrust and a total ISP in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 seconds.

A crucial step towards a functioning engine has been the design of a state of the art combined cold flow/hot fire testing rig currently being manufactured in-house at SHU. This is a joint venture between Sheffield Hallam University who have designed the structure, pressure feed system and testing procedure while the University of Sheffield have re-engineered the existing data acquisition system and incorporated a safe to use remotely operated control system.

In the future SF2 and SF3 are aiming to create a launch capable version of this engine, and also increase its thrust.