• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.10
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• pp.796-804
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• 2013

The "Potato Gun," a simple heat engine, is fabricated, tested and analyzed as a part of engineering education program of combustion and propulsion classes. Combustor pressure is predicted by the chemical equilibrium analysis of a constant volume combustor. Then, the internal ballistics, the conversion of thermal energy into the mechanical energy of a projectile, is predicted though the expansion process. The trajectory of a projectile is estimated by considering the aerodynamic effect around the spherical projectile. The energy conversion efficiency and the equivalence ratio of the fuel-air mixture could be estimated by the comparison of the experimental results and the theoretical prediction. The present work would be an example of attracting the interest of students for the application of the engineering principles at undergraduate level by recycling the waste materials.