Discuss the design, include pictures from CAD, explain design decisions, things that did/didn't work, things we learned/how we would want to change things for the future. Discussion of friction problems, calculations we made, pictures of real life mechanism.
Air Brakes was a brand new subteam for rocket team. Our goal was to create something that could catch air to slow the rocket down to reach the 30k feet altitude goal of Spaceport. We explored multiple concepts of varying difficulty before settling on a sliding plate design.
To design the airbrake, we needed to start with calculations (can be found in Engineering Notebook) ranging from projected additional drag to what torque the servo would need to successfully deploy the plates. Possible designs were drawn and once the general figure was agreed upon, 3D modeling began. The design through different variations quicky but eventually settled on one design very quickly.
With a Solidworks model now existing, proper material simulations could be made to find a good material to use. We settled on Aluminum 6061-T6 for its light weight and resistance to deforming.
This is when we reached PDR and presented our design to rocket team. After good discussions, the design was changed to better accommodate a bigger servo and surrounding components inside the rocket.
