SPARK 1 was a student-researched and developed (SRAD) resin 3D-printed liquid rocket engine that cost under $5k. SPARK 1 was UNLV's & Nevada's first student-led liquid rocket engine. This engine featured a single-element swirl coaxial injector, which was fully resin-printed. SPARK 1 used ethanol and GOX in a one-to-one mixture ratio, including a 3D-printed ablative liner, which was used for heat management.

Project manager: Gavin Chung

Technical Advisor: Brandon Fallon

Sub-System Leadership:

• Thrust Chamber Assembly: Ronaldo Valdivia & Gavin Chung

• Electronics: Rabih Chaar

• Feed/Plumbing: Gavin Chung

• Test Stand: Foroutan Rezazadeh

This project was successfully hot-fired and wrapped up in May 2024. More description is found below.

Simulation

Thanks to our sponsor ANSYS, we were able to run Computational Fluid Dynamics on our resin printed nozzle. Exhaustive simulations were performed to optimize the rocket engine performance. As shown, the exhaust velocity at the nozzle throat achieves sonic speeds. The infamous Mach diamonds make an appearance as the plume appears to be slightly under expanded.

Meet the team behind SPARK 1!

*From left to right

First row: Zoe B, Nicholas N, Rabih C, James F

Second row: Brayan S, Reza B, Ron V, Riley S, Dominic P, Jerome A, Etsub M , Gavin C, Foroutan R

SPARK 1 Hotfire

• SPARK 1, Nevada’s first student-built bi-propellant rocket engine.