About

Since its establishment in 1999, the Sylvia and David I.A. Fine Rocket Propulsion Center has become the site of the Propulsion and Combustion Lab.

The Fine Rocket Propulsion Center accommodates research activities in rocket and ramjet propulsion, energy, and related areas (e.g., combustion, heat transfer). It includes faculty members, a number of scientists, some 10 graduate (doctoral and master) students, and technical personnel. It has been hosting visiting professors, visiting scientists, post-doc fellows, and internship students.

The Center has a number of reinforced test cells, specially built for static firing tests and for high pressure experiments. It includes an installation of high pressure air and gas supply, high and low speed video cameras, thermal analysis instrumentation, computerized data acquisition systems, and a number of specific setups, including a 10-m-diameter water tank for marine propulsion, bubbly flow, and cavitation flow experiments. Undergraduate students conduct experiments in the Center on a regular basis as a part of their undergraduate training. The Center has also been the site for undergraduate student projects, including Ramtech project to design, build and launch a two-stage rocket-ramjet missile.