Explore some of my highlighted projects from student rocketry.
Rothney Astrophysical Observatory
Foothills County, Alberta
1st Place 10,000ft SRAD Rocket
2024 Spaceport America Cup
Taking ambitious aerospace projects from first principles to flight.
Since joining the team after my second year, I have contributed to projects spanning ground communications, composite structures, actuators, pressure vessels, and nozzles.
As my role grew, I developed a passion for design for manufacturing and preparing the CAM needed to bring my designs to life.
Endcaps & Actuator
Mar 2, 2026
The project focused on redesigning the sealing end caps for Aegis' oxidizer pressure vessel. The previous flat design was structurally inefficient under pressure and carried unnecessary mass. The new end caps were developed to reduce weight while integrating sealing, fluid connections, retention, avionics mounting, and serviceability into a manufacturable component.
1000 psi maximum operating pressure
FOS ≥ 2 against ultimate failure
−80°C to 40°C operating range
Manufactured from nitrous compatible materials
Size 258 O-ring interface
Integrated ORB ports for sealing
With an outside diameter to thickness ratio over 20, the end cap geometry satisfied the thin-wall assumption used for sizing. With the previous pressure vessel being cylindrical, hoop stress is twice the longitudinal stress, making it the governing membrane stress.
However, by changing the geometry of the endcaps from being flat to spherical results in only half the maximum membrane stress of an equivalent cylindrical vessel under the same pressure, radius, and thickness. Hemispheres offer the greatest structural efficiency, but require substantially more axial space. This motivated the choice to investigate a semi-elliptical profile balancing pressure efficiency, packaging, mass, and manufacturability.
It was from these preliminary results that it became evident an optimal height to thickness ratio existed for the most mass efficient design. Simply decreasing the endcap height did not produce a proportional reduction in mass, as geometries with less uniform load sharing required thicker walls. This model was further refined with smaller increments in the FEA to determine endcap heights of 2.525" and 1.903" for the upper and lower endcaps respectively.
The previous endcaps used 6061-T6 aluminum. For Aegis, the design transitioned to 7075-T6, where the substantially greater strength allowed thinner structural sections, while remaining compatible with the nitrous oxidizer system. Although 7075 is slightly denser than 6061, its significantly higher strength provides better structural performance per unit mass for this application.
The end cap geometry was built around the pressure seal rather than treating it as a secondary feature. A size 258 O-ring was selected, with the resulting gland requirements establishing a final end-cap OD of 6.247 in.
Two VMQ 258 O-rings lubricated with Krytox GPL 203 provide the sealing interface, with gland geometry based on Parker O-Ring Handbook recommendations. This created a controlled precision interface around which the remaining structure could be optimized.
After having run preliminary FEA studies on both the lower and upper endcaps, the resulting factor of safety were 2.23 and 2.75 respectively with both seeing a max deflection of 5 thou.
The constraints used in this study include a fixed support on the face in contact with the 'radax' retention ring (flat above O-ring groove) with an 1000 psi pressure force applied on the PV side.
Maximum deformation of 6.9thou.
Minimum FOS of 2.8.
Maximum deformation of 11.6thou.
Minimum FOS of 0.83. ('Radax' mating face on top of O-ring grooves.)
ORB-12 & ORB-04 instrumentation ports are used in the lower end cap as integrated fluid interfaces.
Machined flats on the bottom end cap are used for wrench access to reduce tabletop assembly time.
The upper cap is designed with four threaded mounting pillars for avionics integration rods.
¼-20 threaded extraction holes on the outer rim to can extract the cap from the vessel without damaging components.
The previous endcaps used 6061-T6 aluminum. For Aegis, the design transitioned to 7075-T6, where the substantially greater strength allowed thinner structural sections, while remaining compatible with the nitrous oxidizer system. Although 7075 is slightly denser than 6061, its significantly higher strength provides better structural performance per unit mass for this application.
The end cap geometry was built around the pressure seal rather than treating it as a secondary feature. A size 258 O-ring was selected, with the resulting gland requirements establishing a final end-cap OD of 6.247 in.
Two VMQ 258 O-rings lubricated with Krytox GPL 203 provide the sealing interface, with gland geometry based on Parker O-Ring Handbook recommendations. This created a controlled precision interface around which the remaining structure could be optimized.
Remotely controlling oxidizer flow is essential in hybrid rocket systems, but conventional rack-and-pinion pneumatic actuators can weigh around 4 lb, making existing industrial solutions poorly suited to flight hardware. The goal was to redesign this technology around the requirements of our newest rocket at the time, Ouroboros, producing a compact actuator capable of rotating a standard 26 in-lb ball valve through 90° while weighing as little as possible.
800 psi actuation pressure
−50°C to 30°C operating range
FOS ≥ 2 for non-COTS components
26in-lb valve torque
Nitrous-oxide compatible
Minimize both mass and width
Mar 10, 2024
Pressurized nitrous enters the chamber and drives the piston forward. The rack converts this linear displacement into pinion rotation, turning the connected ball valve 90°. Once pressure is released, the compressed springs drive the piston backward and return the valve to its original position.
The actuator was sized around pneumatic force, valve torque, and seal friction. Piston diameter determined the force available at 800 psi, while O-ring friction reduced the usable output. These forces were then used to size the piston and pinion needed to reliably rotate the valve.
The springs were evaluated using alternating and mean torsional stress with a Goodman fatigue relationship, followed by an S-N-based cycle estimate. The design targeted 99% reliability because even relatively small mechanical failures can become critical in a rocket system.
Likewise, the six end-cap bolts were evaluated under a load cycle ranging from 158 to 478 lb total, producing a calculated bolt fatigue life of 7,322 cycles at 99% reliability.
Body burst FEA results, FOS 6.28
Endcap piston contact FEA, FOS 4.27
Rack tooth FEA results, 3.61
Pinion gear FEA results, FOS 2.00
Analytical and MATLAB models established the initial dimensions before SolidWorks FEA was used to capture complex geometry and load paths. Components were iteratively refined to maintain a minimum FOS of 2, with the pinion gear becoming the governing component at exactly 2.0, minimizing unnecessary material while meeting structural requirements.
The actuator’s seals had to maintain pressure while surviving repeated piston motion and temperatures as low as −50°C. The Parker O-Ring Handbook guided the reciprocating seal geometry, while material selection considered nitrous compatibility, compression set, thermal behavior, and tear resistance, ultimately leading to EPDM.
Lubricants were separately evaluated for EPDM compatibility and actuator requirements. The study identified Super Lube Silicone Lubricant, Brit-Lube Crystal Lube, and LOX-8 as suitable options. Super Lube offered the lowest cost, while LOX-8 stood out for its NASA testing and paste consistency, with both also being readily available COTS solutions.
SOAR taught me how every engineering discipline comes together to achieve what none could accomplish alone.
Every challenge begins by defining the problem, uncovering unknowns, and experimenting toward a solution.
SOAR taught me how to empower a team to achieve goals that once seemed out of reach.
