Schedule-40 PVC Pipe Rocket Simulation.

 

This chart shows the PVC motor performance.
Initial thrust is over 250 lbs! while its mass is about 35 pounds.

This chart shows the performance of the rocket. Initial acceleration is over 200 ft/s2 and reaches an altitude of over 1100 ft! Note the negative acceleration following "burnout" is much smaller than for Two-Can and Next Generation rockets. This is a result of the high mass of the empty rocket and the relatively small force due to drag.

The charts above were produce using our simulation program, water.c, and GNUPLOT on a LiNUX machine. The water.c code produces an output table which is included here:
Simulation Output Table

updated 30-AUG-2007