Rocketry

CFD for rockets that actually fly

CFD Team Lead for Space Concordia’s solid rocketry team since Dec 2024, L3-certified flyer with the Canadian Association of Rocketry, and contributor to the open-source tools rocketeers use every day: OpenRocket and RocketCalculator.

CR26 flight Projects My rockets

Dara beside Space Concordia’s CR25 rocket, Aether, on the launch rail at Launch Canada

Launch Canada · 19 Aug 2026

CR26: two stages, supersonic

Booster + sustainer, designed with CFD coefficients, centre of pressure and distributed loads from my OpenFOAM/cfMesh study, then compared with GPS/LoRa telemetry from both stages.

Booster / Sustainer	Booster	Sustainer
Apogee (AGL)	14,364 ft (4,378 m)	47,991 ft (14,628 m)
Max observed speed	1,002 ft/s*	1,599 ft/s (487 m/s)
Peak Mach observed	0.92*	1.54

* after a telemetry gap; the true booster peak is higher.

CR26 lifting off at Launch Canada, 19 August 2026

Projects & open source

Simulation, tools and contributions

Space Concordia CFD, new OpenRocket features, and the RocketCalculator site and paper.

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Space Concordia CR26 — Two-Stage Supersonic Rocket

OpenFOAM + cfMesh CFD of the booster+sustainer stack and the sustainer alone, swept over geometry × Mach × AoA on Slurm, then checked against flight. Launched at Launch Canada on 19 Aug 2026: sustainer apogee 47,991 ft at Mach 1.54.

Mesh study with Richardson extrapolation, a stable → accurate fvSchemes progression, aerodynamic coefficients, centre of pressure, nose-tip temperature and distributed forces, validated against RASAero and OpenRocket. After the flight, GPS/LoRa telemetry of both stages was analysed (booster apogee 14,364 ft; sustainer 14,628 m AGL at T+51.6 s).

OpenFOAMcfMeshrhoSimpleFoamSlurmTelemetry

GitHub

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SpaceConcordia CR25 CFD Analysis

Executed OpenFOAM aerodynamics simulations for CR25. Computed drag, lift, center of pressure, stability, thermal loads, and bending moments across Mach 0.8–2.5 and AoA ±5°.

Performed Richardson extrapolation for mesh sensitivity; implemented multi-step fvSchemes (upwind → linearUpwind). Simplified geometries and 3D-printed test articles; validated against experimental data. Collaborated with Flight Performance and Structures teams; delivered PDR documentation for CR26.

OpenFOAMCFDParaView

GitHub Report

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OpenRocket — CAD export, fin flutter & Monte Carlo

Contributions to the open-source rocket simulator. PR #3396 exports fins and centering rings to DXF, STEP, STL and 3MF at real size, with a read-back dimension check, so Space Concordia can send parts straight to the laser cutter.

In development on my fork: fin-flutter velocity and margin through the flight (checked against Bennett’s calculator); Mach-angle lines on the rocket figure; recovery scenarios, an OpenStreetMap landing map, live progress statistics and a thread count for Monte Carlo analysis; shape tools for free-form fins; and STL/STEP/3MF export of the rocket’s closed outer surface.

JavaSwingCAD formatsJTS

PR #3396 Fork

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RocketCalculator — 27 sounding-rocket calculators

Open-source rebuild of C. P. Hoult’s rocket-engineering reports as an interactive site: centre of pressure, drag, fin flutter, bending modes, trajectory, recovery and more, each with a verdict, a scaled drawing and the theory behind it.

My contributions: the landing-page flight animation, guided tour, touch/mobile fixes, SEO, open-source community files and CI. I am also writing the first RocketCalculator research paper (in preparation): the subsonic centre of pressure of finned rockets (Barrowman equations derived, verified to 1e-10 against quadrature, and sensitivity-tested).

JavaScriptStatic siteSEOLaTeX

Live site GitHub

Canadian Association of Rocketry