Mechanical Characteristics of Ethylene Vinyl Acetate Mixed Beeswax Fuel for Hybrid Rockets

The hybrid rocket has several advantages than solid and liquid rockets which uses two different states of matter that includes solid fuel burned with gas or liquid oxidizer. Beeswax is bio-derived, eco-friendly hydrocarbon fuel which has similar properties of paraffin wax like higher fuel regression rate (3–4 times) used in hybrid rocket applications. However, beeswax has poor mechanical properties. To increase the mechanical characteristics, ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) and charcoal are mixed with the beeswax fuel. Five different compositions of beeswax with EVA and charcoal are prepared, and their mechanical properties are evaluated. The measured porosity range of 0.42–0.84% confirms the good quality of prepared fuel sample. The FTIR spectrum confirms the homogeneity of beeswax mixed with EVA and charcoal fuel without any chemical reaction. The ultimate tensile strength rises up to about 8.1% and the elongation increases to 42% for beeswax fuel mixed with 20% EVA. Further, the tensile strength rises to 8.8% and the elongation increases to 13.4% for beeswax-EVA compositions mixed with 2% activated charcoal.