Guidelines for selecting the right body tube material for a range of motors

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

wcravens

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2015
Messages
129
Reaction score
0
What are the guidelines for selecting a body tube material given the range of motors that you intend for a design? I understand that you need tougher body tubes as the motor power goes up, but just when do you want a thicker material, fiberglass composite etc. Are there any guidelines?

Wes
 
It would help if you mention what size rocket or tubes you are talking about.

Big difference flying a range of A through D.

Or I through M's.
 
Sure. Let's, for the sake of argument, cover a range of 'Medium' to the lower side of High Power (H < 150). Somewhere in there is where you may go from 'standard' paper, to heavy paper, to composites etc. And it's probably enough power you want to limit the amount of 'experimental discovery'. :)

Or maybe an other way to ask the question would be; how to figure out the upper limit of power for a given body tube? And what aspects of the power are the most critical, e.g. max thrust, avg thrust, total impulse etc.

E.g. Paper, Heavy paper, phenolic, Blue Tube, Fiber Glass etc.
 
Last edited:
"Need" is so subjective. There are those flying D-powered fiberglass rockets, and those stuffing M's into cardboard. Too many variables for a general rule of thumb to apply. Have to take into account G-forces expected, max velocity, landing speed, landing surface hardness, how much it will bounce around in your car on the way home, etc.
-Ken
 
In short, no. There are no such guidelines.

Vendors selling kits stake their reputation on their kit being able to fly on their recommended motors. If you are scratch-building, talk to other, more experienced builders for their advice. In the end, amalgamate their advice into a plan of attack.
 
Back in the day (early aughts) a guy named Drake Damerau did some testing on various components used in hobby rocketry. He published results on a website called rocketmaterials.org. This info can still be accessed through the miracle of the Wayback Machine : //archive.org/web/web.php

I found something there called "Axial Tube Crush Tests" that you may find interesting : //web.archive.org/web/20070618090029/https://www.rocketmaterials.org/data/tubes/axial/index.php

Don't discount the best practices of the best practitioners here on TRF. Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
This all makes total sense. I kind of figured that there wasn't much of a 'rule of thumb' on this one, since I couldn't find any good information. Hopefully this thread has enough keywords that it can be found.

Thanks!

Wes
 
One "rule of thumb" I have heard bandied about is keep the Estes tube under mach velocity, other than that if you come up against a situation you think is iffy ask for opinions here on TRF.
 
Thin wall body tube at mach speeds... that would be something cool to Aspire to. Plenty of shreds trying. :wink:
 
Last edited:
Back
Top