Rocket Fins

Submitted to:Sub department lead Azhar Sarki

Purpose of fins on a rocket

The purpose of putting fins on a rocket is to provide stability during flight, that is, to
allow the rocket to maintain its orientation and intended flight path. If a typical
amateur rocket was launched without fins, it would soon begin to tumble after leaving
the launcher, due to the way that aerodynamic and other forces (such as wind) act
upon the rocket, in relation to the forces that are exerted upon the rocket by the motor
and by gravity. The problem here is that the rocket's centre of pressure (CP) would be
forward of its centre of gravity (CG). Fitting fins on a rocket serves to locate the
centre of pressure aft of the CG. This begs the question -- what exactly are the centre
Of gravity and the center of pressure and why the important of these?

Fins in Rocket
Fins provide the rocket’s guidance. In flight, air flows over the fins, beginning at the
leading edges and ending at the trailing edges. When a rocket is flying in a straight
path, it encounters less air resistance (drag) than if it flies at an angle. If the rocket
attempts to turn, the fins opposite the direction of turning are moved into the airflow,
and the air pushes more on the exposed fin surfaces than on the other fins, until the
rocket rights itself, just as a weather
vane always points into the wind. Fins are usually the first part of a rocket to fail
during powered flight, because they have air flowing around them on every side, and
they are made of thin material to reduce their air resistance and weight. Fins can fail
because they literally flutter apart, or can simply separate from the rocket because
they are not properly attached. In either case, failure of one fin usually dooms the
flight, as its guidance system is now unbalanced, and there is less air resistance near
the tail once the fin is gone, moving the center of pressure (CP) forward, perhaps
even ahead of the center of gravity (CG). At this point, the
rocket often does a few quick loops to celebrate the loss, likely tearing the airframe
apart in the process.

Fins shape:

  BEAR IN MIND THAT FIN  SPAN  IS MORE EFFECTIVE THAN FIN  LENGTH. PROBABLY
THE BEST SHAPES FOR FINS ARE EITHER THE  CLIPPED DELTA  OR
THE  TRAPEZOIDAL (WHICH IS REALLY A CLIPPED DELTA WITH A FORWARD SWEPT
TRAILING EDGE).
Aerofoil shape of the fins:

Although the fi ns are made of relati vely thin sheet material (such as
aluminum or plywood), it is benefi cial to shape the edges to provide
something of an aerofoil shape in order to reduce pressure drag and
induced drag. For rockets that will fl y at a velocity that is fully in the
subsonic regime, the leading edges should be  rounded, the trailing edges
should be  wedge shaped, the outboard edge should be left square edged,
and of course the fi n root edge does not need to be shaped. The leading
edge and trailing edges of a supersonic fi n, however, should both be
wedge shaped. Another design, that is suitable for both subsonic and
supersonic fi ns, is the unsymmetrical  aerofoil. The leading and trailing
edges are chisel-shaped, such that greater lift is developed on one surface
of the fi n. This introduces a slight rotati on to the rocket, about its
longitudinal axis. This aids stability, and tends to eliminate minor veering
that may result from unbalanced drag, such as from the presence of launch
lugs. This fi n profi le was used on the Cirrus One  rocket with good results --
once stability was achieved, the rocket climbed skyward very straight.
These three aerofoil shapes are illustrated in Figure 4.
An aerodynamic fairing  at the juncti on of the fi n root and the body is a
good idea, which could be benefi cial in reducing interference drag.This
sort of feature is oft en present on model rockets, with a glue or putt y fi llet
applied at this juncti on serving this purpose. Another benefi t to this sort of
fairing is that it increases the structural strength of the fi n with regard to
out-of-plane bending loads that could result from handling or touchdown
forces.

Material
Because thin fins have less air resistance than thick ones, rigid materials are used to
provide stiffness with minimum thickness. For model rockets, balsa wood or
basswood are favorites. Competition models may use waferglass, a thin
material made from plastics and fiberglass called G-10 (garolite). High power
rockets use aircraft-grade birch plywood or thicker
sheets of G-10. These materials are strong, but they become very
heavy as their size and thickness increases. To reduce the weight of large fins, some
builders use lighter materials for the center (core) such as foam or balsa wood, add
hardwood strips for the fin edges, then reinforce the core with a skin of thin hardwood
or composites, such as fiberglass/epoxy. If built properly, these reinforced fins can
perform as well as solid fins, but with a fraction of the weight. Whatever material is
chosen, the fins must be secured to the rocket at their root edges, so they will not
separate from the airframe during the most stressful part of the flight (usually at motor
burnout), sometimes at speeds beyond 1000 miles per hour. Modelrocket fins
are usually just glued to the airframe surface, while high power rockets often
have fins with tabs that fit through slots cut in the airframe;
the tabs are glued to the motor tube. These are known as throughthe-
wall fins; they gain strength by being glued both to the motor tube and to the
airframe. There are many other techniques to strengthen fin attachment that you will
find as you progress in the hobby. No matter the technique, the goal is to keep the fins
attached to the rocket throughout the flight

How many fins?

Clearly, at least three fins are required (for hopefully obvious reasons). And I can't
imagine a need to have more than four fins, other than for aesthetic reasons. So the
question becomes -- 3 or 4 fins? Nearly all my rockets had four fins. With such an
arrangement, I found it simpler to form the root bend on the fins, and end up with fins
that were neatly and symmetrically aligned. Three fins are best when designing a high
performance, low drag rocket. This allows interference drag (drag caused by
interference of the airflow over the body and fins at the junction) to be reduced by 25
percent. For this reason, the Cirrus One rocket was designed with a set of three fins.