The SPLab operates in Milano Bovisa POLIMI campus and occupies half of building B16A. in addition an external facility is present, specialized in hybrid rocket propulsion studies. Thanks to the cooperation with other labs, the SPLab has access to other advanced material diagnostics and propulsion testing capabilities.

    Main facility

    This is the historical building of the SPLab. It contains the main facilities for solid and liquid propellant combustion as well as the chemical facilities for material preparation and analysis. 

    • Test chambers for characterization of combustion of energetic materials at constant pressure
    • Fast depressurization facility for HEMs Combustion.
    • Sub atmospheric test facility for HEMs Combustion.
    • Set-up for manufacture of micro-thermocouples Pt-Pt/Rh (range from 50 to 12 micron).
    • Radial combustor for hybrid rocket fuel characterization
    • Minislab combustor for hybrid rocket flame visualization
    • Fastcam Ultima APX by Photron
    • FastCamera F13 by Fast Vision
    • Phantom V710 by Vision Research

    LabRam acoustic mixer by Resodyn

    • CO2 Laser Advanced Kinetics – 100, 120W CW.
    • Valfvre – 200, 180W CW.
    • El.En. BLADE – 500, 400W CW.
    • TGA/DTA SII-EXSTAR6000 Seiko Instr.
    • TGA/DSC-DTA Netzsch F5 Jupiter STA
    • Diffraction Granulometer Malvern Mastersizer-2000 wit  Scirocco 2000 Dry Powder Dispersion Unit and Hydro-2000-S Wet Sample Dispersion Unit
    • X-ray computed micro-tomography and SEM thanks to the cooperation with the AMALA (Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory)

    Hybrid External Laboratory (HEL)

    This extension is located in close proximity of the main building and is specialized in hybrid rocket propulsion testing and diagnostics.

    • Combustion efficiency
    • Development of novel fuels
    • Entrainment study
    • Development of alternative geometries
    • VFP (Vortex Fow Pancake) rocket configuration
    • Radial rocket configuration
    • Slab configuration for entrainment visualization

    Cooperation with CNR-IENI (Milano Bicocca)

    Recent cooperation with the CNR-IENI located in Milano Bicocca is focused on SCRAMJET propulsion, thanks to a high-enthalphy pulsed wind tunnel.

    • Ramjet/SCRAMjet propulsion modes
    • Combustion efficiency
    • Thrust measurement
    • High-enthalpy pulsed facility
    • Hydrogen-oxygen vitiation of air
    • Mach range: 3 to 8