How Water Rockets Work

A water rocket works using the same principles as other

rockets. There are three main forces in action: thrust (Fapp),
drag (Ffr) and weight (w=mg). The water, which is forced out by
the difference between internal and atmospheric pressure, is a
reaction mass that provides the thrust. All rockets have a reaction
mass, which can vary from hot gasses that are expelled when a
fuel is burnt (in the Space Shuttle's SRB's for example) to water
in a water rocket. The air molecules moving along the side of the
rocket as it is moving create friction and result in the drag force
(the drag attempts to slow the rocket down and so acts in the
opposite direction as the velocity of the rocket). Weight is simply
the mass of the rocket multiplied by gravity and applies to all
objects within a gravitational field. Again, this force works against
the rocket�s thrust, trying to bring the rocket back down to
Earth.
Free body diagram of a rocket during the thrust phase

Free body diagram of a rocket during the coast phase

 There are two components in the �fuel� of a water rocket; water and
air. Water, an incompressible fluid, is poured into the rocket before it is
placed on the launcher and acts as the reaction mass. The air, which stores
much more energy than the water because it is compressible (water is
essentially incompressible and so pressurising a rocket adds no energy to
the water), is then pumped in and pressurised; therefore the greater the
pressure, the greater the energy stored. When a water rocket is launched,
the difference between internal and atmospheric pressures forces the rocket
off the pressure seal, followed by the expulsion of water and air out of the
nozzle until the internal and atmospheric pressures are equalised. This
action creates a downward force and, by applying Newton�s Third Law of
Motion, it can be shown that in order for the total momentum of the system
to remain constant and equal to zero (i.e. the law of conservation of
momentum is not broken), there must be an equal but opposite force upon
the rocket (pushing it upwards); this is the thrust, which causes the
acceleration of the rocket according to the equation F=ma.

A correct balance between the volumes of water and air must be found
because the air stores the bulk of the energy inside the rocket. If the water
volume is too high compared to the air volume, too little energy will be
stored (since, as previously stated, water does not store energy inside the
rocket; the air does). On the other hand, if there is too little water the
reaction mass will be insufficient to provide much acceleration, since air is
far lighter than water and so, again, the performance of the rocket will be
less than optimum. Experimentally, a water-to-air ratio of 1:2 (one third of
the volume is water) has been found to generally be the most efficient.

The ejection of water and pressurised air typically takes no more than a few
tenths of a second. This rapid action leaves little time for any thermal energy
transfer through the walls of the bottle, thus the reaction is an adiabatic
expansion. Simulations indicate that the air temperature can drop to as low
as �100�C. In simulations there are typically 3 regions within the thrust
phase. The first of these is the water region, where water is expelled from
the nozzle in a column. The third and final region is the air region, which
occurs after all of the water has been ejected and the remaining air in the
pressure vessel is expelled until the internal pressure reaches the
atmospheric pressure. The second region is the transition between the water
and air regions, and is characterised by a mixing of the water and air. The
water is ejected in a column from the nozzle as it is incompressible, however
the air expands in all directions due to its compressibility. This expansion
means that the second region (the transition, when the water and air mix) is
clearly visible as a sort of cloud of water droplets, as demonstrated in the
frames below that were extracted from two different launch videos.