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Changelog

I will try to keep this changelog complete so that all notable changes to WaterRocketPy will be documented in this file. Otherwise I refer to the git-repo for the most up to date changes. The format is based on Keep a Changelog, and this project adheres to Semantic Versioning.

[0.2.1] - 2025-07-27

Added

  • Brand Identity: Added logo and favicon for documentation (b71f0c2)
  • Documentation Examples: Added bare_minimum.ipynb example for quick start (3dca9f0)
  • Development Tools: Enhanced fix_typos.py script for better spell checking (1e7a378)
  • Documentation Structure: Improved documentation index and navigation (e5a9e38)

Changed

  • Testing Framework: Switched from unittest to pytest for better testing experience (a24b478)
  • Code Cleanup: Removed legacy code and cleaned up file structure (e5a9e38)
  • Documentation: Improved getting started guide and examples (3dca9f0)
  • Spell Checking: Jupyter notebooks now excluded from automatic spell checking (a9b3326)

Fixed

  • Development Setup: Fixed testing issues and improved CI/CD pipeline (3dca9f0)
  • File Organization: Better organization of documentation assets (6e16e4a)

[0.2.0] - 2024

Major Features Added

  • Advanced Optimization Module: Complete rocket design optimization system (598d68b)
  • Multi-objective optimization (altitude, velocity, flight time)
  • Support for differential evolution and minimization algorithms
  • Constraint handling for physical limitations
  • Comprehensive example scripts and tests
  • Parameter Explorer: Multi-dimensional parameter sensitivity analysis (51be841)
  • Visual sensitivity analysis plots
  • Batch parameter sweeps
  • Statistical analysis of parameter effects
  • Data Management System: Flight data saving and loading utilities (9436114)
  • JSON and NPZ format support
  • Comprehensive data persistence
  • Test coverage for data operations
  • Advanced Visualization: Flight data plotting and animation (407e1c3)
  • Comprehensive flight phase visualization
  • Animated trajectory plots
  • Multi-plot dashboard for complete analysis
  • Performance Improvements: Enhanced simulation engine (e6b0b7e)
  • Fixed divide-by-zero errors in time series concatenation
  • Improved numerical stability
  • Better memory management

Infrastructure & Quality

  • Testing Suite: Comprehensive test coverage (60caad4)
  • Tests for simulator, optimizer, and parameter explorer
  • CI/CD integration with pytest and pytest-cov
  • Automated code linting and quality checks
  • Documentation System: MkDocs-based documentation (6e16e4a)
  • Automated API documentation generation (2f4444a)
  • Interactive Jupyter notebook examples
  • Literature references and theoretical background
  • Development Workflow: Enhanced development experience (4fac3f3)
  • Restructured dependencies and requirements
  • GitHub Actions for automated testing
  • Cross-platform compatibility (Windows, Ubuntu, macOS)

Package Structure

  • Modular Architecture: Organized codebase into logical modules
  • waterrocketpy/optimization/ - Optimization algorithms
  • waterrocketpy/visualization/ - Plotting and animation tools
  • waterrocketpy/utils/ - Data management utilities
  • Enhanced waterrocketpy/rocket/ - Rocket configuration tools

[0.1.0] - 2024

Physics Engine Enhancements

  • Temperature Modeling: Fixed air temperature calculations during expansion (a494d89)
  • Energy Analysis: Complete energy breakdown analysis system (321cfd5)
  • Energy flow tracking throughout flight phases
  • Detailed energy distribution plots
  • Thermodynamic efficiency calculations
  • Performance Optimization: (7a3f076)
  • Combined derived data collection with ODE calculations
  • Reduced computational overhead by calculating once instead of twice
  • Improved simulation consistency and accuracy

Documentation & Literature

  • Literature Integration: Added comprehensive literature sources (321cfd5)
  • Theoretical Foundation: Energy flow documentation and physics explanations (bf37bfd)
  • Reference Runs: Baseline simulation results for validation

Code Quality

  • Enhanced Attributes: Better data structure organization (bf37bfd)
  • Bug Fixes: Resolved pressure calculation issues
  • Data Consistency: Improved data handling and validation

[0.0.2] - 2024

Critical Fixes

  • Pressure Calculations: Fixed fundamental pressure calculation errors (7207ac3)
  • Requirements: Updated package dependencies for better compatibility (1c85346)

System Improvements

  • Core Updates: Various system-level improvements and optimizations (716223a)

[0.0.1] - 2024

Initial Release

  • Core Simulation Engine: Complete water rocket physics simulation (11880e3)
  • Water and air mass flow modeling
  • Pressure dynamics during thrust phase
  • Aerodynamic drag modeling
  • Multi-phase flight simulation (thrust, ballistic, landing)
  • Rocket Builder: Flexible rocket configuration system
  • Standard bottle configurations (2L PET bottles)
  • Custom nozzle designs
  • Material property database
  • Basic Visualization: Essential plotting capabilities
  • Example Scripts: Demonstration of core functionality
  • Package Infrastructure:
  • PyPI packaging setup
  • MIT License
  • Basic documentation structure

Foundation Architecture

  • Physics Engine: Accurate fluid dynamics and thermodynamics modeling
  • Builder System: Object-oriented rocket configuration
  • Data Output: Comprehensive time-series flight data
  • Validation: Parameter validation and error handling

Development Notes

Version Numbering

  • According to the standards of Semantic Versioning 2.0.0
  • Major versions (X.0.0): Significant API changes or major feature additions
  • Minor versions (0.X.0): New features, backward-compatible improvements
  • Patch versions (0.0.X): Bug fixes, documentation updates, minor stuff

Key Contributors

  • Primary Development: Pablo
  • Legacy Physics Engine: Pablo, Jonathan
  • License: MIT License

Roadmap Highlights

  • Core simulation engine (v0.0.1)
  • Physics accuracy improvements (v0.0.2)
  • Energy analysis system (v0.1.0)
  • Optimization and advanced analysis (v0.2.0)

  • Documentation and tooling (v0.2.1)

  • Future: GUI interface, 2.5D visualization, multi-stage rockets, Heatreanfer through the rocket walls, propane and other gases, parashute deployment and affect on decent, rocket spin about the vertical axis.

TODO´s

  • Still working on the sonic air exhaust. This part is still not perfekt as it does not cover pressure spikes.
  • More experimental data needed for a perfekt drag model.
  • Speed dependent aerodynamik model based on modelrockets.