Structural Analysis of Solid Rocket Motor Grain with Aging and Damage Effects

The nonlinear viscoelastic behavior of composite solid propellants is studied by using a three-dimensional thermoviscoelastic constitutive model. In this model, the effects of the time-dependent Poisson ratio, aging, damage, and thermoviscoelasticity are considered. Viscoelastic constitutive equations are numerically discretized into an incremental form by using integration algorithms. An Abaqus-based user material subroutine is presented, and a structural analysis module for solid rocket motor grain is built. Based on the analysis module, the structural responses of solid rocket motor grain are analyzed when subjected to typical loadings during its service life. Obtained results indicate that, differing from the classic linear viscoelastic model, the present model gives satisfactory numerical results closely consistent to the actual performance variation of the propellant. The designed structural analysis module could be applied to the structural analysis for practical solid rocket motors.

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