Solid-Fueled Rocket Structural Integrity Assessment

This chapter gives an overview of the main uses and features of structural integrity assessment (SIA) of solid rockets. Details of the key elements and prediction techniques for analyzing the stress and strain response, failure criteria and the service environments in which solid rockets are required to operate are given. The development and use of these methods are essential to deal with the increasingly more stringent requirements in performance, safety, reliability and cost. The role and extent to which SIA is employed in design and development, service life prediction and vulnerability / safety assessment of solid rockets are discussed. The development of appropriate nonlinear constitutive models (temperature and strain-rate dependent and incorporates damage) and their implementation in finite element codes, suitable failure criteria (e.g. based on facture mechanics), and service life prediction methodologies are discussed, and an example solution procedure is provided for a real-life rocket. A method for determining high strain-rate mechanical properties, using the Hopkinson Bar technique, to assess the structural response of rocket component materials to impact loading conditions is described.