Solid Rocket Motor Propellant Characterization and Material Reconstruction Using High Resolution Tomography

Material characterization and volume imaging of as-produced solid propellant grains are important issues in the design process of solid rocket motors. In particular, it is critical that the ballistician have tools that will enable him/her to understand any defects or morphological changes in a grain that might be caused by the manufacturing process, as well as the determination of bulk thermomechanical material properties. We therefore propose to develop software tools for volume imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction of as-produced propellant grains from tomography volume-imaging techniques; develop computational tools that can model the morphology of the propellant grain, including first-, second-, and third-order statistics; and develop computational tools that can determine initial material properties, including elastic modulus, effective thermal conductivity and coefficients of thermal expansion, etc. These tools will be validated by comparison with experimental data.