NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTS AND EVALUATION TECHNIQUES FOR SOLID ROCKET MOTORS

THE PROPOSED RESEARCH PROGRAM WILL PROVIDE AN EVALUATION TOOL FOR ASSESSING THE EFFECTS OF MANUFACTURING AND IN-SERVICE MATERIAL ANOMALIES ON SUBSEQUENT SOLID ROCKET MOTOR PERFORMANCE. THE EVALUATION TOOL CONSISTS OF A NONLINEAR FINITE ELEMENT PROGRAM WITH A COMPOSITE DAMAGE AND FAILURE CONSTITUTIVE MODEL. THE EVALUATION TOOL WILL BE VERIFIED BY CORRELATION WITH LABORATORY TESTS OF DESIGNATED COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND SIMPLE SMALL SCALE STRUCTURES. LABORATORY TESTING TECHNIQUES WILL INCLUDE MONITORING OF TEST SPECIMEN MECHANICAL RESPONSE WITH STANDARD TRANSDUCERS AND MONITORING OF TEST SPECIMEN DAMAGE PROGRESSION THROUGH TO FAILURE WITH NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) TECHNIQUES, INCLUDING X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY, ULTRASONICS, AND EDDY CURRENT. THE NDE DATA WILL BE USED TO VERIFY THE MATERIAL DAMAGE AND FAILURE MODES INCORPORATED IN THE COMPOSITE MATERIAL MODEL. THE MEASURED MECHANICAL RESPONSE WILL BE USED TO VERIFY THE INTERACTION OF THE DAMAGE MODEL WITH THE STRUCTURAL RESPONSE. THE OUTLINED APPROACH IS EQUALLY APPLICABLE TO EVALUATING CANDIDATE COMPOSITE MATERIALS AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INNOVTIVE DESIGNS THAT UTILIZE COMPOSITES.