KISSING DEBOND DETECTION IN SOLID ROCKET MOTORS USING CT

THE OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO DEVELOP TECHNIQUES FOR DETECTING AND QUANTIFYING WEAK OR "KISSING" DEBONDS IN SOLID ROCKET MOTORS. THE PROPOSED TECHNIQUE IS BASED ON X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY.IT IS INNOVATIVE BECAUSE IT DOES NOT REQUIRE THAT ANY GAPS IN THE DEBOND AREA BE RESOLVED. INSTEAD, IT RELIES ON MEASUREMENTS OF THE PROPELLANT DILATATION NEAR THE BONDED INTERFACE TO SHOW WHETHER LOAD TRANSFER IS OCCURRING ACROSS THE BOND. THE DILTATION IS MEASURED USING STATISTICAL MEASURES OF THE TEXTURE OF THE PROPELLANT IN THE CT IMAGE. SIMPLE METHODS BASED ON FIRST ORDER STATISTICS (HISTOGRAMS)HAVE ALREADY SHOWN THAT STRAIN CAN BE MEASURED TO WITHIN 40% USING STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES. WE PROPOSE TO MEASURE MORE DETAILED STATISTICS OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DATA AT DIFFERENT IMAGE POINTS TO INCREASE THE ACCURACY OF THE TECHNIQUE. THE EFFORT WILL BE THE DEVELOPMENT OF PROTOTYPE SOFTWARE TO EXTRACT THE STATISTICAL INFORMATION, ACQUISITION OF CT IMAGE DATA ON ANALOG SPECIMENS FABRICATED WITH KNOWN DEBONDS, AND QUANTIFICATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE SOFTWARE TOOLS.