A Voronoi cell finite element method for estimating effective mechanical properties of composite solid propellants

Abstract

The mechanical properties of Composite solid propellant (CSP) are the critical material parameters to analyze the structural integrity of propellant grains, and have a significant influence on the life and reliability of solid rocket motors. A Voronoi cell finite element method using an adaptive algorithm in the time domain is proposed for investigating the linear viscoelasticity of CSP in the present paper. A process is brought forward to produce a Representative volume element (RVE) model, which reflects the microstructural features of CSP. Numerical viscoelastic examples are used for varying the accuracy of this method. In addition, finite element simulations are conducted to understand the effect of microstructural morphology and material properties of inclusion on the effective mechanical properties of CSP using the new method. When this method is applied to the design process of CSP, it can reduce the design cost and shorten the design cycle effectively. The current microscopic numerical analysis method can be used to provide guidance for designing and analyzing the mechanical properties of composite viscoelastic materials.