Design and Structural Analysis of Solid Rocket Motor Casing Hardware used in Aerospace Applications

Abstract

Rocket motors are widely used to generate thrust or impulsive force to impart a desired velocity to flight vehicle to transport its payload to the intended destination. The working principle of Rocket motor is mainly Newton’s 2nd and 3rd laws. Rocket motors are non-air breathing propulsion class i.e., won’t require oxygen from the atmosphere for combustion of the fuel which is stored in the rocket motor. During the operating conditions of the motor hardware, it will be subjected to high temperatures and pressure loads. Structural and thermal design has to carried out for a given input parameters and analysis to be carried out to check the stress levels and temperatures on the hardware. The present paper deals with structural design of motor hardware. The main input parameters considered are the maximum operating pressure and maximum diameter of the Motor hardware. The material properties considered are up to 100°C. Structural analysis and fracture analysis are to carry out after the design of each component of the rocket motor hardware. For design, the motor hardware is considered as a pressure vessel. To compute parameters like thickness some initial assumptions were made. 2D drawing is developed using Auto Cad software and structural analysis is carried out in ANSYS. This software employs finite element analysis techniques to generate the solution. Hence the displacement magnitude, von mises stress and strain developed within the motor is pictorially visualized. Fracture analysis is also carried out on the material.