An elasto-viscoplastic analysis of direct extrusion of a double base solid propellant

Abstract

In this study, three-dimensional modelling of extrusion forming of a double base solid rocket propellant is performed on Ansys (R) finite element analysis program. Considering the contact effects and the time dependent viscous and plastic behaviour, the solid propellant is assumed to obey the large deformation elasto-viscoplastic material response during direct extrusion process. The deformed shape, hydrostatic pressure, contact stress, equivalent stress, total strain values are determined from the simulation in order to get insight into the mechanical extremity that the propellant has undergone during processing. Hydrostatic pressure and contact stress distributions have been found to be important parameters due to safety reasons of the nitro-glycerine content in the bulk of the propellant. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.