A Numerical Method for Solid Propellant Grain Design

Bojan Tanaskovski
Jovica Nešić
Ljiljana Jelisavac
Jovica Bogdanov

In this study, a grain burnback analysis for an Anchor solid propellant grain geometry for a rocket motor was done. The design process involves parametric modeling of the geometry in using PTC Creo software through dynamic variables that define the complex configuration.
Grain burnback is achieved by making new surfaces step by step and calculating geometrical properties at each web increment.
The surfaces of the grain are determined by PTC Creo 4.0 using grain shapes at every 5 mm thickness of the burned web. This procedure gives the sizes of the remaining grain surfaces, during its burning process in the Solid Rocket Motor. The results obtained using PTC Creo have been checked by the values of burning surfaces calculated using closed form of equations that describe the same geometry, in order to verify the correctness of numerical calculation. The work presented deals with the application of the PTC Creo software tool for design of any arbitrary solid form of a rocket motor propellant grain. This work was concentrated on a numerical description and determination of the mathematical
model of the burning process.

Key words: rocket motor, propellant, rocket propellant, solid rocket propellant, geometric shape, combustion, combustion surface, modeling, numerical methods.