Experimental and Numerical Investigation into the Mechanical Behavior of Composite Solid Propellants Subject to Uniaxial Tension

Abstract

To further explore the quasi-static mechanical characteristics of composite solid propellants at low strain rates, an investigation was conducted on the mechanical behavior and damage mechanisms of a four-component hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) propellant by means of experiments and numerical simulation. A uniaxial tensile test and scanning electron microscope (SEM) characterization experiment were carried out. A microstructural model, which accurately represents the mesoscopic structure, was developed via the integration of micro-CT scanning and image-processing techniques. The constructed microstructural model was utilized to conduct a numerical simulation of the mechanical behavior. The experimental results demonstrated that the maximum tensile strength increases with increasing strain rate, and the primary cause of propellant failure at low strain rates is the dewetting phenomenon occurring at the interface between the larger particles and the matrix. The maximum tensile strength is 0.48 MPa when the strain rate is 0.00119 s−1, and the maximum tensile strength is 0.37 MPa when the strain rate is 0.000119 s−1. The simulation results indicated a consistent trend in variation when comparing the simulation and experimental curves. This suggested that the established model exhibits a high level of reliability, and provides a promising approach for carrying out microstructural simulations of heterogeneous propellants in future. The mechanical behavior of the propellant can be effectively described by utilizing a mesoscopic finite element model that incorporates the superelastic constitutive model of the matrix and the bilinear cohesive model. This framework facilitates the representation of mesoscopic damage evolution, which consequently provides insights into the damage mechanism. Additionally, the utilization of such models assists in compensating for the limitations of damage evolution characterization experiments.