Investigations of high-speed projectile impact on symmetric sandwich structures containing solid propellant with core perforations

Abstract

The response of solid rocket motors (SRMs) to high-speed fragment impacts is crucial for their safety design and operational use in scenarios such as rocket launches and space applications. The visualized Burn to Violent Reaction (BVR) test is used to observe intense reactions induced by high-speed projectile impacts. Employing a two-stage light gas gun and optical diagnostic techniques including high-speed schlieren imaging and direct photography, the impact-induced deflagration/explosion behavior, and reaction growth behavior were investigated. The damage mechanisms of the casing and propellant samples were assessed, and the reaction growth and afterburn effects of the impact-induced fragment cloud were quantitatively analyzed. The results indicate that the ignition delay time is inversely correlated with the impact velocity, decreasing from ms to μs scale. Across a wide range of velocities (1050–2058 m/s), higher projectile velocities induce more sustained and vigorous combustion reactions within the propellant. Furthermore, increasing the propellant air gap to 7.8 cm does not trigger further reactions under the studied configurations. The reaction mechanisms are closely linked to the characteristics of the fragment cloud induced by the impact. The developed Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) method, incorporating material constitutive models, ignition criteria, and reaction growth models, was used to study the influence of projectile velocity on the reaction mechanisms. The simulation results were compared with experimental data, demonstrating satisfactory accuracy.