On the nature of the fragment environment created by the range destruction or random failure of solid rocket motor casings

Abstract

Given here are predictions of fragment velocities and azimuths resulting from the Space Transportation System Solid Rocket Motor range destruct, or random failure occurring at any time during the 120 seconds of Solid Rocket Motor burn. Results obtained using the analytical methods described showed good agreement between predictions and observations for two specific events. It was shown that these methods have good potential for use in predicting the fragmentation process of a number of generically similar casing systems. It was concluded that coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian calculational methods of the type described here provide a powerful tool for predicting Solid Rocket Motor response