FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

44

Hybrid-Stress- Displacement Finite Elements for Viscoelastic Analysis

K. KANAKA RAJU, B. NAGESWARA RAO AND R. MARIMUTHU Structural Analysis and Testing Group Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre Trivandrum 695 022 INDIA B. Nageswara Rao<bnrao52@rediffmail.com>

Abstract: - Solid propellant rocket motors are regularly used in the satellite launch vehicles. The propellant material is viscoelastic in nature and the propellant grains require structural integrity analysis. The grains are of various configurations and are to be idealized appropriately for different loading and support conditions. Based on Spilkers concept, three efficient hybrid stress- displacement finite elements were developed for mechanical, thermal and body force loads suitable for modeling the propellant grains. These are, 4-node quadrilateral plane strain, axisymmetric, and 8 node brick elements. These elements have several advantages compared to the familiar displacement formulation for studying the structural behaviour of compressible/nearly incompressible solid rocket motor propellant and insulation materials, under various loading environments. This formulation involves independent interpolations of intra-element equilibrating stresses and compatible (boundary or intra-element) displacements. As the stresses are independent in each element, the stress parameters are eliminated at the element level and a conventional stiffness matrix results. Thus implementation of these elements in a general-purpose program is as simple as that of displacement elements. The viscoelastic analysis capability has been implemented in the in house developed FEAST (Finite Element Analysis of Structures) software along with the hybrid-stress-displacement finite elements. The efficiency of the developed elements is demonstrated through several test problems and comparing the results with the existing analytical and other finite element solutions based on displacement formulation, using the MARC software package. The present elements give accurate results even with a coarse mesh compared to MARC.
Finite element, Hybrid-stress formulation, Compressible / Incompressible Material, Rocket Motor, Internal Pressure, Thermal Loads, Slump Estimation, Steel Casing, Propellant Grains.

Key-Words: -

1 Introduction
Mathematical formulation and practical aspects of assumed-displacement finite elements has been the subject of extensive research for many years. Textbook accounts and pertinent references on this topic can be seen in [1,2]. In view of this substantial documentation and the ease with which

elements may be formulated it is not surprising that most general-purpose computer programs are developed based on this method. However, shortcomings of the assumed-displacement model are evident in constrained media problems, such as those involving nearly incompressible materials. Solid propellant rocket motors are regularly used in the satellite launch vehicles.

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

45

Fig. 1: Cross-section of a typical case-bonded solid rocket motor. (A) Chamber; (B) Head end dome; (C) Nozzle; (D) Igniter; (E) Nozzle convergent portion; (F) Nozzle divergent portion; (G) Port; (H) Inhibitor; (I) Nozzle throat insert; (J) Lining; (K) Insulation; (L) Propellant; (M) Nozzle exit plane; (N) SITVC system; (O) Segment joint.

Structurally, a solid rocket motor as shown in Fig.1 consists the solid propellant grain; the liner, whose primary purpose is to provide an adhesive bond between the propellant grain and the case insulation; the case insulation, which provides thermal protection to the case from combustion products and also structurally supports the propellant grain within the motor case; the igniter which ignites the grain; and the nozzle which helps in providing the desired thrust. For the solid rocket motor to perform successfully in its mission, it is necessary for it to retain its integrity under a wide variety of mechanical loads, which are imposed on it during storage and operational phases. The structural response of the propellant grain to these loading conditions is highly dependent on the grain configuration. The propellant material is viscoelastic in nature and the grains are of various configurations (viz., axisymmetric configurations, cylindrical configurations and three-dimensional geometries), which are to be idealized

appropriately for different loading and support conditions [3-6]. The analysis of a viscoelastic structure may be reduced to the analysis of a corresponding elastic structure by applying the Laplace transformation to make it independent of time [7]. Once an accurate elastic analysis methodology is available using Schaperys [8] direct method of inversion of the associated elastic solution into the real time variable, one can obtain a viscoelastic solution of the problem. For incompressible materials such as solid propellants (Poissons ratio ), the six components of strain are no longer independent, hence the principle of minimum potential energy and the corresponding finite element displacement method by compatible model are no longer valid, and also solutions are erroneous for nearly incompressible materials [9,10]. A hybrid stress displacement approach [11-13] has been followed to deal with incompressible and compressible materials. In the hybrid-stress-displacement

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

46

approach, an equilibrium stress field is defined in terms of generalized stress parameters within the element while displacements field ensuring inter-element continuity are defined along the element boundaries in terms of nodal displacements. Application of modified complementary energy principle yields flexibility equations but these are transformed into stiffness relations before element contributions are assembled. The elements are implemented in FEAST and can be used for visco-elastic analysis.

2 Formulation
The hybrid-stress-displacement formulation based on which efficient axi-symmetric solid of revolution, plane-strain and brick elements have been developed is described below. The hybrid-stress functional is based on a modified complementary energy principle in which interelement traction continuity and mechanical boundary conditions have been relaxed via the Lagrange multiplier technique and may be written [11-13] 1 mc = { T C dv 2 vn n
vn

Displacements are interpolated on the element interior in terms of nodal degrees-of-freedom, (3) u=Lq Where, the interpolation matrix L can be obtained using any of the standard families of C0 continuity shape functions. Making use of linear strain-displacement relations then gives (4) = B q And 0 = T Where is the coefficient of thermal expansion and T is change in temperature The element stiffness matrix, k, is given by, k = G T H 1 G (5) T Where (6) H = P C P dV
vn

As explained in Ref. [12], from the second term of equation (1), G can be defined by (7) G = P T B dV
vn

The stresses are calculated from equation (2) with obtained from q by
= H -1Gq - H -1 P T 0
vn

(8)

( 0 ) dv +

Sn

T ds}

(1)

Where and u are the vectors of stress and displacement components respectively, C is the compliance matrix relating strains and stresses (-0 = C), 0 is the initial strain due to the thermal loads, Vn is the volume of the nth element, Sn is the portion of the element are boundary on which tractions, T prescribed, b is the body force and the sum extends over all elements. The stresses are interpolated in Vn in terms of stress parameters , in the form (2) =P such that the equations of equilibrium in the absence of body forces are satisfied exactly.

Here is obtained from equation (8) in the absence of body forces. It is to be noted that the strains within the element must be calculated from stresses using the compliance matrix C, for better accuracy. Based on the above Hybrid-stressdisplacement formulation, two dimensional 4node quadrilateral plane-strain element, axisymmetric element and three dimensional 8 node brick element have been developed and implemented in FEAST. The derivation of the element matrices is briefly highlighted. The interpolation matrix L for displacements in equation (3) and the strain shape function matrix B in equation (4) are same as those defined in the displacement formulation [1]. The stress field, which satisfy the stress equilibrium equation and the stress compatibility equation derived for the above elements are:

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

47

2.1 Plane-strain quadrilateral element x = 1 + 2 x + 3 y

y = 4 + 5 x + 6 y xy = 7 6 x 2 y

(9)

2.2 Axisymmetric quadrilateral element 1 z r = 1 + 2 r + 3 z + 4 + 5 r r 1 z z = 6 3 2 r + 7 z 4 5 (10) r r = 1 + 2 2 r + 3 z

to be superposable by horizontal shifts along a logarithmic scale to give a single curve, covering a very large range of times. Such curves obtained by superposition with a reference temperature cover times outside the range of practical experiments. The curve obtained by superposition is called a Master Curve. The method of relating the horizontal shifts along the log-time scale to temperature changes, as developed by Williams, Landel and Ferry by the equation

rz

r = 5 7 2

Log a T =

c1 (T T0 ) , c 2 + (T T0 )

(12)

2.3 Three-dimensional (3D) Hexahedron element x = 1 + 2x + 3 y + 4z y = 5 + 6x + 7 y + 8z z = 9 + 10x + 11y + 12z (11) xy = 13 + 14x + 15y + 16z xz = 17 + 18x + 19y - (2 +15)z yz = 20 + 21x - (18+12 )y - (7 +14)z
From the above stress fields one can find P matrix and matrix of equation (2). Once P matrix is defined, the element stiffness matrix (5) can be evaluated. Evaluation of consistent nodal forces for each element corresponding to point loads, gravity loads and distributed element face loading/edge loading can be done as in the case of displacement formulation [1]. FEAST has these loading evaluation capabilities.

is known as WLF method [14]. Here c1 and c2 are material constants to be evaluated from relaxation tests at different temperatures (T) and T0 is material reference temperature. According to Schapery [15], the relaxation modulus Erel can be expressed in the Prony series form as

E rel ( t ) = E + A k exp( t / a T k )
k =1

(13)

3 Viscoelastic Solution Methodology

For viscoelastic stress analysis, the Master Stress relaxation modulus curve generated through uniaxial stress relaxation tests at various low and high temperatures are essential. The curves at different temperatures were found

Where E is the equilibrium modulus, t is the time, k are relaxation times and Ak are constants. In the viscoelastic stress analysis, the stresses, strains and displacements are all functions of time. If this time variable is removed by a transformation operation, the resulting problem would be an equivalent problem in the theory of elasticity (called the associated elastic problem) in terms of the transformation parameter, with the load and boundary conditions in the form of transformations of the original time-dependent functions. The inverse transformations of the solution of the associated elastic problem into the real time variable would give the solution to the original visco-elastic problem. The advantage of the Prony series is that its Laplace transform can be easily obtained. The disadvantage of the method of elastic-viscoelastic analogy is the difficulty involved in the

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

48

inversion of the associated elastic solution into the real time variable. To overcome this difficulty, Schapery [8] proposed direct method of inversion, which is simple to apply, and is given by: f (t ) = s f ( s ) s = 1 (14)

2t

Here f ( s ) is the Laplace transform of a timedependent function f(t) and s is the transformation parameter. To apply the method it is necessary to multiply the transformed 1 function by s and obtain the results at s = . 2t The above method of inversion generally represents satisfactorily the overall behavior of the time-dependent quantities. Applying the Laplace transform to equation (13), one can obtain n Ai E (15) E rel ( s ) = + 1 s i =1 s + (aT i ) The transformed or operational modulus, E ( s ) is given by n sAi (16) E ( s ) = s E rel ( s ) = E + 1 i =1 s + (aT i ) Using the bulk modulus (K) of the solid propellant material and the operational modulus E(s), one can write the operational Poissons ratio in the form 1 E ( s) (17) ( s ) = 1 2 3K 1 At any time t, substituting the value of s = in 2t equations (16) and (17), the value of operational modulus E(s) and the corresponding value of Poissons ratio ( s ) can be obtained. The E(s) and ( s ) values are used for E and in the associated elastic solution to get the required time-dependent viscoelastic solution.

4 Numerical Results
Solid propellant grain segments are cast and cured separately at elevated temperatures for

the required number of days and then cooled to the room temperature before storage. Thermal stresses and strains are developed due to the storage temperature. Since solid propellants are insulating material, it takes a long time to cool down from the stress-free temperature to the room temperature. As the cooling progresses, the viscoelastic stresses, strains and displacements increase and reach equilibrium values [16]. Because of the large cooling time (t) the values of E(s) from equation (16), E . Thus the viscoelastic equilibrium values of stresses, strains and displacements are obtained by using the equilibrium modulus ( E ) and the corresponding Poissons ratio from equation (17). Because of the large diameter and unsupported base, slump displacements in the grain are expected to be large under long-term vertical storage condition. The slump displacement value is found to increase rapidly over the first hour, and then increase slowly with time, and approaches a value corresponding to the equilibrium modulus ( E ) [17,18]. It is well known fact that the motor case under internal pressure will have maximum case dilation in the cylindrical portion and hence it governs the design. During propellant burning, the internal pressure developed inside the motor induces a compressive hydrostatic stress state. The tensile strains and displacements at the inner surface of the grain, which are the maximum during the initial phase of burning, decrease with time due to the reduction of the grain web thickness. Thus, for structural integrity analysis, it is necessary to obtain viscoelastic solution corresponding to the initial maximum motor pressure at time just after the ignition transient [16]. The major portion of the solid propellant rocket motor can be considered to be a multilayer thick cylinder consisting of three layers of different materials namely, solid propellant grain, insulation and metallic casing. To validate the developed elements, an exact

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

49

solution for the generalized plane-strain of a multi-layer cylindrical shell (with each layer having different material properties) under internal pressure, thermal and axial inertia loads is considered in the present study [16, 17]. An infinitely long thick cylindrical shell having propellant grain, insulation and casing

as interior, middle and outer layers respectively is analyzed for three loading conditions. These are: (a) an internal pressure of 4.905 N/mm2; (b) thermal load due to temperature change from 680C to 30 0 C (cooling); and (c) 1-g gravity load .

Table 1: Geometric details and material properties of a three-layer cylindrical shell

Grain inner radius = 500 mm Grain outer radius/ insulation inner radius = 1384 mm Insulation outer radius/ casing inner radius =1389 mm Casing outer radius =1396.8 mm Length of the cylindrical shell = 1800 mm Material Modulus, E (M Pa) Poissons ratio, Density, N / mm 3

X 10
Casing Insulation Propellant 186314 1.96 4.903* 0.3 0.499 0.499

7.6518 1.74618 1.74618

Coefficient of thermal expansion, (/ 0 C ) 0.000011 0.0003 0.0001

* Initial modulus for pressure load and equilibrium modulus of 1.962 M Pa for thermal and gravity loads The geometrical details and material properties used in the analysis are given in Table 1. The master stress relaxation modulus data with time in Table 2 for the propellant material is represented in the Prony series form (13) with fifteen terms. The bulk modulus of the propellant material is: K=3643 M Pa. For thermal and pressure loading conditions, the axial displacement is constrained at both ends of the cylindrical shell, whereas in the case of storage condition (gravity loading), displacements are constrained at the bottom portion of the casing. Cyclic symmetric conditions are imposed in the plane strain and 3-D finite element model. The results obtained with the three types of elements are presented in Table 3 along with analytical results and results obtained from MARC software, demonstrating the accuracy of the present elements. The deformation contours for all the load cases obtained with 3-D brick elements are shown in Figs. 2 to 4. The response of the propellant grain under the specified thermal and pressure loading conditions shown in the radial displacement contour plots of Figs. 2 and 3 indicates gradual decrease from the inner surface to the outer surface of the grain. This results maximum hoop strain at the inner port, which has to be compared with the allowable strain of the propellant material to assess the margin. For the case of gravity load under vertical storage conditions, the axial displacement gradually decreases from the inner surface to the outer surface. The maximum axial displacement at the inner port is termed as the slump under the storage condition. Table 3 gives good comparison of finite element analysis results.

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

50

Table 2: The relaxation modulus (E rel ) data of a typical propellant material with time. Constants in equation (13) : c1 = 6; c 2 = 157; TR = 300 K . Equilibrium modulus, E = 1.962 MPa.

t log10 a T (seconds) -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Material constants in equation (13) E rel Ai (MPa ) (MPa) Term (i) log10 ( i ) (seconds) 155.55 123.38 81.53 41.82 23.24 12.93 8.156 4.915 3.643 2.765 2.354 2.098 2.075 2.050 2.002 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80.77 -8.565 81.10 14.49 24.33 1.269 7.936 0.2524 2.178 0.0240 0.7561 -0.0541 0.0836 -0.0289 0.1094

Fig. 2: Resultant displacement contour under pressure load.

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

51

Table 3: Comparison of finite element analysis results with analytical solution as well as those obtained from MARC software package.
FINITE ELEMENT Loads Analytical [16,17] FEAST MARC

Plane strain
Pressure Load Radial displacement at inner port (mm) Hoop strain at Inner port (%) Thermal load Max. radial Stress at the interface of propellant and insulation (N/mm2) Max. Hoop strain (%) at inner port Gravity load Max. Slump, w (mm) 26.086 5.2170 26.064 5.095

Axisymmetric
26.09 5.149

Brick

Plane strain
25.580 5.5060

Axisymmetric
26.086 5.1810

26.064 5.180

0.04458 3.350 7.875

0.04532 3.3296 ___

0.04529 3.3650 7.895

0.04477 3.3260 7.845

0.04573 3.260 ___

0.04460 3.327 7.892

Fig. 3: Resultant displacement contour under thermal load.

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

52

Fig. 4: Resultant displacement contour under gravity load.

5 Conclusions
The present linear elements can be used for modeling with compressible and incompressible materials, where as in the MARC software quadratic Herman elements only can be used for modeling incompressible materials. Further tying option is required at the interface while using the MARC elements.

thankful to Director, VSSC permission to publish this work.

for

giving

References:
[1] O.C. Zienkiewicz, The Finite Element Method, McGraw-Hill, Berkshire, England, 1977. [2] J.T. Oden and J.N. Reddy, An Introduction to the Mathematical Theory of Finite Elements, Wiley, NewYork, 1976. [3] J.E. Fitzerad and W.L. Hufferd, Handbook for the Engineering Structural Analysis of Solid Propellant, CPIA publication 214, May 1971. [4] Solid Propellant Grain Structural Integrity Analysis, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, NASA-SP-8073, June 1973.

Acknowledgement
Authors would like to acknowledge their colleagues Mr. P.V. Anilkumar, Dr.S.B. Tiwari, M. Manirajan and T.J. Raj Thilak for critically testing the developed elements. They are thankful to Mr. K.L. Handoo, Group Director, Structural Analysis and Testing Group and Dr. V. Adimurthy, Deputy Director, Aeronautics Entity for their interest and support in the development of the elements. They are also

FINITE ELEMENTS

published by WSEAS Press

53

[5] Design Methods in Solid Rocket Motors, The Advisory Group for Aerospace Research and Development, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, AGARD-LS-150, 1988. [6] Alian Davenas, Solid Rocket Propulsion Technology, Pergamon Press, New York, 1993. [7] E.H. Lee, Stress Analysis in Viscoelastic Bodies, Quarterly of Applied Mathematics, Vol.13, 1955-1956, pp 183-190. [8] R.A. Schapery, Two Simple Approximate Methods of Laplace Transform Inversion for Viscoelastic Stress Analysis, California Institute Technical Report, SM 61-23. Graduate Aeronautical Laboratories, 1961. [9] L.R. Hermann and R.M. Toms, A Reformulation of the Elastic Field Equations in Terms of Displacements Valid for All Admissible Values of Poissons Ratio, Journal of Applied Mechanics, Vol.31, 1964, pp. 140-141. [10] L.R. Hermann, Elasticity Equations for Incompressible and Nearly Incompressible Materials by a Variational Theorem, AIAA Journal, Vol.3, 1965, pp.1896-1900. [11] R.L. Spilker, Higher-order Threedimensional Hybrid-Stress Elements for Thick-plate Analysis, International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol.17, 1981, pp.53-69. [12] R.L. Spilker, Improved Hybrid-Stress Axisymmetric Elements Including Behavior for Nearly Incompressible Materials, International Journal of Numerical Methods in Engineering, Vol.17, 1981, pp.483-501. [13] K. Renganathan, B. Nageswara Rao and M.K. Jana, An Efficient Axisymmetric Hybrid-Stress-Displacement Formulation for Compressible/Nearly Incompressible Material, International Journal of Pressure Vessels and Piping, Vol. 77, 2000, pp.651667.

[14] M.L. Williams, R.F. Landel and J.D. Ferry, The Temperature Dependence of Relaxation Mechanisms in Amorphous Polymers and Other Glass Forming, Journal of American Chemical Society, Vol.77, 1955, pp.3701-3707. [15] R.A. Schapery, Approximate Methods of Transform Inversion for Viscoelastic Stress Analysis, Proceedings of the fourth U.S. National Congress of Applied Mechanics, Vol.2, 1962, pp.1075-1085. [16] K. Renganathan, B. Nageswara Rao and M.K. Jana, A Multilayered Thick Cylindrical Shell Under Internal Pressure and Thermal Loads Applicable to Solid Propellant Rocket Motors, Forschung im Ingenierwesen, Vol.66, 2000, pp.57-66. [17] K. Renganathan, B. Nageswara Rao and M.K. Jana, Analytical Solution for Multilayer Thick Cylindrical Shell Subjected to Axial Inertia Applicable for Slump Estimations of Solid Propellant Rocket Motor Grains, Trends in Applied Sciences Research, Vol.1, No.2, 2006, pp.123-131. [18] K. Renganathan, B. Nageswara Rao and M.K. Jana, Slump Estimation of Cylindrical Segment Grains of a Typical Rocket Motor Under Vertical Storage Condition, Trends in Applied Sciences Research, Vol.1, No.1, 2006, pp.97-104.