Impact Experimental Investigation of Dynamic Tensile Characteristics of Composite Modified Double Base Propellant

Understanding of the tensile strength of the solid propellant bears important applications in materials science, aerospace, defense, and other engineering disciplines. To obtain the mechanical properties of composite modified double base (CMDB) propellant under impact loading, this paper proposes an indirect tensile testing method to measure the full dynamic tensile strength of the CMDB propellant under dynamic loads. The Flattened Brazilian Disc (FBD) specimen was impacted with a 14.5mm diameter split Hopkinson bar (SHPB) system. The pulse shaping technique is used to achieve dynamic force balance, and thus eliminates the loading inertial effect and enables quasi-static stress analysis. The experimental results show that the dynamic tensile strength of the CMDB propellant is loading rate dependent. The dynamic FBD method provides an easy and cost-effective way to measure dynamic tensile strength and other brittle composite materials.