• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.247-254
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• 2008

The primary objective of this research is to develop an efficient design and optimization methodology for SRM Wagon Wheel Grain and to develop of software for practical designing and optimization of Wagon Wheel grains. This work will provide a design process reference guide for engineers in the field of Solid Rocket Propulsion. Using these proposed design methods, SRM Wagon Wheel grains can be designed for various geometries, their optimal solutions can be found and best possible configuration be attained thereby ensuring finest design in least possible iterations & time. The main focus is to improve computational efficiency at various levels of the design work. These have been achieved by the following way. a. Evaluation of system requirements and design objectives. b. Development of Geometric Model of Wagon Wheel grain configuration. c. Internal ballistic performance predictions. d. Preliminary designing of the Wagon Wheel grain configuration involving various independent geometric variables. e. Optimization of the grain configuration using Sequential Quadratic Programming f. In depth analysis of the optimal results considering affects of various geometric variables on ballistic parameters and analysis of performance prediction outputs have been performed g. Development of software for design and optimization of Wagon Wheel Grain. By using these proposed design methods, SRM Wagon Wheel grains can be designed by using geometric model, their optimal solutions can be found and best possible configuration be attained thereby ensuring finest design.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.226-234
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• 2008

Grain design has always been a vital and integral part of Solid Rocket Motor(SRM) design. Basing on the design objectives set by the system designer, the SRM designer has many options available for selecting the Grain configuration. Many of the available configurations may fulfill the required parameters of volumetric loading fraction, web fraction & Length to diameter ratios and produce internal ballistic results that may be in accordance to the design objectives. However, for any given set of design objectives, it is deemed necessary that best possible configuration be selected, designed and optimized. Hence optimal results of all applicable configurations are vital to be attained in order to compare and finalize the design that will produce most efficient performance. Generally the engineers pay attention and have skills on a specific grain configuration. The designing methodologies and computer codes available usually focus on single grain configuration may it be Star, Wagon Wheel or slotted tube. Hardly one can find a software or a design methodology where all such configurations can be worked on jointly and not only adequate designs be found but optimal solutions reached by applying an optimization method to find final design best suited for any design objective. In the present work design requirements have been set, grain configurations have been selected and their designing has been conducted. The internal ballistic parameters have been calculated and after finding the preliminary design solutions, the optimal solutions have been found. In doing so, software has been developed comprising of computer programs for designing the 2D grains including Star, Wagon Wheel and Slotted Tube configurations. The optimization toolbox of Matlab Fmincon has been used for getting optimal solutions. The affects of all the independent geometric design variables on the optimized solutions have been analyzed. Based on results attained from Optimization Method, an in depth comparison of Grain Configurations and analysis of performance prediction outputs have been conducted to come to conclusion as to which grain configuration is ideal for the current design requirement under study.