Viscoelastic fracture characterization of a solid propellant.

Abstract

Both analytical and experimental studies were conducted on a propagating crack in a viscoelastic material. By applying an extension of the "correspondence principle" the stress and displacement at the crack tip were found as functions of the crack tip stress intensity factor. An energy balance was made for the specimen which allowed this factor to be related to geometric and load parameters. Fracture characterization was then performed by experimentally relating the crack tip stress intensity factor to the crack velocity. The theory was applied to solid propellant fracture tests; however, the dewetting behavior of the propellant was not accounted for by the theory.