Development of a Normal Shear Stress and Temperature (NSST) Sensor for Solid Rocket Motor Health Monitoring: Finite Element Analysis and Data Reduction
Abstract
Development of shear stress sensors for solid propellant rocket motors was attempted in the early 1970s. The concepts were based on the differential linear displacement between two diagonal line elements that comprised the shear sensor. These sensors needed large strains in the sensing elements to obtain sufficiently high signal-to-noise ratios for the foil strain gages that were used. With the availability of high performance semiconductor strain gages, it may now be possible to design not only a compact shear stress sensor, it may be possible to design a sensor that can simultaneously measure the shear and normal stress components acting on a solid rocket motor bondline. The objective of this study is to numerically determine the potential performance of a diaphragm-based normal shear stress and temperature (NSST) sensor design. The study requires the boundary conditions acting on the sensor to be considered part of the sensor design. The results of the parametric study are presented and discussed. The principal parameters controlling the deformation of the diaphragm under combined stress loading were found to be: 1) the stiffness of the polymer, 2) the loading surface diameter to sensor diameter ratio, 3) the thickness of the polymer on top of the sensor to sensor diameter ratio, 4) the sensor diaphragm diameter, and 5) the sensor diaphragm thickness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 12, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1127208
Entities
People
- Franklin Wong
- James Fillerup