Surveillance Report. Stage I Dissected Motors. Phase XIV. Propellant and Component Testing.
Abstract
Testing was performed to determine the useful shelf/service life for LGM-30 Stage I rocket motors. A three year storage program for propellant and components was started in May 1961. This program was then extended to a 10-year study and later continued indefinitely to assure that a deteriorization in motor physical characteristics could be detected in time to take some corrective actions before the weapon system performance deteriorated below an acceptable level. This report covers propellant data and limited case bond data. Malfunction of an environmental chamber destroyed component samples that had originally been part of this testing program (and the inadvertent burning of some motors during dissection reduced the material available for testing). Planned dissection of selected motors in the future will provide samples for continued component testing. A new technique of Multi-symbol Regression Analysis was used to determine aging trends. Using a unique plotting code for each motor tested demonstrates the relationship between motors and block propellant. From the statistical analysis of all data tested to date, significant degradation of the propellant does not appear likely for at least two years past the oldest data point. Future testing will be conducted on dissected motors.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1983
- Accession Number
- ADA139201
Entities
People
- J. A. Thompson
Organizations
- Ogden Air Logistics Complex