Modelling and simulation of isochoric propellant deflagration with LS-DYNA

For the development and optimization of solid propellants to maximize the performance and safety of guns, a physical understanding of the internal ballistic processes during combustion is essential. The pressure in the combustion chamber, which is relevant for the acceleration of the projectile, is determined by the combustion properties of the solid propellant, which are mainly influenced by the propellant surface, the reaction kinetics, and the loading density. Simple combustion models describe these phenomena by combining pressure-based reaction kinetics with simple geometric approaches, such as surface regression based on ordinary differential equations. To simulate the performance of propellants for weapon systems, a suitable combustion model must be provided, which can be integrated into an FE simulation, for example. The objective of this work was to develop a method for determining the parameters for the propellant combustion model provided in LS-DYNA by inverse identification based on closed vessel tests for later use in FE simulations.