CAPTIVE-FIRED TESTING OF SOLID ROCKET MOTORS

Nikola Gligorijević

Sredoje Subotić

Abstract:

Captive-fired testing of solid rocket motors in static conditions are used for their assessment during the research, development or periodic technical inspection of their reliability. There is a large variety of tests that have to be performed to completely develop a rocket motor or check the quality of the motors from the field stock, which should meet all the set design requirements. All possible deficiencies of the rocket motor, if any, should be identified, detected and eliminated before the final assembling the missile, regardless of the cost of testing, because this is completely justified from the economic aspect and necessary from the security aspect.

In this paper, along with the elementary overview of the basic characteristics of the rocket motor, the methods for the motor preparation and measuring equipment are described. Also, different kinds of testing, measurements and data processing were demonstrated.

Key words: rocket motor, rocket testing, captive-fired testing, propellant charge, laboration, pressure, thrust, thrust force, side force.