Numerical simulation of solid propellant mesoscopic damage using surface-based cohesive approach

To better simulate microscopic damage of solid propellant and study the non-linear mechanical properties of solid propellant, the molecular dynamics method was adopted to match the size distribution and volume fraction of solid propellants. The Surface-based cohesive approach was verified to be a better method to replace the cohesive element approach. It was developed to simulate the interfaces damage between particles and bind. Several mesosopic samples considering contact damage behavior were computed, and the effects of particle size and particle random distribution on the damage or mechanical property of solid propellant were discussed. The results show that the Surface-based cohesive approach is easier to be adopted to establish the interfaces between particles and bind in the pre-process of FEM. It makes the calculation of the FEM model more likely to converge and the results more reliable.