Material Selection For Rocket

Motor Cases
WITH WEIGHTED PROPERTY INDEX METHOD
Muhammad Arif Saadilah | Design and Material Selection | March, 2015

ROCKET MOTOR
A Rocket motor, or rocket engine, or maybe some of the article will use term as a Jet
Engine uses for storing fuel inside and mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. A
rocket motor is one of the most important thing in missiles, and Spaceship.
A Rocket motor just use the Newtons third law to make it fly away from the ground. As
we know rocket always can be flew away because of a boost from some burned
propellant. The generated force (pressure) imparts a momentum to the combution
products. This boost will make a momentum in the opposite direction which also
imparted to vehicle.
A boost from inside the rocket motor wwill also produce some side effect such as high
temperature, high pressure gases and some other chemical reaction which happened when
burning the solid propellant as the fuel. This all happened in a chambers called cases.
Below is the picture of the rocket motor which also mention the part:

Picture 1. Design of Solid propellant Rocket motor [1]

A solid propellant (which the rocket using design as Picture 1 including some
composition such as mentioned at Table 1.

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Table 1. Composition of Propellant.[2]

As per found at the table, those compositions are have some uniqneed to be mark as
important are corrosive, and explosive materials.

Rocket Motor Cases

As per found at Picture 1, Cases on rocket motor is the main structure of the rocket. It
used for the load-bearing of the solid propellant, and acts as the chamber when burning
the propellant.

Picture 2. Rocket Motor Cases[3]

After we found that the case is so much important for the rocket, the selection for its
material is also an important thing. There are some properties need to fill for selectiong
the material. Below the Table 1 showed the condition of Rocket Motor Cases.

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Table 1. Performance of Rocket Motor [4]

in other side, we also need to include the maximum temperature for the cases. As per said
on Table 2, the maximum temperature is about 5790 F (approx 3800C). At this
temperature, we need some certain material which has the ability for not expanding, or
melting in thsi temperature.

Table 3. Solid Propellant properties[2]

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Material Selection for Rocket Motor Case

The material selection for a rocket motor case is generally being evaluated on the basis of

Specific strength: The maximum potential strength-weight ratio cannot be fully

utilized because of the tendency to brittle failure increases with higher strength.
Hence, yield strength-weight ratios will be utilized in the performance
evaluation.[5]
Search
Region

Picture 3. Strength againts modulus for Specific Streng th Chart [6]

Fracture toughness: This factor determines to what strength limit material can be
reasonably utilized in the presence of small flaws, which are often unavoidable
and undetectable.[5]

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Search
Region

Picture 3. Fracture Toughness againts Density for Fracture Toughness Material

Chart [6]

Specific stiffness: Elastic modulus is a structureinsensitiveproperty and cannot be

changed as readily as the other properties by heat treatment, alloying, and cold
working. Its main importances is for stiffness consideration. Specific stiffness is a
better way of compairng the stiffness properties of candidate materials.[5]

Fabricability: No material can be considered adequate for rocket motor cases

unless it can be fabricated without excessive cost.[5]

Cost: Overall cost is the most important criterion in selecting a material. Cost is a
more usefull parameter when it can be related to a critical material property that
controls the performance of the design.[5]

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Coefficient of thermal expansion: The material has to have a minimum thermal

expansion coefficient to minimize the effect of dimensioal changes and thermal
stress due to fluctuation in operating temperatures.[5]

Picture 3. Normalised Strength Vs Linear Expansion Coefisien for Expansion

Coefisien Material Chart [6]

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Pairwise Comparison
Positive
Decision Number

Property
1

Decisions
8

10

Strength
to weight
ratio

Fracture
toughness 0

Specific
stiffness

Thermal
expansion

Cost

Table 3. Pairwise Comparison[5]

Property

Positive

Weighting

Decision

Factors

Strength
to weight
ratio

0.4

0.1

0.1

expansion

0.1

Cost

0.3

Total

10

Fracture
toughness
Specific
stiffness
Thermal

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Table 4. Weighting Factor[5]

Candidate Material
With all the data shown before, we can choose some of the type of material as on the
Material Chart. Below are how we can choose some material type by the Material Chart:
1. Specific Strength
2. Fracture Toughness
3. Thermal Expansion

Material

304 SS
Maraging
Steel
15CDV6
D6AC
Ti Alloy
Al Alloy
HSLA Steels
Table 5. Candidate Material with the properties. [5]

Scaled Property and Weighted Property Index

Material

Corrosion Fabricability

Avaibility

304 SS

Maraging Steel

15CDV6

D6AC

Ti Alloy

Al Alloy

HSLA Steels

Table 6. Corrosion, Fabricality, and avaibility table [5]

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Scaled Property
Material
Specific

Fracture

Specific

Strength Toughness Stiffness

304 SS

Thermal
Expansion

Cost

WPI

WPI

Without

with

Cost

Cost

83

32

61

53

50

47.8

62.8

Steel

89

80

74.25

99

10

60.925

63.925

15CDV6

66.5

100

81

100

15

54.7

59.2

D6AC

91.34

70

80

98

15

61.336

65.836

Ti Alloy

100

335

79

93

9.3

90.7

93.49

Al Alloy

78.8

17

100

42

50

47.42

62.42

49

56

80

71

100

40.3

70.3

Maraging

HSLA
Steels

Table 7. WPI Index and Scaled Property [5]

Conclusion
As per all the counted, we can use some rating for the material:
Material

WPI INDEX

Rank

304 SS

62.8

Maraging Steel

63.925

15CDV6

59.2

D6AC

65.836

Ti Alloy

63.49

Al Alloy

62.42

HSLA Steels

70.3

Table 8. Material Rank

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Then, For this case, as per found in WPI Index, we can use HSLA type for the correct
material for Rocket Motor Cases. But, if we have unlimited Cost, the WPI showed D6AC
or Maraging Steel is better.
Refference
[1] http://aerospaceweb.org diakses pada 4 Maret 2015
[2] Huzel, Dieter & Huang, Havid. 1957. Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines
NASA, California.
[3] http://nasa.gov diakses pada 4 Maret 2015
[4] Sulton, George & P Biblarz, Oscar. 2001. Rocket Propulsion Elements John Wiley &
Sons. Canada.
[5] Rajan, K.M & Narasimhan. 2002. pp 444-449 An Approach to Selection Material and
Manufacturing Process for Rocket Motor Cases Using Weighted Performance Index.
Jurnal Of Material Engineering and Performance.
[6] Ashby, Michael F. 2000. Material Selection in Mechanicaal Design. Butterworth
Heinemann. Oxford

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