Visualization of Solid Rocket Motors with VRML 2.0

Abstract

The Solid Rocket Propulsion (SRP) software package developed within DLR Bremen is utilized for modeling and optimizing three dimensional solid rocket motors. As part of the computation process, a conceptual 3D geometrical representation of the motor is created. However, this geometry has so far existed solely as a set of parameters in a text based file. This study thus aims to create an additional program module, written in object oriented Fortran 2003 that can convert the text file containing arbitrary SRP geometries into three dimensional models following the VRML 2.0 format. A central part of the study is the development and verification of novel mathematical equations for converting cylindrical and star propellant grain cross sections into Cartesian coordinates. These equations are incorporated into the resulting program module. The program then utilizes an existing meshing tool named GGH to generate the VRML 2.0 compliant input files from the given Cartesian coordinates. These input files can be opened through any VRML compliant viewers or imported into CAD programs such as CATIA. In conclusion, the program module was successfully developed with all core requirements fulfilled. Thorough documentations of the source code and user instructions have been created and a potential future development direction of the program has been identified.