Dynamic Modeling and Analysis of a Small Solid Launch Vehicle

The dynamics of a small solid launch vehicle has been investigated. This launcher consists of a liquid upper stage and three fundamental solid rocket boosters aligned in series. During the ascent flight phase, lateral jets and grid fins are adopted by the flight control system to stable the attitude of the launcher. The launcher is a slender and aerodynamically unstable vehicle with sloshing tanks. A complete set of six-degrees-of-freedom dynamic models of the launcher, incorporation its rigid body, aerodynamics, gravity, sloshing, mass change, actuator, and elastic body, is developed. Dynamic analysis results of the structural modes and the bifurcation locus are calculated on the basis of the presented models. This complete set of dynamic models can further be used in flight control system design.