FUNDAMENTALS OF LIQUID PROPELLANT SENSITIVITY
Abstract
The study of liquid propellant sensitivity continued. Positively identified, shock-tubeinitiated detonations of liquid nitroglycerine were achieved after evacuation of the sample in the shock tube was eliminated from the test procedure. Apparently evacuation removed volatile sensitizing agents and thus desensitized the nitroglycerine sample to the shock-tube test. In 50 tests with samples that were not desensitized, the time delay was found to decrease from 100 to 25 microseconds when the Mach number of the incident shock was raised from about 3 to 5. Photolysis experiments indicated that a light of an absorptive wavelength caused self-heating of the nitroglycerine until either decomposition or detonation occurred, depending on the geometrics of the particular experiment. Measurements showed that water vapor rapidly contaminated the surface of nitroglycerine, as indicatd by a change in surface tension, from about 50 to 55 dynes/cm, within a few hours. Over a month of storage, the surface tension of a sample of nitroglycerine was observed to increase by about 3 dynes/cm. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 30, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0271597
Entities
People
- E.l. Grove
- T.a. Erikson
Organizations
- IIT Research Institute