The Mechanism of Super-Rate Burning of Catalyzed Double Base Propellants

Abstract

The study is directed at understanding how organic lead salts (at the 1% level) alter the burning mechanisms of double base propellants to produce large (up to 300%) burning rate increases (super-rate burning) and domains of reduced burning rate pressure and temperature sensitivity (plateau burning). Investigations were carried out with nitrocellulose and trimethylolethane trinitrate (TMETN) double base propellants with systematic variations in additives (including lead powder, lead oxide, lead salicylate, copper powder, copper salicylate, finely divided carbon, and oxamide), particle size, and degree of dispersion. Diagnostic experiments (from 0.1 to 100 atm) examined burning rate behavior, gas-phase structure, burning-surface structure, temperature profiles in the reaction zones, and global effects. The portion of decomposed organic molecules which appears at the surface in the form of carbon rather than readily oxidizable aldehydes reduce the effective fuel to oxidizer ratio (aldehyde to NO2).

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1973
Accession Number
AD0763786

Entities

People

  • L. H. Caveny
  • M. Summerfield
  • N. Kubota
  • T. J. Ohlemiller

Organizations

  • Princeton University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Burning Rate
  • Cameras
  • Chemical Reaction Properties
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemical Synthesis
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Composite Propellants
  • Double Base Propellants
  • Exothermic Reactions
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Oxidation
  • Photographs
  • Reaction Mechanisms

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry
  • Rocket Propulsion.