A STUDY OF THE BURNING RATES OF COMPOSITE SOLID PROPELLANTS IN ACCELERATION FIELDS.

Abstract

The average burning rates of a series of composite solid propellants were measured in acceleration fields up to 1000 G using a combustion bomb mounted on a centrifuge. The propellants were burned at constant pressures of 500, 1000, and 1500 psia. Specially prepared motors allowed the study of the effect of simultaneous erosive and acceleration induced burning rate increases. The burning rates of both the non-metallized and the majority of the metallized propellants were found to depend on acceleration. The effect of acceleration was found to depend on the basic burning rates of the propellants and the aluminum and oxidizer particle sizes and weight percentages. The burning rates of two very fast burning rate propellants were found to be essentially independent of acceleration. The erosion sensitivity of a propellant was found to decrease with increasing acceleration. A model was developed which successfully correlates the experimental results obtained for the non-metallized propellants. The experimental results for the metallized propellants could not be correlated by either of two models proposed by other investigators. This result indicates that a more complex model is required to explain the observed acceleration effects for metallized propellants. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1968
Accession Number
AD0832206

Entities

People

  • Edward John Sturm

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aluminum
  • Burning Rate
  • Centrifuges
  • Combustion
  • Composite Materials
  • Materials
  • Particle Size
  • Particles
  • Propellants
  • Sensitivity
  • Solid Propellants

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • ballistics.