A Portable Burn Pan for the Disposal of Excess Propellants

Abstract

Munitions for indirect fire weapon systems are issued with a full complement of propellant charges. Excess charges are typically not turned in and are destroyed by open burning as part of the units training. Burning of the charges can result in up to 20 of the propellant remaining in the form of residues on the ground. A portable propellant burn pan system was designed and demonstrated as part of Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP) Project ER-201323 to enable safe, environmentally effective training of the military. Tests have demonstrated a 99.98 reduction incombustible mass of the charges, less than 0.001 of the energetics in the burn pan ash, energetics concentration of less than 0.5 in the residual ash, and no detectable difference in energetics in the soil surrounding the pan after burning over450 kg of charges. Performance objectives for the burn pan device were met or exceeded by the final system design.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2015
Accession Number
AD1030174

Entities

People

  • Michael R. Walsh

Organizations

  • Engineer Research and Development Center

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artillery
  • Artillery Units
  • Cloud Cover
  • Environmental Security
  • Fire Extinguishers
  • Gun Propellants
  • Indirect Fire
  • Materials
  • Munitions
  • Propellant Grains
  • Propellants
  • Security
  • Single Base Propellants
  • Small Arms
  • Training
  • Weapon Systems
  • Weapons

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Munitions and Ordnance Engineering