The Effect of Solid Propellant Binder on the Formation and Evolution of Aluminum Combustion Products.
Abstract
Novel particle collection and high speed photography techniques have been used to study the combustion behavior of an inert binder (IB) propellant and an energetic binder (EB) propellant. Both contained 18% aluminum and 37% coarse AP in order to provide very similar geometrical structures, and both propellants had essentially common burning rates. The aluminum combustion efficiency is higher and the characteristic agglomerate size is significantly smaller for the EB propellant than for the IB propellant (at 43 atm the agglomerate size, D43, was 190 micrometers for the EB propellant and 670 micrometers for the IB propellant). At 7.5 atm the characteristic roughness of the burning surface is about 300 micrometers for the EB propellant and about 800 micrometers for the IB propellant. X-ray photography and visual observations of quenching particles show that similar sized agglomerates can differ significantly in structure and aluminum content, and there is some indication of internal voids (i.e. low density). This appears to be a result of the different initial conditions that the agglomerates are exposed to when they initially form at the surface. The size distribution of fine oxide particles was not dependent on either pressure or the propellant binder (or on the size of agglomerates). The fine particle mass size distribution (i.e. the smoke) was observed to have 3 modal sizes, approx. 1, 3.5, and 7 micrometers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA311150
Entities
People
- M. V. Beckstead
- O. G. Glotov
- V. E. Zarko
- V. V. Karasev
Organizations
- Brigham Young University