Effects on Burn Rates of Pellets and Propellants with Catalyst-Embedded AP

Abstract

This study makes an attempt to demonstrate a technique to embed the catalyst on ammonium perchlorate surface. In the present study, various techniques like differential scanning calorimeter, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscope, and x-ray computed tomography scan analysis as well as others were used to establish the effectiveness of this technique. Micron-sized iron oxide was used in this study for embedding the catalyst on ammonium perchlorate. Burn rates of pellets containing different fractions of iron oxide from various sources were measured to establish an optimum fraction for highest burn rate of ammonium perchlorate pellets achievable with iron oxide. These burn rates were measured using a Crawford bomb, and a fraction of 1% iron oxide (Sigma-Aldrich) was highest among them for pellets. The burn rate of the ammonium perchlorate pellet with 1% iron oxide at 70 bar pressure recorded was . This fraction of iron oxide was also used to study the effect of embedding the catalyst on ammonium perchlorate surface when used in nonaluminized composite solid propellants. It is observed that catalyst-embedded ammonium perchlorate yields a higher burn rate as compared to the mechanically mixed catalyst.