Abstract

Nitrocellulose based propellants are the main materials used for ballistic and rocket applications. The chemical composition of the propellants, the loading density and propellant grain geometry are the decisive parameters that influence the performance parameters in ballistic application. In this paper the authors evaluate three models of combustion for energetic materials for the determination of heat of explosion and specific volume together with the adiabatic flame temperature. The authors select six types of propellant (two simple base propellants, two double base propellants based on nitroglycerine and two triple base propellants based on nitroguanidine) and the authors determined the heat of explosion and specific volume using a bomb calorimeter and a Julius-Peters device. The results obtained from the combustion models were compared to the experimental results and assumptions were done on the influence of pressure and temperature on the chemical composition of combustion gases produced by the confined deflagration of nitrocellulose-based propellants.

Highlights

  • Ballistic propellants are designed to exhibit fast combustion or deflagration in confined conditions in order to produce a large quantity of gases at high temperature, producing mechanical work in order to propel a projectile inside a barrel or to produce thrust for the movement of a rocket

  • Simple base propellants (SBP), which have 80 – 98 % cellulose nitrate ester as energetic component, gelled with ethanol or diethyl ether, are used in large caliber artillery shells, while double based propellants (DBP), colloids with energetic materials like propane-1,2,3-triyl trinitrate, 1,2-dinitroxyethane and nitric acid 2-(2-nitrooxyethoxy)ethyl ester as plasticizer for NC are used for rocket propulsion, medium and small caliber artillery and for small arms

  • The model is sensible to loading density, 0.08 g/cm3 was used for calculations in order to be coherent with experimental determinations

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Summary

Introduction

Ballistic propellants are designed to exhibit fast combustion or deflagration in confined conditions in order to produce a large quantity of gases at high temperature, producing mechanical work in order to propel a projectile inside a barrel or to produce thrust for the movement of a rocket. Nitrocellulose based propellants (NCP) are the main materials used in producing mechanical work for propulsion of ammunition and rocket/missiles. The main advantages of NCP over polymer matrix energetic particle propellants, known as composite propellants, are related to the high energy content, fast burning rate and very good mechanical properties [1, 2]. Triple base propellants (TBP) are composites of NC, NG and 1nitroguanidine (NQ)

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