Design Of Microcalorimeters For Evaluation Of PropellantsIn Medium Caliber Munitions

摘要

Conventional commercial microcalorimeters are limited in size. Studies of propellants removedfrom munitions are limited to 4- gram sizes. These small sizes do not correctly represent the heatflow that result by the original environment of the hardware configuration. Large calorimetermeasuring cells have been designed by ESB that use inexpensive Hart Scientific commercialprecision water baths. The sensitivity of the measuring cell is a maximum of +/- 0.5 microwatt orbetter operating from 40°C to 80°C with propellant samples from 4-grams to 100-grams. Thecalorimeter cells have been tested with 20-mm and 25-mm cartridges as received from service use.Unique cell designs and factors that affect performance of the calorimeter-measuring cell arediscussed. Validation data is presented showing how the munition round compares with smallpropellant samples removed from rounds. The calorimeter heat flow data is collected with a lowcost high-resolution data collection system.