Measurements of Transient Burning Properties of Composite Propellants with a Strand Burner

摘要

The transient behavior of two types of propellant was investigated in the Strand Burner Laboratory in Soreq NRC, revealing some differences in their measurability. The response function was derived using the Zeldovich–Novozhilov method and the Strand Burner apparatus. The phenomenological characterization of the propellants was performed in a series of steady-state burning experiments under various conditions of pressure and temperature. The results formed a "map" that was used as a set of boundary conditions for the analytical analysis of the propellant behavior under transient conditions. The system monitored the burn rate of a propellant sample under controlled conditions of pressure and temperature, while tracing the transient temperature gradient within the propellant by micro-thermocouples. The investigated propellants were a composite HTPB/AP and a nitramine RDX/XLDB propellant. The latter was found easier to characterize with the described method, due to the homogeneous liquefied burning surface that defined the gas/solid interface more clearly.