Effect of Nitramine on Physical, Mechanical, Ballistics and Sensitivity Properties of Composite Propellant

摘要

Increased demand for high specific impulse has resulted in composite propellant with nitramine. The major concern with incorporation of nitramine in propellant composition is the increased performance at the cost of increased shock sensitivity. A systematic study was carried out to examine physical, mechanical, ballistic and sensitivity parameters of composite propellant as a function of RDX content. Composite propellant formulations were prepared by part replacement of Ammonium Perchlorate with fine RDX. Viscosity build up of propellant slurry were measured and shown in Fig1. Viscosity of propellant slurry reduced with RDX as fine particles of RDX occupy the interstitial space between AP coarse particles thus improves the particle packing and flow characteristic of slurry. It was validated from the propellant density (Fig 2), where experimentally determined density closely matches with theoretically calculated density. The Composition with 6% RDX has best agreement between experimental determined and theoretical calculated density hence indicating the optimum packing of solid particles in binder matrix.