Experimental Evaluation of Processing and Aging Characteristics of Polymerized D icy clop entadiene for Use as a Composite Solid Propellant Binder

摘要

Composite solid propellants utilizing polymerized dicyclopentadiene as a binder matrix have been shown to offer advantages in both strength and burning rate as compared to commonly used binders such as hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene. Unfortunately, dicyclopentadiene has a rapid, highly-exothermic polymerization process that is completed in less than 1 minute. Previous work has shown that inclusion of an inhibiting agent can greatly retard dicyclopentadiene's polymerization rate, providing a sufficient window of time for lab-scale mixing and casting operations. As it may be advantageous to bring the benefits of polymerized-dicyclopentadiene-based binders to large-scale rocket motors, such as those used in space exploration and military systems, the pot life of polymerized-dicyclopentadiene-based propellants must be increased. To this end, mixture temperature was used to further retard polymerization rate, working synergistically with an inhibiting agent, to offer even larger windows for mix/cast operations. From experimental data, an equation modeling dicyclopentadiene's polymerization rate's dependency on temperature and inhibitor loading was created. The effect of aging on polymerized dicyclopentadiene and plasticized-modified polymerized dicyclopentadiene gumstock samples was assessed.