Investigation of the Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant Deflagration Mechanism by Means of Experimental Analog Techniques

摘要

Two types of experimental, analogue burners were developed and employed for the purpose of evaluating theoretical models of composite propellant deflagration. One type, the 'porous-plug' burner, involves a bonded porous ammonium perchlorate (AP) bed burning with a fuel gas throughput; similarly porous fuel beds may be burned with oxidant gas throughputs. The other type the 'loose-granule' burner, involves mixtures of solid AP and fuel granules burned without a gas throughput. These analog burners allow evaluation of parametric influences including fuel and oxidant initial physical phase, system chemistry, and oxidant and fuel granularity scales. Experimental results from the two analog burners suggest that deflagration rates depend on the spatial distribution of energy release rate and not on overall energy release alone. Loose-granule burner deflagration is shown to be an excellent, if not perfect, analog of actual propellant deflagration; experiments with the burner show that fuel-binder pocket size in propellants may play a strong role in propellant deflagration. In some burning regimes the loose granule burner suffers from interstitial burning and the porous-plug burner deflagration is influenced by the granule-bonding technique used. This latter fact forces re-examination of the work of others in using such burners to infer stoichiometrically-correct mixture ratios from deflagration rate-mixture ratio burning characteristics. (Author)