CFD-Assisted Optimisation of the Nitrator Design for Military Propellant Production

The manufacture of nitrocellulose, which is the basis of most artillery, tank, mortar and rocket propellant is intrinsically risky due to the energetic nature of the product and the sensitivity of the process. To optimise the performance of the nitrator, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technology was employed to initially select a suitable impeller design and subsequently used to select an appropriate nitrator geometrical configuration. From the qualitative and quantitative analysis, a baffled-nitrator was proposed. The results obtained on the proposed nitrator were compared to those obtained from the existing unbaffled-nitrator and the comparison indicated that the proposed nitrator performed more effectively relative to the existing nitrator.