Increased rocket motor performance is a major driver in the development of solid rocket propellant formulations for chemical propulsion systems. The use of increased operating pressure is an option to improve performance potentially without the cost of reformulation. A technique has been developed to obtain burning rate data across a range of pressures from ambient to 345 MPa. The technique com...

Nitrogen rich compounds are suitable as ingredients in low smoke propellant charges. Several high-N energetic materials are presented which are based on tetrazoles. Tetrazoles are an unique class of compounds, since they combine a high nitrogen content and a high heat of formation with good thermal and kinetic stabilities due to their aromatic ring system. The reaction of 5azidotetrazole with h...

Despite the fact that ammonium nitrate (AN) has the highest hydrogen content and fairly high oxygen balance (compared to other oxidizers), its extremely low formation enthalpy and relatively low density makes it one of the worst power oxidizers in solid composite propellants (SCP). Nevertheless, AN has certain advantages ¡ the combustion of the compositions containing AN is virtually safe, its ...

Small, low-thrust, long-burn-time solid propellant rocket motors could provide propulsion for a new class of kilogram-scale, transonic, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs). This paper investigates technological challenges small, low-thrust motors: slow-burn propellants, that have low thrust relative to their size (and thus chamber pressure), thermal protection the motor case, and small nozzles can ...

NOL large card gap test is not suitable to assess the shock sensitivity of granular propellant beds made of large grains. The result can be strongly influenced by the heterogeneity of the bed. A new small scale gun propellant shock sensitivity test has been developed at ARDEC. This test is a sensitive discriminator to assess gun propellant shock sensitivity. INTRODUCTION Shock-to-detonation sen...