Experimental studies on thermal degradation, ignition and combustion of low-vulnerability gun propellants
Résumé
The development of insensitive gun propellants can lead to ignition issues. Detailed understanding of the thermal behavior of such materials is therefore necessary and is investigated in this paper to present activation energies. Laser ignition appears to be a good alternative to overcome ignition issues. These propellants are ignited in a closed reactor to obtain ignition and combustion characteristics. Experiments are performed for different initial pressures, surrounding atmospheres and laser powers. Results show that ignition and combustion characteristics are better under argon than nitrogen. Indeed, overpressures can be 42 % higher under argon for some initial pressures. For a laser power of 5 W, ignition energies are of 92.63 mJ under argon and of 107.65 mJ under nitrogen. Laser power plays a role on ignition characteristics but has little effect on combustion characteristics.