| Issue |
Volume 11, 2019
Progress in Propulsion Physics – Volume 11
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 65 - 90 | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eucass/201911065 | |
| Published online | 08 February 2019 | |
Effects of aluminum composites on the regression rates of solid fuels
Politecnico di Milano, Aerospace Science and Technology Department Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab) Milano 20156, Italy
Innovative, mechanically activated Al–polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composites and ammonium perchlorate (AP) coated nano-sized aluminum (C-ALEX) were produced, characterized, and tested as solid fuel additives. The ballistics of fuel formulations based on hydroxylterminated polybutadiene (HTPB) was investigated in a microburner by a time-resolved technique for regression rate (rf) data reduction. Both Al-composites show promising results in terms of rf and mass burning rate enhancement. In particular, the C-ALEX showed a percent rf increase over the baseline (HTPB) of 27% at an oxidizer mass flux of 350 kg/(m2s), without requiring dedicated dispersion procedures. This performance enhancement was nearly constant over the whole investigated range.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2019
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.