Radiant ignition studies of ammonium perchlorate based propellants

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of ammonium perchlorate (AP) based propellant ignitability. A CO₂ laser provided the radiant energy source. Neat AP ignition was performed on both production grade and high purity AP. The material was difficult to ignite under the conditions. Five nonmetallized and sixteen metallized AP based formulations were used to examine the effects of particle size, binder type, additives, and coarse-to-fine ratio (C/F) on propellant ignitability.