Foaming properties of the three NC‐based (nitrocellulose‐based) propellants, namely, single‐base propellant, NG (nitroglycerine) propellant and TEGDN (triethylene glycol dinitrate) propellant were investigated in the batch foaming process by using supercritical CO2 as the physical foaming agent. Burning characteristics of the foamed NC‐based propellants were also investigated in this work. For this study, the CO2 desorption of the three NC‐based propellants were plotted by the gravimetric method. The morphology and burning characteristics of these foamed NC‐based propellants were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and closed vessel experiment. The test data revealed that the energetic plasticizer has a considerable effect on the pore formation in the NC matrix although it has little effect on the CO2 solubility in the NC‐based propellants. Moreover, the SEM images showed the foaming temperature also plays an important role in the pore parameters of foamed propellants. Furthermore, the data of closed vessel experiment indicated that the burning characteristics of foamed NC‐based propellants largely depend on the pore parameters, and the porous structure of foamed propellants would considerably increase the mass conversion rate.
In the development of weapons, the current trend is to replace incombustible constituent elements with combustible ones. The traditional porous combustible objects are composed of nitrocellulose as energetic component, which is highly sensitive and inflammable. Formulations composed of high content RDX and inert polymer binder were employed to replace the tradional ones. This paper reports the fabrication process of microcellular combustible objects with skin‐core structure using supercritical CO2 (SC‐CO2) as foaming agent. The objects were foamed in designed foaming molds with expansion ratios of 1.1, 1.2 and 1.35. The influence of foaming temperature, saturation pressure, expansion ratio and RDX content on porous structure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Thermogravimetric analysis was conducted and the results revealed a two‐stage decomposition process of RDX and binder. Performance in terms of heat resistance and moisture resistance was evaluated and compared with the traditional ones. A comparative study indicated that microcellular combustible objects are superior to traditional ones in respect of their survivability.
The effects of porous structure on the burning characteristics of foamed NC‐based (nitrocellulose‐based) gun propellants were investigated by closed vessel and quenched combustion experiments. The foamed NC‐based TEGDN (triethylene glycol dinitrate) gun propellants with different porous structures were prepared by adjusting the process parameters in the foaming process. SEM (scanning electron microscopy) was used to observe the morphologies of foamed TEGDN propellants, and the densities of the foamed propellants were also measured to evaluate the porosities of foamed propellants. The experimental results showed that the burning characteristics of the novel foamed propellants are totally different from combustion characteristics of parallel‐layer. Further investigations revealed that the burning characteristics of the foamed NC‐based propellants largely depend on the porous structure, larger pores and higher porosity would lead to higher burning rate of the foamed TEGDN propellants.
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