Abstract
Using different ammonium perchlorate (AP) resources even with the same particle size
distribution and the same physical and chemical characteristics have some effect on the
ballistic performance of aluminized composite solid rocket propellant (Al-CSRP).The main
goal of this paper is to retain the optimum characteristics performance of (CSRP)
formulations after changing the AP resources either by adapting the particle size distribution
of the new AP particles or by adding a catalyst. Effect of changing particle size distribution
for the new source ofAP on the ballistic characteristic of (Al-CSRP) was studied in this paper
but no significant effect on the goal of this work was obtained. Three burning rate modifiers
(BRM) (catalysts) were added separately on the prepared (Al-CSRP) formulations to study
their effect on the performance and the ballistic characteristics of these formulations. Nanosized
Barium Ferrite (BF) catalyst was able to retain and recover the required ballistic
characteristics of CSRP formulation containing the newAP resources, and hence the aim of
this work was achieved. Thermal analysis studies were performed on the different types of AP
and also on mixtures of AP with different BRM to find the optimum weight percentage of
added catalyst. The required weight percentage of nano-sized BF which achieves the goal of
this work was found to be 0.05-0.07% basedon the CSRP formulation mass.