Thermal Decomposition Kinetics of Aged Solid Propellant Based on Ammonium Perchlorate – AP/HTPB Binder

Applications of Calorimetry in a Wide Isothermal Titration Calorimetry and Microcalorimetry 326 According to Beckstead and Puduppakkam [4], the combustion of a monopropellant can be divided in three regions (condensed, liquid-gas two-phase region and gas region).The twophase region consists of liquid and gaseous species resulting from the melting and/or decomposition of the solid phase.The precise division between the two-phase and gasphase region (i.e. the 'burning surface') is not well defined due to chemical reactions, bubbles, and condensed material being convected away from the surface.In the gas phase region of a monopropellant, the flame is essentially premixed.The species emanating from the surface react with each other and/or decompose to form other species.A wide variety of reactions involving many species occur in the gas flame until equilibrium is reached in the final flame zone.Thermal decomposition of AP, as its combustion processes, have been experimentally studied and reported in the literature.The thermal decomposition of AP may be observed by differential thermal analysis (DTA) and thermal gravimetry (TG), in the figure below [5].A heating rate of 0.33 K/s was used on the analysis.