Published 6 issues per year
ISSN Print: 2150-766X
ISSN Online: 2150-7678
Indexed in
AN/AD/Mg IGNITION BY CO2 LASER RADIATION
ABSTRACT
The ignition delay of pressed samples of an Ammonium Nitrate/Magnesium/Ammonium Dichromate mixture was measured under CO2 laser radiation over a pressure range from 0.1 to 1 MPa. The unusual results obtained are explained in terms of chemical interactions at the surface layer of the irradiated solid propellant samples. After a very short period of preliminary heating, decomposition of Ammonium Nitrate begins which proceeds, on the one hand, as endothermic dissociation followed by formation of magnesium nitrate and, on the other hand, as a reaction of water and laughing gas production followed in turn by very exothermic reaction of water with magnesium. These two forms of chemical interaction are responsible for the very high ignition delay of the irradiated AN/AD/Mg propellant as well as for the sensible and unexpected changes in the slope of log ti versus log q line for increasing operating pressure.