Publicado 6 números por año
ISSN Imprimir: 2150-766X
ISSN En Línea: 2150-7678
Indexed in
COMBUSTION ROLES IN SAFETY OF LESS EXPLOSIVELY SENSITIVE CLASS 1.3 PROPELLANTS
SINOPSIS
During the decade of the 1980s, a number of people died manufacturing and mission suitability testing Explosive Class 1.3 solid propellants. During the same time frame no one was fatally injured in the United States in Explosive Class 1.1 solid propellant incidents. This incongruence of fatal injury incidents with the "explosively safer" Class 1.3 propellants rather than with Class 1.1 propellants was due to the relative burning rates of Class 1.1 and Class 1.3 propellants at low pressures of one atmosphere or slightly higher. Explosive safety problems with Class 1.3 propellants can also occur in the high pressure regimes with rapid acceleratory burn rates above the so called burn rate exponent slope break for ammonium perchlorate oxidized compositions. An enormous explosive threat can occur when large Class 1.3 solid propellant motors used for space launches experience early flight failures and motors or motor fragments crash to earth at high velocities. When propellant quantities are in the range of roughly 50 to nearly 500 metric tons per booster motor, there is a great blast potential. Preliminary screening of a few booster compositions in low and ultrahigh pressure regimes has produced hope that careful selection of combustion traits and propellant materials might substantially improve large rocket motor safety.