Effects of Nano-Aluminium on The Combustion of A PolyNIMMO-Based Propellant

Propellants containing micro-aluminium particles have been shown to produce faster burn rates than conventional gun propellants.However,they are also more abrasive than conventional propellants.Nano-material propellants have been reported to give similar benefits to micron-material propellants but without the disadvantage of increased abrasion.Tests were conducted to compare the burn rates,ignitability and wear rates of a propellant loaded with 0% aluminium,15% micro-aluminium and 15%nano-aluminium.Closed vessel tests showed a burn rate increase of 39% in the range 30-250 MPa,and 70% at low pressure(50-100MPa)for the nano-aluminium propellant compared with the baseline propellant.The micro-aluminium propellant showed only a 10%increase in the burn rate compared with the standard propellant.The ignition delay for the nano-aluminium propellant was slightly shorter than that of the baseline propellant.Substantially increased wear rates were measured for the micro-aluminium propellant.The nano-aluminium propellant showed reduced wear rates compared with the micro-aluminium propellant but these were still substantially greater than those for the baseline propellant.