THERMAL DEGRADATION AND KINETIC PARAMETER OF TWO INSENSITIVE PROPELLANTS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

International audienceLow vulnerability gun propellants are energetic materials designed to resist unintended ignitionstimuli. The present work aims to determine kinetic parameters for two insensitive powders. The firstpropellant is made of 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane, usually called hexogen (RDX), and hydroxylterminatedpolybutadiene as a binder. The second one is a nitrocellulose (NC) based propellant,which also contains diphenylamine. These propellants are commercial products and were providedby ArianeGroup. Both propellants have a cylindrical shape with several perforations. Only a fewmilligrams of each sample are used in this study. Combustion properties of these samples were alreadystudied and published concerning the RDX- and NC-based propellants. This experimentalstudy focuses on two thermal analysis methods, which are the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)and the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). This study is complementary to the previous workson combustion behavior. Data obtained with such thermal analysis techniques provide important resultsconcerning thermal behavior of propellants. These results are useful to study ignition andcombustion, but also storage (aging). For each propellant, DSC and TGA analyses are performedusing several heating rates to obtain their activation energies. Comparison of their reactivities isdone by working under two different gaseous atmospheres (argon and nitrogen). Activation energiesobtained using the two techniques and under the two atmospheres are given, discussed, andcompared to literature available data