EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE, CONTENT OF PLASTICIZER AND NITROGEN CONTENT OF NITROCELLULOSE ON THE IMPACT SENSITIVITY OF GUN PROPELLANTS

Abstract

The development of modern gun weapons requires high energy, low sensitivity and wide temperature range gun propellants. In order to improve the formulation of gun propellant, the effects of initial temperature of gun propellants, content of energetic plasticizers and nitrogen content of nitrocellulose on the impact sensitivity of gun propellants was evaluated comprehensively. The results indicate that with the increase of initial temperature, the impact sensitivity of gun propellants increased. When the temperature rises to 80°C, in 25 parallel tests of two gun propellants, the explosion probabilities increased from 5/25 and 2/25 to 24/25, respectively. When the nitroglycerin (NG) content was increased from 30% to 50%, the drop hammer height at which the explosion probability reached 50% (H50) decreased from 14.96 cm to 4.49 cm. When the content of diethyleneglycol dinitrate (DEGDN) increased from 30% to 40%, the H50 value of the gun propellants decreases from 5.21 cm to 3.49 cm. When the nitrogen content of nitrocellulose increases from 12.0% to 13.5%, the impact sensitivity of the gun propellants increases significantly. Overall, this study might provide theoretical basis and data support for the design of gun propellant formulations.