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Rheology of HTPB Propellant: Development of generalized correlation and evaluation of pot life
Author(s) -
Muthiah Rm.,
Krishnamurthy V. N.,
Gupta B. R.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1521-4087
pISSN - 0721-3115
DOI - 10.1002/prep.19960210405
Subject(s) - propellant , materials science , polybutadiene , rheology , composite material , volume fraction , hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene , solid fuel rocket , shear (geology) , shear rate , aerospace engineering , engineering , polymer , copolymer
Composite solid propellants based on hydroxy‐terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) have become the workhorse propellants in the present‐day solid rocket motors world‐wide. Because of the high solid loading, the rheological behavior of such propellants is quite complex. The effect of solid loading, oxidizer particle size and aluminium content has been studied and reported. Similarly, the effect of temperature and mixer kinematics and mixing cycle time have also been studied and reported. In the present paper a generalized correlation has been developed for shear stress‐shear rate based on the rheological parameters like yield stress, consistency index and pseudoplasticity index which are in turn functions of solid volume fraction, cure time, t, and temperature, and has a correlation coefficient of 0.94 with the experimental values. Also a commonly used term in propellant industries, pot life, has been defined and evaluated for the HTPB propellant system.