Preliminary Study on Characteristics of NC/HTPB-Based High-Energy Gun Propellants

This study mainly explored the characteristics of NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants with RDX, CL-20 or TKX-50 by experimental method. Three series of test samples were prepared referring to the formulation of M1 single-base gun propellant (M1 SBP). The thermochemical characteristics, chemical stability, explosion heat, impact and friction sensitivities of prepared samples were determined by simultaneous differential scanning calorimetry–thermogravimetric analysis (STA DSC–TGA), vacuum stability tester (VST), bomb calorimeter (BC), BAM fallhammer and BAM friction tester, respectively, and compared with those of the reference sample M1. The experimental results indicated that the thermochemical characteristics of NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants were similar to those of M1 SBP. The NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants had good chemical stability and were superior to M1 SBP. The explosion heat of NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants was close to and slightly larger than that of M1 SBP. In addition, the NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants had lower impact and friction sensitivities than the M1 SBP. Therefore, the NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants have the potential to replace the M1 SBP. The combustion performances of NC/HTPB-based high-energy gun propellants will be continuously studied and verified in the future.