Round Robin Results of the Closed Bomb and Strand Burner

A series of exercises was undertaken by participants from the three services, private industry, and academia to assess the comparability of propellant burning rate data among installations. The study involved both the closed bomb and high pressure strand burner techniques. Identical propellant formulations were distributed to the participants, burned, and the data converted to burning rates using methods prevailing at each installation. In some cases closed bomb as well as strand burner results showed excellent agreement (to + or - 2.5 percent on the average and to within + or - 1 percent mid-range). In less favorable cases closed bomb burning rates from different installations exhibited two or three times as much scatter. In one case there were significant differences between closed bomb and strand burner data. For the closed bomb data, variations could be linked to experimental factors such as loading density, sample quickness, and ignition parameters, as well as post- acquisition data manipulation techniques such as smoothing and differentiation.