CuO/Al Thermites for Solid Rocket Motor Ignition

Fast and repeatable ignition transients for small solid rocket combustors can be difficult to achieve. This work sets out to characterize a CuO/Al thermite mixture to fill this need. Igniter function was determined using high-speed imaging, allowing an examination of product droplet size and combustion time as a function of packaging technique. Safety testing (electrostatic discharge, drop weight impact, and friction) indicated that this material is far safer than existing ignition compounds. A simple dual-criteria ignition model is applied to igniter sizing, and our modeling results were successfully evaluated using hot fire tests of motors with various exposed propellant surface conditions. The end result is a safe, inexpensive, reliable, and readily available method of igniting small (500 g-50 kg propellant mass) solid rocket combustors. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT] Presented as Paper 2011-5987 at the 47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit, San Diego, California, 31 July-3 August 2012