EFFECT OF PROPELLANT FORMULATION ON PROPELLANT PROPERTIES

This paper present the effect of propellant formulations on propellant properties is very crucial to the quality of propellant used in rocket motor. As poor propellant formulation usually leads to unstable combustion and this can lead to a total destruction of the entire structure of the solid rocket motor. For this research work, the centre compositions selected were based on calculation for percentage mass composition from the stoichiometric equation for the combustion process. Hollow bates grains used for the design consist of a mass of propellant of 6 kg, core diameter of 0.050m, throat diameter of 0.036m, grains length of 0.507m, 3 bates and grains diameter of 0.105m. Five samples of different formulations were experimented and as sorbitol increased, propellant properties such as specific impulse, temperature, density and thrust decreased but as potassium nitrate increased these properties increased as well. The increase in propellant properties as potassium nitrate increases indicated the oxidizing properties of potassium nitrate and decrease in propellant properties as sorbitol increases indicated their fuel properties. The specific impulse of 92.68 s and thrust of 1025.27 N of a formulation was the highest of all the propellant formulations considered for the test. This observation revealed that this formulation that produced highest specific impulse and thrust is the best out of all the formulations generated in the design.