i

COMBUSTION CHARACTERISTICS OF AMMONIUM PERCHLORATE

BASED SOLID ROCKET PROPELLANT

AMIR BIN AZIZ

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the

requirement for the award of the degree of

Master of Mechanical Engineering

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

April 2011

iii

DEDICATION

Dengan nama Allah yang Maha Pengasih lagi Maha Penyayang..

Teristimewa buat ibu dan ayah yang tersayang, Ramlah Binti Jusoh dan Aziz Bin

Othman. Begitu juga kepada Rokiah, Zaiton, Zainun, Razali, Razman, Zawiah, Abdul

Razak serta Nur Zulika ...

Terima kasih atas sokongan dan berkat doa kalian sehingga aku mampu mencapai

hingga ke tahap ini. Pengorbanan kalian semua tidak akan aku sia-siakan...

Amin..

Motivator terbaik adalah diri sendiri…

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All praises to Allah S.W.T, the Almighty God and the Lord of the Universe,

the Merciful and Gracious. Salam to our beloved prophet, Nabi Muhammad s.a.w for

His mercy has given me the strength, blessing and time to complete this project.

Words cannot express my thankfulness to my supervisor Prof. Ir. Dr. Wan

Khairuddin Wan Ali who relentlessly providing me guidance throughout the study

with his knowledge and great patience. Both his dedications and passions toward

science have inspired me a lot. His encouragement is always with me all through my

study years. Without his endless support and guidance, I certainly will not be able to

accomplish this thesis and presented.

Thank you to Malaysia Space Agency (ANGKASA) and Ministry of Science,

Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) for funding my research and scholarship. I

extend my gratitude to Prof. Dr. Subramaniam Krishnan, Mr. Yaheyia Aldreany and

Mr. Wan Zaidi, who wealthily shared their experience and knowledge on the rocket

propellant and combustion analysis. I express my deep sense of gratitude and

indebtedness to our research officers and team members, Miss Zuriana, Mrs. Intan,

Mr. Rozi, Mrs. Norazila and all staffs of Aeronautic laboratory for their guidance,

advices and motivation while completing this project.

Last but not least, the biggest appreciation to my parent and family and also to

everyone for their precious contribution and a warm thank for all the support given.

Thank you…

v

ABSTRACT

There were many studies on ammonium perchlorate (AP) based solid rocket

propellant (SRP) and some data already exist. However, there is no complete data

available in Malaysia especially the information on the combustion characteristics of

baseline data of AP based SRP. This thesis discusses on the combustion

characteristics of AP based SRP including the methods of the propellant selection and

fabrication, burning rate test and static thrust test. Together with literature study and

theoretical performance, thirteen sets of different propellant mixture were finalized

with consideration of the mechanical and processability factors. The propellant was a

mixture of AP as an oxidizer, Aluminum (Al) as fuel and Hydroxy-Terminated

Polybutadiene (HTPB) as binder/fuel. For each mixture, HTPB binder was fixed at

15% and cured with Isophorone isocyanate (IPDI) (9.33% per mass of HTPB). The

percentage of the solid materials was set at a constant value of 85%. By varying the

AP and Al, the effect of oxidizer-fuel (O/F) ratio on the whole propellant can be

determined. The propellant strands were manufactured using press-molding method

and burnt in the strand burner at ambient pressure to obtain the initial burning

characteristics. Then four propellant compositions were selected, namely p60, p66,

p74 and p80 for further evaluation over a range of pressure from 6 atm to 31 atm .

The results show that the increasing of O/F ratio and combustion pressure lead to the

increase in burning rate. The fastest burning rate achieved was 12 -1mmsec at

combustion pressure of 31 atm for propellant p80 which has O/F ratio of 4.0. It was

found that, the formulated propellant in this study have the normal burning

characteristics with pressure exponent lies within the range of 0.501 to 0.561. Based

on theoretical evaluation, formulation for p66 gives highest specific impulse, spI .

Thus, p66 has been selected to be evaluated in static thrust testing to obtain its

performance characteristics. The results showed that the maximum thrust obtained is

162 N with generating spI of 143.92 sec.

vi

ABSTRAK

Kajian mengenai bahan dorong yang berasaskan ammonium perchlorate (AP) telah

banyak dijalankan dan sebahagian data telah diperoleh. Walaubagaimanapun, tiada

maklumat lengkap mengenai data-data asas bagi cirian pembakaran bahan dorong

yang berasaskan AP di Malaysia. Tesis ini merupakan kajian mengenai cirian

pembakaran bahan dorong berasaskan AP yang meliputi kaedah pemilihan dan

penyediaan bahan dorong, ujian kadar pembakaran dan ujian daya tujah statik.

Berdasarkan kajian literatur dan prestasi andaian ini, tigabelas set campuran bahan

dorong telah dipilih selepas mengambil kira faktor mekanikal dan kebolehsediaan.

Bahan dorong ini mengandungi AP yang bertindak sebagai bahan pengoksida,

aluminum (Al) sebagai bahan bakar dan hydroxy-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB)

sebagai bahan pengikat/bahan bakar. Bagi setiap campuran, HTPB telah ditetapkan

sebanyak 15%. Manakala bahan silangrantainya adalah isophorone diisocyanate

(IPDI) (9.33% daripada berat HTPB). Peratusan bahan pepejal pula telah dimalarkan

pada nilai 85%. Kesan nisbah bahan pengoksida-bahan bakar, O/F untuk keseluruhan

bahan dorong boleh diperoleh dengan mengubah kandungan AP dan Al. Jalur bahan

dorong disediakan dengan menggunakan kaedah acuan mampat dan dibakar di dalam

pembakar jalur pada tekanan atmosfera bagi memperoleh cirian pembakaran awal.

Kemudian, empat komposisi bahan dorong iaitu p60, p66, p74 dan p80 telah dipilih

bagi kajian lanjutan di bawah tekanan antara 6 atm hingga 31 atm . Keputusan ujikaji

menunjukkan bahawa peningkatan nisbah O/F dan tekanan kebuk merupakan faktor

kepada peningkatan kadar pembakaran. Kadar pembakaran terpantas yang diperoleh

adalah 12 -1mmsec pada tekanan kebuk 31atm untuk bahan dorong p80 yang

mempunyai nisbah O/F 4.0. Kajian mendapati keempat-empat formulasi bahan

dorong dalam kajian ini mempunyai cirian pembakaran normal dengan nilai pekali

tekanan, n antara 0.501 hingga 0.561. Berdasarkan kepada prestasi andaian, formulasi

p66 menunjukkan nilai denyut tentu, spI

yang tertinggi. Dengan itu, p66 telah dipilih

untuk diuji dalam ujian daya tujah statik bagi memperoleh cirian prestasi. Nilai daya

tujah tertinggi yang diperoleh adalah 162 N dengan nilai denyut tentu 143.92 saat.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENT vii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xii

LIST OF SYMBOLS xiv

1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Objective of the Study 2

1.2 Scope of Study 2

1.3 Research Methodology 2

1.4 Outline of Report 3

1.5 Limitation of study 5

2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Overview 6

2.2 History of solid propellant rocket 6

2.3 Solid Rocket Propellant 8

2.4 Propellant Ingredients and Properties 9

2.4.1 Binder 12

2.4.2 Metal Fuel 14

2.4.3 Oxidizer 18

2.4.4 Additives 21

viii

2.5 Solid Propellant Burning Rate Measurement 22

2.5.1 Strand burner (Crawford Bomb) 22

2.5.2 Small ballistic evaluation motors (BEM) 23

2.5.3 Full-scale Motors 29

2.6 Burning Rate Equation 29

2.7 Summary 32

3 CHEMICAL ROCKET PROPELLANT

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS 39

3.1 Overview 39

3.2 Assumptions for ideal rocket motor 39

3.3 Chemical Analysis of Propellant Combustion 40

3.3.1 Adiabatic Flame Temperature 40

3.3.2 Analysis of Thermochemical Properties 45

3.4 Analysis of performance parameter 50

4 SOLID PROPELLANT SELECTION AND

FABRICATION 52

4.1 Overview 52

4.2 Propellant Formulation Selection 52

4.3 Fabrication of the Propellant Strand 55

4.3.1 Preparation of Ammonium Perchlorate 56

4.3.2 Mixing procedure 59

4.3.3 Compression and cured 60

5 BURNING RATE CHARACTERISTICS 65

5.1 Overview 65

5.2 Combustion of AP Based Solid Propellant 65

5.3 Strand Burner Design 70

5.4 Burning Rate Test 73

5.5 Preliminary testing 89

5.6 Results and discussion 80

5.6.1 Effect of O/F and Combustion Pressure on the

Burning Rate 81

ix

5.6.2 Effect of O/F on the Pressure Exponent 85

5.6.3 Uncertainty Analysis for Burning Rate Test 93

6 STATIC THRUST TESTING 94

6.1 Overview 94

6.2 Static thrust facilities 94

6.3 Rocket motor 96

6.4 Testing procedure 100

6.5 Results and discussion 103

6.5.1 Nozzle with throat diameter 25 mm 103

6.5.2 Nozzle with diameter throat 30mm 106

6.5.3 Uncertainty Analysis for Static Thrust Testing 109

7 CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIONS 111

7.1 Conclusion 111

7.2 Recommendation 112

REFERENCES 113

APPENDICES A-M 121-172

x

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Propellant ingredients used for composite solid propellant 9

2.2 Example of the ingredients in AP based solid propellants 10

2.3 Example of additives in the AP based solid propellant 11

2.4 HTPB as polymeric binder 13

2.5 Aluminum as metallic fuel 18

2.6 Comparison of crystalline oxidizers 19

2.7 Ammonium perchlorate as an oxidizer 20

2.8 Three common particle-size ranges for AP 20

2.9 Classifications of BEM 25

2.10 Summary for binder 32

2.11 Summary for metal fuel 33

2.12 Summary for oxidizer 34

2.13 Summary for additives 35

2.14 Summary for strand burner 36

2.15 Summary for small ballistic evaluation motors 37

2.16 Summary for full-scale motors 38

3.1 Percentage of the ingredients 41

3.2 Enthalpy of formation (hf) for every compounds (at 298K) 43

3.3 Values for Linear Interpolation 44

3.4 Molecular weight, mole and mass each species of reactants

and products 46

3.5 Specific heat solid (Cs) and gas (Cp) 47

3.6 Comparison between manual calculation and output from

CEC71. 51

4.1 Formulation of thirteen set of different mixtures. 55

xi

5.1 Effect of combination of each ingredient 69

5.2 Observations 69

5.3 Average burn rate at pressure 1 atm 81

5.4 Average burn rate for four selected composition 81

5.5 Data for log combustion pressure and log burning rate 87

5.6 Empirical constant and pressure exponent 90

6.1 Specification of the propellant grain 99

6.2 Input data for nozzle throat 25 mm 105

6.3 Propellant performance for nozzle with throat 25 mm 106

6.4 Input data for nozzle throat 30 mm 108

6.5 Propellant performance for nozzle with throat 30 mm 108

7.1 Characteristics of the propellant from burning rate test 111

xii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Effect of mass fraction of HTPB on the burning rate and

adiabatic flame temperature of AP-HTPB propellants 13

2.2 Sample of aluminum particles under SEM 16

2.3 REM photograph of the conventional aluminum YX 76 16

2.4 REM photograph of the Alex powder 17

2.5 A chimney-type strand burner 23

2.6 Typical 2-inch BEM 24

2.7 Definition of burning time and action time 25

2.8 Example for free standing grain for KNO3-Carbon

propellant 27

2.9 Examples for case-bonded grains and igniter

configuration 28

2.10 Grain design and thrust vs. time 29

2.11 Burning rate of propellant 30

4.1 Example of casting aluminized/HTPB propellant 53

4.2 Simplifications on the methods of manufacturing the

propellants strand 55

4.3 Roller milled 57

4.4 Sample for AP particle before grinding 57

4.5 Sample of AP particle after grinding 58

4.6 Preparation of the propellant mixture 60

4.7 Strand wrapped with white tape 62

4.8 Strand ready dried before storage 62

4.9 AP/HTPB and Aluminized AP/HTPB propellant 63

4.10 cross sectional view of propellant p80 64

xiii

5.1 Combustion mechanism of AP particles and HTPB binder 66

5.2 Low pressure temperature profile 67

5.3 High pressure temperature profile 67

5.4 Flame of the propellant strand 70

5.5 Assembly view of 550 Psi strand burner 71

5.6 Example of strand mounting 72

5.7 Schematic diagram of the strand burner facility 72

5.8 Propellant strand 73

5.9 Actual burning time of the solid propellant at specified

length 74

5.10 Burning rate in atmospheric air and nitrogen gas 80

5.11 Burning rate at 1 atm for all formulations 82

5.12 Burning rate-O/F mixture ratio relationship 83

5.13 Effect of AP mass percentage on the burning rate of a 50

μm propellant 84

5.14 Burning rate-pressure relationship 85

5.15 Logarithmic plot of burning rate for all propellant

formulations 90

5.16 Effect of Al concentration on burning characteristics 91

5.17 Effect of AP concentration on burning characteristics 92

6.1 Test bed 95

6.2 Pendulum holder for static thrust testing 95

6.3 Attachment of load cell to the rocket motor 96

6.4 Nozzle of the rocket motor 97

6.5 Igniter (I80) 98

6.6 Dimension of the propellant grain 98

6.7 End of grain with silicone RTV 99

6.8 Installation of igniter on the rocket motor 100

6.9 Static thrust testing for propellant p66 102

6.10 Solid precipitation on the nozzle 103

6.11 Graph for the nozzle with throat diameter of 25 mm 104

6.12 Graph for the nozzle with throat diameter of 30 mm 107

6.13 Propellant performance in two different throat diameters 109

xiv

LIST OF SYMBOLS

A - Cross sectional surface area for the propellant strand

a - Empirical constant

AFT - Adiabatic flame temperature

AN - Ammonium nitrate

Al - Aluminum

Al2O3

- Aluminum oxide

AO - Ammonium oxalate

AP - Ammonium perchlorate

atm - Atmosphere

aij

- Number of atoms element i on the molecular formula

AlOHCl2 - Gidroksoalyuminiya chloride

BEM

- Ballistic evaluation motor

BE - Beryllium

CEA

- Chemical equilibrium application

CRV7

- Canadian Rocket Vehicles 7

C17

- Canadian 17

CTPB

- Carboxyl terminated polybutadiene

CO - Carbon monoxide

CO2 - Carbon dioxide

C - Carbon

Cl - Chlorine

sC

- Specific heat solid, -1 -1J mol K

pC

- Specific heat gas, -1 -1J mol K

gaspC

- Specific heat of gaseous, -1 -1J mol K

mixpC

- Specific heat of mixture, -1 -1J mol K

*c

- Characteristic exhaust velocity, -1m s

xv

FC

- Thrust coefficient

DAE

- Department of Atomic Energy

DAQ - Data acquisition system

DDI - Dimeryl-diisocyanate

DOA - Dioctyl adipate

DOP - Dioctyl phatalate

etc. - et cetera

FE2O3 - Ferum oxide

g - Gas or a vapor

og - Gravity, (9.81 -2m s )

HTPB - Hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene

HTPS - Hydroxy-terminated polyester

HTPE - Hydroxy-terminated polyether

HTPA - Hydroxy-terminated polyacetylene

2H - Hydrogen

2H O

- Water

HCl

- Hydrogen Chloride

H

- Hydrogen (atom)

HC

- Hydrocarbon

ISRO

- India Space Research Organization

IPDI

- Isophorone diisocyanate

spI - Specific impulse, sec

IDP

- Isodecyl pelargonate

JANAF

- Join Army-Navy- Air Force

KNO3 - Potassium nitrate

KClO4 - Potassium perchlorate

K - Kelvin

mixk - Specific heats ratio of mixture

kg - Kilogram

LiClO4 - Lithium perchlorate

log - Logarithm to the base 10

Lp

- Measured propellant length (mm)

l - Liquid

xvi

MDI - Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate

Mg - Magnesium

MSDS - Material safety data sheet

smol - Mole of species

sm - Mass of species

s - Molecular weight species

- Effective molecular weight

M - Mach number

strandm - Mass of strand

tm - Total mass

MAPO - Tris[ l-(2-methyl) aziridinyl] phosphine oxide

NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NG - Nitroglycerin

NC - Nitrocellulose

NA - Not available

NH4ClO4 - Ammonium perchlorate

N2 - Nitrogen

N - Nitrogen

n - Number of species

jn - Mol of molecule in the balance chemical equation

in

- Number of moles of gas components

sn

- Number of moles of condensed component

n

- Total number of moles gas

NaNO3 - Sodium nitrate

O/F

- Oxidizer to fuel mixture ratio

ODI

- Octadecylisocyanate

O

- Oxygen

OH - Hydroxide

P - Absolute pressure

aP - Atmospheric pressure

Pc

- Chamber pressure, bar

PBAN - Polybutadiene acrylonitrile

xvii

PU - Polybuatadiene

Psi - Pound per square inch

fP - Final pressure

r - Burning rate, -1mm sec

oR - Universal gas constant, 8.314 -1 -1J mol K

specificR - Specific gas constant, -1 -1J mol K

RTV - Room-temperature vulcanizing

SRP - Solid rocket propellant

S.E.M - Scanning electron microscope

S.W.G - Standard wire grade

TDI - Toluene-2,4 diisocyanate

TiO2 - Titanium Oxide

TPB - Triphenyl bismuth

eT - Temperature at exit condition, K

bt - Burning time, sec

fT - Final temperature, K

UFAL - Ultra Fine Aluminum

.s bV - Volume of strand burner, 3m

Zr - Zirconium

ΔU - Change in internal energy, -1kJ mol

ΔH - Change in enthalpy, H=U+PV, -1kJ mol

H - Heat of combustion, -1kJ mol

Δ - The increment in a given property for a given process or reaction,

taken as the value for the final state (or sum for the products) less

that for the initial state (or sum for the reactant)

o

fH - Standard enthalpy of formation, in which is the increment in

enthalpy associated with the reaction of forming the given

compound from its elements in their reference states, with each

substance in its thermodynamic standard state at the given

temperature, -1kJ mol

xviii

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A Guide for using CEC71 Program 121

B Output of NASA CEC71 for propellant70 131

C Heat of formation 135

D Mass of products and reactants 136

E Performance analysis 138

F Drawing of strand burner 142

G Electronic timer 149

H Sample preparation and testing procedure for

burning rate test

153

I Example results from burning rate 157

J Drawing of rocket motor 158

K Fabrication of the propellant grain 168

L Example results from static thrust testing 170

M Manual calculation for rocket performance 172

1

CHAPTER 1

1. INTRODUCTION

Ammonium perchlorate (AP) has been used as a major propellant ingredient

for decades in ballistic missiles, military attack missiles, space applications, etc. It is

known for its advantages as an oxidizer for solid propellant. Two main advantages of

AP are, its stability, resulting in safe munitions, and its ability to control a propellant‟s

burning rate.

There were a lot of studies from those who used AP based propellant and

some of the data are already existed. However, there is no complete information on

the characteristic of the baseline data of AP based solid rocket propellant as well as

the device and technique used to get the data. Knowing the limited data and technique

used is not enough since other parameters such as the size and type of device used to

generate the baseline data is not fully taken into account, then the data cannot be

correctly interpreted and errors due to the scale up may result.

Fundamental study had been conducted to obtain the data of characteristic for

AP based solid propellant by using facilities available in UTM. The current study was

based on a typical and established heterogeneous or sometimes called composite

propellant composed of ammonium perchlorate (AP) as an oxidizer, aluminium (Al)

as a metal fuel, hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as a binder and

isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) as a curative agent. In this study, by varying the

oxidizer-fuel mixture ratio it is possible to achieve different propellant burning rates.

The burning characteristics of propellant were obtained by using a strand burner.

2

The performance characteristics of AP base solid rocket propellant (SRP) was

evaluated using a ballistic evaluation motor (BEM) or also known as static thrust

testing to obtain another important parameter, which is the specific impulse. Although

both measuring technique and devises used will introduce errors, accurate prediction

is possible by establishing a correlation between subscale test motor and strand burner

test.

1.1 Objective of the Study

To determine the combustion characteristics data of the developed ammonium

perchlorate based solid rocket propellant (SRP).

1.2 Scope of Study

I. Literature review on applications of AP in solid rocket.

II. Theoretical study on the performance of AP based SRP using NASA

CEC71 program.

III. Evaluate the burning rate of AP based SRP at different O/F ratio and at

different operating pressure using strand burner.

IV. Conduct the static thrust testing.

1.3 Research Methodology

The research was started with literature studies on rocket propellants,

especially solid rocket propellants. The study focused on the history and development

of rocket technology in the world. Then, the methods that could be used to measure

and analyze the burning rate of propellant had been studied and understood in order to

find the most appropriate method to be used with the facilities available in UTM.

3

Lastly, the basic ingredients that commonly used in composite solid propellants were

reviewed.

After that, theoretical study on the performance of AP based SRP were

conducted by using NASA CEC71 program. Based on the literature reviewed,

previous experience and the theoretical performance, thirteen sets of propellant

formulation were fabricated with a different oxidizer-fuel mixture ratio.

Initially, the burning characteristic of all propellant formulations were

evaluated at an atmospheric condition by using the strand burner. From that, four

main formulations were selected and tested at the elevated pressure range of 6 atm to

31 atm. Finally based from the theoretical evaluation by NASA CEC71 program, one

optimum mixture namely p66 had been chosen for static thrust testing to obtain the

performance characteristics. All the documentation of the work done and literature

review related to this study were continuously carried out throughout this research

study.

1.4 Outline of Report

The report on this study is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 provides the

general introduction on the study and it include the objectives, scopes, research

methodology and outline report of the study was briefly explained.

Chapter 2 presents literature reviews on solid rocket propellants. The reviews

start with the history and development of rocket technology around the world. Then,

discussion on basic ingredients that commonly used in composite solid propellants is

presented. At the end of this chapter is a brief explanation on the methods that could

be used to measure and analyze the performance characteristics of a propellant.

Chapter 3 starts with the basic assumptions that must be made in order to

simplify the analysis of a rocket motor. Then an example of a propellant analysis of a

given propellant formulation is presented. After that, several theoretical approaches to

determine the thermochemical properties for a given propellant formulation such as

4

chamber pressure, nozzle dimensions, and nozzle exit pressure are briefly discussed.

Finally, it discussed the method utilized to determine the main performance parameter

such as theoretical specific impulse, characteristic exhaust velocity, thrust coefficient

and etc.

Chapter 4 discussed the three main contributors that significantly influence the

selection of a propellant formulation and they are the literature review data, NASA

CEC71 program and type of the fabrication method to be used. Then, the methods of

preparing the ingredients were shown and explained which later followed by the

mixing procedure. Finally the method that is used to prepare the propellant mixture

and fabrication of the propellants strand for burning rate test is briefly explained.

Chapter 5 explained the methods and facilities employed for burning rate test.

Firstly, the propellants were tested in the strand burner at the ambient pressure by

using wire technique to obtain the initial burning characteristics. Then, four propellant

compositions which are the p60, p66, p74 and p80 were selected for further

evaluation over a range of pressures from 6atm to 31atm. The results obtained were

analyzed to find the effect of oxidizer-fuel mixture ratio and chamber pressure to the

burning characteristics of the propellant.

Chapter 6 discussed the static thrust testing that was conducted to obtain the

thrust time curve characteristics in order to obtain the actual performance of a solid

propellant. Final chapter summarized several conclusions and recommendations that

could be considered for the next researcher to improve and advancing further the

research on ammonium perchlorate based solid propellant.

5

1.5 Limitation of Study

1. The fabrication of the propellant only utilized press molding method without

detailed study on other methods such as casting and extrusion. There was also

no study on the effects of varying compression pressure to the burning rate

and mechanical properties of the propellant.

2. The purpose of utilizing SEM was to study the structure of the solid loading

such as aluminum and ammonium perchlorate in the propellant grain. There

was no detailed study on eliminating bubbles in the propellant.

3. The purpose of static thrust test was to obtain the thrust and some performance

characteristics. Due to the limitation of scope, there was only two static thrust

testing were conducted.

113

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