istanbul technical university faculty of aeronautics...

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ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

GRADUATION PROJECT

JANUARY, 2020

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND TESTING

OF HIGH PERFORMANCE AMMONIUM NITRATE BASED

SOLID ROCKET PROPELLANT

Thesis Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal Bülent YÜCEİL

Ege TÜRKYILMAZ

Department of Astronautical Engineering

Anabilim Dalı : Herhangi Mühendislik, Bilim

Programı : Herhangi Program

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JANUARY 2020

ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS

PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS AND TESTING

OF HIGH PERFORMANCE AMMONIUM NITRATE BASED

SOLID ROCKET PROPELLANT

GRADUATION PROJECT

Ege TÜRKYILMAZ

(110140104)

Department of Astronautical Engineering

Anabilim Dalı : Herhangi Mühendislik, Bilim

Programı : Herhangi Program

Thesis Advisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal Bülent YÜCEİL

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Thesis Advisor : Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal Bülent YÜCEİL ..............................

İstanbul Technical University

Jury Members : Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal Bülent YÜCEİL .............................


Prof. Dr. Alim Rüstem ASLAN ..............................


Dr. Bülent TUTKUN ..............................


Ege TÜRKYILMAZ, student of ITU Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics

110140104 successfully defended the graduation entitled “Performance Analysis

and Testing of High Performance Ammonium Nitrate Based Solid Rocket

Propellant” which he/she prepared after fulfilling the requirements specified in the

associated legislations, before the jury whose signatures are below.

Date of Submission : 2 January 2020

Date of Defense : 20 January 2020

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To the people who changed my life,

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FOREWORD

I would like to thank my family, my friends and my soulmate for supporting me in

each of my life decisions which have brought me to present.

I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my thesis adviser Assist. Prof. Dr. Kemal

Bülent YÜCEİL for his time, as well as his guidance, and encouraging behavior. His

experience and eagerness of teaching had been my compass for completing this

research.

Additionally, I would like to thank Deniz Özbarlı and Barış Daryal for helping me

with the logistics and chemistry , and sharing the warm and joyful working

environment.

January 2020

Ege TÜRKYILMAZ

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 1.1 Reason of Research ............................................................................................ 1

1.2 Purpose of Research ......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2. PROPELLANT OVERVIEW ..................................................................... 9 2.1 Fuel Selecting ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.1.1 Neoprene ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.2 Additives .......................................................................................................... 11

2.2.1 Aluminum ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined. 2.2.2 Sulfur ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

2.3 Chemical Characteristics .................................................................................. 12

2.3.1 Challanges of ammonium nitrate usage .................................................... 12 2.3.2 Challanges of aluminum usage ................................................................. 12

3. DEFINING PROPELLANT SPECIFICATIONS ................................... 12 3.1 Propellant Composition .................................................................................... 13

3.2 Solid Rocket Propellant Performance Analysis Program................................. 13 3.3 Finalizing Propellant Calculations ................................................................... 13

4. PROPELLANT MIXING .......................................................................... 22 4.1 Preparing Chemicals ........................................................................................ 22

4.2 Mixing and Finalizing ...................................................................................... 22 4.2.1 Mixing strategy for the perfect mixture .................................................... 22

4.2.2 The hydraulic press issue .......................................................................... 22

5. BURN RATE CALCULATIONS .............................................................. 24 5.1 Determining Burn Rate Constants .................................................................... 24

5.2 Strand Burner System Design .......................................................................... 24

5.3 Manufacturing and Finalizing Strand Burner ................................................... 24

6. TESTING AMMONIUM NITRATE BASED SOLID ROCKET

PROPELLANT ........................................................................................................ 26 6.1 Strand Burner Testing ...................................................................................... 26 6.2 Expected Impulse ............................................................................................. 26 6.3 Calculated Results ............................................................................................ 26

6.4 Launch .............................................................................................................. 26

7. RESULTS .................................................................................................... 26 8. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................... 26 9. FUTURE WORK ........................................................................................ 26

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ABBREVIATIONS

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

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Performance Analysis and Testing of High Performance Ammonium Nitrate

Based Solid Rocket Propellant

SUMMARY

This research primarily performed for developing high power solid rocket propellant for

especially amateur model rocketry. Some of the countries does not have any regulation about

model rocketry and this deficiency results with a challenge of finding rocket motors for

academic rocket flight. Purchasing of rocket motors from another countries nearly impossible

due to the danger of transporting these chemicals. If the researchers decides to prepare their

own solid rocket motor it is also challangetive to find correct chemicals or supply them. In this

study, high performance solid rocket propellant created with slightly less hazardous chemicals

and with minimizing risks. The aim is helping the people with less risky propellant

compositions and prevent them to hurt themselves.

The study was firstly started with designing a small booster. However, the increasing necessity

of a more powerful motor leads to find new chemicals with higher energy. Classically, first

booster was planned made with KN (Potassium Nitrate) as an oxidizer. Past experiences

simply leads to understand KN will not be enough powerful. Nevertheless, the real solid

propellants’ main oxidizer Ammonium Perchloride is extremely dangerous and totally hard to

find. After reviewing the literature it is seen that AN (Ammonium Nitrate) also powerful if

every small details take into consideration.

Unfortunately, AN can not be used with common binders. AN is an oxidizer which is really

hard to use because of its phase change characteristics. For this study Neoprene based contact

cement is used after a few tries. As additives Aluminum and Sulfur is used. Aluminum is the

best performance increasers. Actually, when the oxidizer is AN, Mg would be a better effect.

However in this project Al is preferred because the ease of supply when compared the Mg.

Sulfur is an essential in Al added propellants for activating Al.

After deciding the ingredients, PROPEP free program is used for finding the best composition.

Trial and error method is used to find the best percentages and getting chemical specifications

for calculating the expected result. With using these datas, a MATLAB program is writed and

optimized. The program is firstly asking the boundary conditions and taking users grain

specifications which is coming from PROPEP and combustion chamber design. Program

performs a thousand iterations and gives the pressure, mass flow rate through nozzle, mass

generation rate of combustion products, burning time and more, then calculating thousand of

instant impulse values. Finally, giving a thrust and pressure curve depends on time, average

thrust, total impulse, nozzle dimensions, Isp values. This program’s results accelerate the

design of combustion chamber and grain dimensions designs. It has been easy to discuss the

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expected results and shaped the grain and determining minimum thickness of combustion

chamber.

Mixing of propellant is also quite challenging. AN is extremely hygroscopic chemical which is

bad characteristic for a propellant oxidizer. Before use it, nearly 2 hours of warming in oven at

100 degrees is an essential progress. While AN is heating up leaving all the water inside of it,

other ingredients should be weighed and prepared. AN must be used quickly to prevent

moistening. AN is grinded in coffee grinder and weighing. After Sulfur is also grinded and

putting together with Al. This powder is mixed gently and binder (which is also the fuel) is

added. Last steps before waiting 12 hours to get dry the contact cement is mixing well the

whole composition. After 12 hours, mixture grinded in coffee grinder again and shaped in a

mold and finally pressed in hydraulic press.

Next step after propellant sample is ready is burn rate measurements. It is critical for using the

MATLAB program. Strand Burner System is designed just for this study. An inch thickness of

pipe pressurized and thin strand of propellant sample placed in it. At least 3 thermocouple

sensors are connected to the pipe and touching the sample. While the strand is burning

thermocouples taking signal and burn rate can be measured with this data. After, the data is

processed burn rate constant is calculated and the MATLAB program runs with totally correct

data.

Finally, the solid motor placed in a small rocket and tested and results discussed.

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Yüksek Güçlü Amonyum Nitrat Bazlı Katı Roket Motorlarında Performans

Analizi ve Testleri

ÖZET

Bu çalışmanın yapılmasının temel amacı ülkesinde roket motorları üzerine çalışmak istemesine

rağmen gerekli düzenlemelerin olmaması sebebiyle roket motoru temin edemeyip çalışmalarını

durdurmak veya tehlikeli bir şekilde ilerletmek zorunda kalan araştırmacıların güvenli bir ve

yeterince performanslı bir roket motoru geliştirmesini esas almaktır. Yurtdışındaki sınırlı

sayıda tedarikçi taşımacılığın riskli olduğu bu kimyasalları gönderememektedir. Yakıtı kendisi

hazırlamak isteyen araştırmacı ise üst düzey kimyasallara güvenlik sebebiyle rahatça

erişememektedir.

Bu çalışmanın ilk amacı küçük bir model için basit bir roket motoru geliştirmektir. Ancak

sonradan daha güçlü bir motora duyulan ihtiyaç Potasyum Nitrat gibi alışılagelmiş

oksitleyicilerin yeterli olmamasına ve daha enerjik malzemelerin arayışına yol açmıştır.

Amonyum Perklorat tedariğinin müthiş derecedeki zorluğu ve kullanımındaki hayati risklerden

ötürü tercih edilmemiş, literatür araştırmaları sonucu Amonyum Nitrat’ın umut verici

çalışmaları olduğunu açığa çıkarmıştır. Doğru kullanıldığında oldukça güçlü olan Amonyum

Nitrat’ın ortaya çıkardığı zorluklar faz değiştiren ve nem çekmeye çok yatkın olan bir kimyasal

olmasıdır. Bu sebeple standart bağlayıcılarla kullanılamamaktadır. Amonyum Nitrat'ı’

fazlarıyla ilgili problemlerin aşılabileceği anlaşılınca kullanılmaya karar verilmiştir. Bağlayıcı

olarak Neoprene seçilmiştir ancak sadece katı halde bulunması ve en iyi çözünmeyi Toluen

gibi riskli bir kimyasalla vermesi sebebiyle Neoprene bazlı kontakt yapıştırıcıların

denenmesinin uygun bulunmasına sebebiyet vermiştir. Isp artışı için Mg AN özelinde en iyi

sonucu vermektedir ancak fazla aktif olması ve araştırmacıların yeterince tecrübesi olmaması

sebebiyle Al’ye karar verilmiştir. Sülfür ise Al’nin görevini tam yapması açısından oldukça

kritiktir. Al taneciklerinin dışındaki korozyonu bozarak yanmalarını kolaylaştırmaktadır.

Yakıtın bileşenlerine karar verildikten sonar ücretsiz am agüvenilir bir program olan

PROPEP’te yanma sonuçlarına bakılmış ve farklı yüzdelerde karışımlar denenmiştir. En

yüksek yanma sıcaklığının olduğu kompozisyon seçilmiş ve MATLAB’te bu çalışma için

yazılmış olan programda ortalama yanma hızı değerlerinde sonuçları incelenmiştir. Program

yanma odası ölçüleri ve yanma odasının maksimum dayanma basıncı, yakıt lokmalarının

ölçüleri ve yakıtın kimysal özelliklerini alarak 1000 iterasyon adımında 1000 farklı itki

değerini toplayarak total itli, anlık itki, Isp, yanma süresi ve basınç-zaman ve itki-zaman

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grafikleri çıkarmaktadır. Bu sayede sıradaki adımlar tamamen öngörülere değil hesaplamalara

da dayandırılmıştır.

Yakıtın fiziki olarak hazırlanmasında kritik noktalar mevcuttur. AN çok hızlı nem çeken bir

kimyasal olması sebebiyle karışımların hızlı oluşturulması gerekmektedir. AN 100 derecelik

fırında yaklaşık 2 saat kurumaya bırakılır ve bu esnada Al ve Sülfür hazırlanır. AN fırından

alınır alınmaz kahve öğütücüde öğütülür ve Al ve Sülfürle birleştirilerek nazikçe karıştırılır.

Oluşan bu toz karışıma bağlayıcı (aynı zamanda yakıt) Neoprene bazlı yapıştırıcı eklenir ve 12

saat kurumaya bırakılır. 12 saatin sonunda tekrar öğütücüde parçalanır ve hidrolik preste kalıba

dökülür.

Yakıtın yanma hızının bilinmesi performans hesaplamaları için gerekli olduğundan bu çalışma

için bir strand burner düzeneği tasarlanmış ve üretilmiştir. Bu düzenek pirinç bir borunun

delinerek en az 3 tane sıcaklık sensörü bağlanmasıyla oluşturulur. 1 inç kalınlığındaki borunun

içine yakıt örneği konularak basınçlandırılır ve farklı basınçlarda sıcaklık sensörlerinde zaman

bağlı alınan veriler işlenir. Çıkan basınç hız grafiğinden yanma hızı sabitleri belirlenir ve

MATLAB programında eksiksiz bir şekilde hesaplamalar yapılır. Sonucunda uygun basınç

belirlenir ve roket motoru son halini alır. Uçuş için mini rokette test edilir ve sonuçlar tartışılır.

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1. INTRODUCTION

From the ancient times to the present, space always be an object of interest for

humankind. At the beginning, humans were just watching with their eyes and

understand the movements in space. Invention of telescope was a milestone for these

researches. However, curiosity of humankind always stayed in the same level. As

they found new methods of discovery, they also found more and more mystery to

solve. Hence, telescopes started to be insufficient to answer people’s questions and

humans invented rocket technologies. Rockets changed all humankind’s life forever.

Today, rockets using for placing satellites to the Earth for communication, GPS

systems, and exporation for military and ciwil services. Moreover, rockets used for

deep space exploration missions with carrying surface rovers, telescopes, data

collecting devices and so on. Furthermore, not only in space, also in the Earth rocket

technologies used for defense systemes as missiles in air, land, and under the seas.

In addition to the usage of rockets by itselves, because of its complicated designs of

rocket systemes, lots of new technology has been discovered in areas like electronics,

strength of materials, even in daily life of people called spin-off products. Rocket

propulsion and its necessities in other subsystems are one of the most complicated

research topics in the world.

In this study, development of an ammonium nitrate based solid rocket propellant,

which is a specific propellant composition for a specific propulsion type, is the main

topic. The need of this kind of propellant, the purpose of a new study about solid

rocket propellants, design steps, calculations, programs which are used and just

writed for this research, subsystems and its designs will be discussed in this paper.

1.1 Purpose of Research

Nowadays, huge projects come alive by private sector in space industry. Besides

governments, these private companies which are working on rocket and space

technologies impressing more and more people everyday with their strong mediatic

force. Thus, especially in universities, students leading space industry and trying to

work on rocket systemes in school projects and international or national rocket

enginnering competitions. Some of the countries have special laws for these kind of

events named ”Model Rocketry Laws”. In this countries, it is easy to obtain ready to

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ignite solid rocket motor kits in different specifications. Also, launching a rocket is

possible with some permissions and licenses. Nevertheless, most of the countries

does not have regulations for these studies and it is nearly impossible to find a rocket

motor for testing or using in a real model rocket. This problem leads researchers to

design and prepare their own motor which is a good thing for people to learn. But

finding purchasing necessary chemicals generally really hard and sometimes

expensive. Same laws which is restricting to obtain rocket motor affects also the

chemicals. Another significant point is working with these chemicals is extremely

dangerous. These hazardous chemicals can ignite easliy by themselves and can burn

vigorously. Also, some of them is dangerous to smell and touch.

As a result, main purpose of this study is making a solid rocket propellant that is

relatively high power class with Ammonium Nitrate. The reason behind choosing

ammonium nitrate will discussed future chapters. All the chemicals used in this

research tried choose from easy obtainable ones. Also, all the safety precautions

mentioned to help unexperienced reader. At the end of this study, how to make

amateur level homemade solid rocket propellant and its output calculations tried to

be shared for the people who are working on model rocketry and having a hard time

about where to start, safety problems and performing combustion and thrust

calculations.

1.2 Rocket Propulsion Basics

Rocket engines or motors (depends on propulsion type) work with Newton’s Second

Law of Motion, simple momentum. Rocket propellant basically consists of two main

ingredients which are oxidizer and fuel. Combustion occurs with these two or more

chemicals in a combustion chamber which should be durable to increasing pressure

depends on the propulsion system. The reaction of oxidizer and fuel generally occurs

in high temperatures about 1500 – 10000 K in different kinds of propulsion systems.

This chemical reaction increses the pressure of combustion chamber and products of

the reaction goes through a nozzle and throwing away from the rocket. This

phenomenon called thrust, and denoted by F. Thrust is vectoral quantity and through

the backward of the rocket. The products go out from the engine with high speeds

pushes the system in the opposite direction. This is the simplified expression of the

thrust mechanism. In Fig.1, it can be seen that the simple section view and important

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variables of an engine. Thrust’s unit is N and it is instantaneous quantity. The total

thrust equals to

Thrust Formula

Fig.1

Specifications of a rocket engine simply can be expressed as “thrust, total impulse,

specific impulse or effective exaust velocity”. Thrust can be vary with time.

Generally, average thrust or maximum thrust make sense for the engineers. Total

impulse, denoted by “It” and unit is “N.s”, is the total power of the rocket engine and

calculated with integrating the thrust over time. Specific impulse generally represents

the performance of the engine and denoted with “Isp”. Isp is the total impulse per unit

weight of the consumed propellant and unit of it is “s”. Effective exhaust velocity “c”

is telling the same parameter with Isp but in a different way. It is the ideal velocity of

combustion products while going off from the engine at the nozzle’s outlet. The

formulas of It, Isp and c can be seen below:

Total impulse

Specific impulse

Effective exhaust velocity

Effective exhaust velocity

In this study, 220 s of Isp tried to be reach by solid rocket propellant. [1]

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1.2.1 Rocket Propulsion Types

Even there are more rocket types than 3, in this study only most common chemical

ones will be discussed.

Liquid propellant rocket propulsion systems are the most common used systems for

space missions. Generally known systems like Falcon 9, Saturn V are liquid

propellant systems. Liquid systems work with pumping liquid propellant with a

turbopump with passing through an injector to a combustion chamber. There are two

different types of liquid systemes. First one is bipropellants which means there are

two tanks one of them contains fuel and the other one is oxidizer. With different

pumps eject these liquids in a correct mass flow rate to the combustion chamber. In

monopropellants only one tank used and that contains both fuel and oxidizer. A

bipropellant system can be seen in Fig. 1.2:

Second system is hybrid propellant rocket propulsion system. This system is

relatively new when compared to liquid and a promising system for future space

missions or satellite launch systems. The reason for calling this system to hybrid is

being fuel and oxidizer in a different phase. Generally fuel is solid and stays inside

the combustion chamber and oxidizer ejected from a tank like in the liquid systems.

This is relatively less complex and more safe in contrast to liquid systems. Hybrid

systems also more environmentally friendly against the other systems. There is also

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inverse hybrid propulsion system which fuel is liquid in the thank and oxidizer is

solid and stays in the combustion chamber.

RESİM

Generally solid rocket propellants mentioned first however solid systems are the

main subject and will be discussed more detailed. Solid propellant propulsion

systems are the less complex ones. First rocket systems in the history were solid

propulsion type. They have some advantages and disadvantages compared to

systems are spoken before. In solid systems fuel and oxidizer stays in the combustion

system mixed and ready to ignite in a solid state. Because of there are no tanks or

complex systems solid systems are lighter and smaller. Mostly used in military

systems like air missiles or boosters for space mission rockets. Unfortunately, this

propulsion type can not be stopped when the combustion starts and because of its

ready to ignite can be ignited with static electric or a small sparkle as an accident.

Hence, should be extremely careful when dealing with solid rocket propellants. In

amateur model rocketry nearly all the studies performed with solid rocket

propellants.

TABLE

1.2.2 Combustion Theory

Combustion is the exothermic reaction which is occurs in the combustion chamber

with the igniter provide enough activation energy needed for burn. The basic

principle behind the combustion is converting the heat energy results from the

exothermic reaction to the kinetic energy comes with high pressure. The particle

moves towards to the nozzle exit because of this pressure difference.

The most complex part of designing a propulsion system is derivating the full

combustion equation. This is a hard subject and need a good chemical knowledge to

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make it perfect. Also because of its based on many assumption experience is an

important factor. After determining many products and sub products mole numbers

should found.

Many reactants come out with reversible reactions which means reaction goes both

ways, reactants and products. If the process is reversible more constants should be

calculateb like equilibrium contstants.

Next step is finding balanced equation. After that enthalpy of the products and

reactants should be determined and energy of the reaction should be calculated. With

using tables from chemistry databases combustion temperature will be determined.

This is a really complicated and tedious work to do. It is easy to make mistakes

without awaring. Hence, there are some computer programs automatically performs

all these things (and more) and give results with a great flexibility. Using this kind of

programs recommended in early stages. For this study PROPEP 3 had been used and

way of using will be discussed later on this paper.

1.2.3 Nozzle Theory

Nozzles are characterizing the flow in the propulsion systemes. Nozzle flow can be

defined as “steady one-dimensional compressible flow”. Hot exhaust gases and solid

particles goes through the nozzle. Generally nozzles are designed in convergent-

divergent model. In this model, nozzle area decreases until the place called throat and

then area increases. Flow is subsonic till the throat and that is the reason for

converging structure of the nozzle because subsonic flow getting faster if the area is

decreasing. In throat, flow reaches 1 Mach speed and becomes supersonic. Hence,

nozzle starts diverging because of the different characteristic of supersonic flow. The

aim is increasing the nozzle exit velocity as possible. This is directly proportional to

the thrust as mentioned before. All these processes can be proved with

thermodynamic relations.

The ciritical point is determining throat and nozzle exit area in rocketry. For these

some preknowns needed like combustion temperature and specific heat ratio which

are coming from combustion calculations. The formulas are:

7

NOZZLE EXİT VELOCİTY FORMULA

ALAN ORANLARI FORMÜLÜ

After determining nozzle exit and throat area most of the work is done. Next step is

deciding the lengths of convergent and divergent parts. When the simple covergent-

divergent nozzle designed there is thrust loss due to the conical structure of the

outlet. Flow goes paralel to the nozzle walls and thrust losses like sinx times

calculated thrust as can be seen in figure:

RESİM

This loss will be smaller if the nozzle length becomes longer, nozzle will be getting

heavier and some point it does not worth to gained thrust.

Different kind of nozzle types like bell nozzles redirect the flow and keep the whole

thrust without loss. Also, aerospike type nozzles are exist which are always acting

like ideal in every ambient pressure. Every nozzle is designed for a specific ambient

pressure and gives best performance when the conditions are ideal. Hence, while

designing nozzles and whole system the main mission should be keep in mind and

designed the nozzle according to the mission.

1.3 Reason of Choosing Ammonium Nitrate as an Oxidizer

Oxidizer is the important ingredients which determines the characteristics of the solid

propellant. In military service missiles and rocket boosters which used in space

missions Ammonium Perchloride (AP) used as an oxidizer. AP is the most powerful

oxidizer which has proven performance. AP can burn very fast and gives high

combustion temperature. However it is extremely hard to supply even for the

commercial companies. Also, AP generally works with HTPB fuel and in this case

cyanide will be needed for curing HTPB. AP is very active and really easy to ignite

with a mistake. Thus, AP is not the case of this study even it is so suitable for rocket

systems.

Potassium Nitrate (KN) is relatively easy to find against AP. Safety concern is more

reasonable and most of amateur rocket projects’ small boosters made with KN. As a

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fuel, epoxy or sugar can be used simply. Unfortunately it has really low energy when

compared with others and for a high power solid rocket propellant KN is not enough.

There are rare choices like Nitro-glycerin, however these chemicals are extremely

dangerous to use and can never be the oxidizer of an amateur rocket propellant.

Final choice is Ammonium Nitrate (AN). AN is middle of the AP and KN about

supply resources. However, it is totally more powerful than KN even if not as much

as AP. AN can not be ignited by itselves in normal conditions which is exactly the

most important value for amateur rocketry. All details about AN will be discussed in

this study. Because of safety and performance factors AN is choosed for oxidizer of

high power amateur solid rocket propellant.

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2. PROPELLANT OVERVIEW

Ammonium Nitrate is a promising solid rocket propellant oxidizer for many

researchers. Its complicated structure makes difficult to work with AN. Nevertheless

with correct fuel selection and necessary additives it is possible to take performance

from AN. In the table it can be seen that the different Isp values taken from very

professional AP oxidized propellants.

In this study, main goal is passing 220 Isp with considering every small detail and

create safe, cheap and powerful solid propellant. 220 Isp value has performed before

with AN using best methodologies by Richard Nakka. After him new studies have

performed but not all of them calcualte Isp with real tests. It should be keeped in

mind that, main goal is creating a propellant composition and manufacturing tests for

beginner researchers. For the best performance AP used instead of AN, also in AN

based compositions different additives would be choosed.

2.1 Oxidizer

Ammonium Nitrate is an important ammonium resource. Its main usage area

fertilizers and explosives like most of the other oxidizers. It was discovered in 1659

by Glauber. In explosives, AN has been using in Gunpowder, nitroglycerin and TNT

as an additive for a long time. In rocket propellants its usage restricted because of its

complicated characteristics. Even tough, its price, its accessibility and totally

environmentally smokeless combustion products are making AN is so attractive for

new generation oxidizer with the developing technology and new methods. Its

drawbacks starts with its low energy capability compared to perchlorides. But most

important problems with AN is its hygrospic structure and phase transformation

behaviour. These problems not directly effect the performance, nevertheless making

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the perfect composition becomes harder in terms of mixing. Properties of AN can be

sen in table.

TABLE

Disposition of AN to self-extinguish is challengetive factor to overcome. Because of

water that occurs while decomposition process, combustion process slows down.

There are two reactions that occur simultaenously.

REACTIONS

As a result of these reactions in atmospheric pressures combusiton temperature can

not go beyond its melting temperature. However, in rapid burns at high pressures like

in the rocket motor, decomposition becomes different and gives products of nitric

acid and ammonia. The phase table of AN can be seen below:

TABLE

AN is a hard to use oxidizer because of these characteristics. The chemical structure

of the oxidizer should be examined well for not missing any point in combustion

process to get higher performance from the propellant. In future works, Phase

Stabilized Ammonium Nitrate would be used. It is hard to find and need a difficult

process to produce.

In this study standart AN is used. It saflık derecesi vesaire

GÖRSEL

2.2 Fuel Selecting

Fuel selecting issue is as much as complicated with learning of proper use of AN.

Especially, for a researcher which is dealed with more simple propellants should be

try standart fuels. However, because of decomposition characteristic of AN those are

11

not work. Sugar and epoxy fueled propellants with the oxidizer KN is breaking the

AN and ammonia comes out which blocking a proper combustion.

HTPB and CTPB (hydroxyl and carboxy terminated polybutadiens) are generally

used with AP. Because of curing agents are hazardous HTPB and CTPB did not have

an option for any kind of amateur rocketry. According to the experiments of Richard

Nakka also polyurethanei silicone polyester does not work by only themselves. Cl

has a violating effect of combustion of AN. Hence, polychloroprene (C4H5Cl)n

which is known as Neoprene can be considered as a fuel. Cl atoms inside of the

neoprene naturally makes the same effect of using NaCl or any Cl compounds.

RESİM

Pure Neoprene is not so hard to find however generally can be found in solid phase.

Solvents of Neoprene are Methil Ethil Ketone, benzene, or toluene. Most suitable

one is MEK because of safety concerns. However, it takes time to completely solved

in. Therefore, industrial contact adhesives are started to examine because most of

them contains Neoprene and easily can be found in industrial zones which is for

mostly car and motorcycle repairs. These contact adhesives have nearly %20-25 of

neoprene and after the curing percentage of neoprene will increase because the other

chemicals will fly away. While using contact adhesive it is important to know the

percentage of neoprene inside it and mixing enough neoprene in the composition.

For this research, pure neoprene tried to be solved but could not be used. Best results

have taken with Würth’s Contact Adhesive.

FOTO

2.3 Additives

Besides oxidizer and fuel mostly solid rockcet propellants contains additives to

increase the efficiency and/or power of the propellant. These additivies sometimes

have direct effects to the performance, and sometimes has effects of working easier

and affects not directly the propellant but the other ingredients. Generally, in standart

rokcet propellants Al, Mg, Zc can be used as performance enhancers. These are

chosen from metals and increase directly the Isp of the propellant with increasing

combustion temperature and mass flow rate. There are also additives in categories of

12

binder (generally fuel), plasticizers and so on. These are giving the mechanical

properties to the grains to keep the propellant safe, long lived, and easy to placed in

the rocket motor.

2.3.1 Aluminum

2.3.2 Sulfur

2.4 Chemical Characteristics

2.4.1 Challanges of ammonium nitrate usage

2.4.2 Challanges of aluminum usage

3. DEFINING PROPELLANT SPECIFICATIONS

Sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat,

sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.

Figure 2.1 : Advanced structures.

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tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero

eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo

dolores et ea rebum. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.

13

3.1 Propellant Composition

3.2 Solid Rocket Propellant Performance Analysis Program

3.3 Finalizing Propellant Calculations



eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gub rgren, no sea

takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed

diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna.






Table 2.1 : Table captions must be ended with a full stop.

Column A Column B Column C Column D

Row A Row A Row A Row A

Row B Row B Row B Row B

Row C Row C Row C Row C



eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,

consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et

dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo

dolores et ea rebum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed

diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed

diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.






14




15











Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam ….

Figure 3.1 : Neuron cell, adapted from Zadeh(1965).



eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.






EXAMPLE

FIGURE

16

At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gub rgren, no

sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed











diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna(3.1).

ttt yy 11 . (3.1)

Parameters are explained individually.






Equation numbers are bold and right-aligned.

Also see for support:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313017

Please delete this note before printing.

Equations must be centered.


17

Figure 3.2 : For multi-line figure captions, it is important that all the lines of the

caption are aligned.










diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna(3.2). Lorem

ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor

invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et

accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur

sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna

aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea

rebum. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy

eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.

EXAMPLE

FIGURE

Figures are

centered on

page. As

shown with

red line, two

lines must be

aligned.

Please delete

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18

Figure 3.3 : Figure captions must be ended with a full stop.

, min , ( , )A B A A B B A BD C C X C X C d X X (3.2)


tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. Lorem



accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.








diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Lorem



accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum.

EXAMPLE

FIGURE

19 11

Figure 3.4 : Landscape-oriented, full-page figure.

EXAMPLE

FIGURE

Page numbers must be on the

bottom-middle of short side

(when portrait-oriented), or

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landscape-oriented)

Please delete this note before

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9

20















diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna (Nelson, 1988).








diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum [1].

Nelson (1988) analized lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed



Citation at

the end of

sentence

Citation in

the

beginning

of sentence

Numbered

citation

Please

delete this

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21 11

Table 3.1 : Captioning in landscape-oriented pages: the most important aspect is to align the lines horizontally as given on this caption

example two lines.

Parametre

Column 2

Column 3

Column 4 Column 5

Sub-

column

Sub-

column

Sub-

column

Sub-

column

Sub-

column

Row 1 -7.680442 7.6986348 0.00 0.00 0.00 12 12

Row 2 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 3 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 4 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 5 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 6 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 7 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 8 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 9 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 10 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 11 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 12 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 13 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Row 14 140 - 0.50 0.00 0.00 0 0

Row 15 37.174357 37.16192697 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 24

Caption must be centered according to table. As indicated by the red line, text

on two lines must be aligned.


11

12

22

4. PROPELLANT MIXING

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor

invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et

justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gub rgren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem

ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut

lab ore sit et dolore magna.

4.1 Preparing Chemicals






4.2 Mixing and Finalizing



justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gub rgren, no sea

4.2.1 Mixing strategy for the perfect mixture




4.2.2 The hydraulic press issue

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sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna.



23

Figure 4.1 : Example figure.

This indicates that the ANN is accurate at base flow and flow height values lower then 3 m.

Table 4.1 : Example table.






sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut lab ore sit et dolore magna. Stet

clita kasd gub rgren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur




EXAMPLE

FIGURE

24

5. BURN RATE CALCULATIONS






5.1 Determining Burn Rate Constants

In this thesis, the necessary steps for constructing an end-to-end streamflow forecasting system

were discussed. These steps include the use

5.2 Strand Burner System Design




5.3 Manufacturing and Finalizing Strand Burner







invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua.

Figure 5.1 : Example figure in chapter 5.

EXAMPLE

FIGURE

25


Table 5.1 : Example table in chapter 5.













26

6. TESTING AMMONIUM NITRATE BASED SOLID ROCKET PROPELLANT

6.1 Strand Burner Testing

6.2 Expected Impulse

6.3 Calculated Results

6.4 Launch

7. RESULTS

8. CONCLUSION

9. FUTURE WORK

Figure 6.1 : Example figure in chapter 6.


Table 6.1 : Example table in chapter 6.









EXAMPLE

FIGURE

27





28

REFERENCES

Abrahart, R. J., and See, L. (1998). Neural Network vs. ARMA Modelling: Constructing

Benchmark Case Studies of River Flow Prediction. In GeoComputation ’98.

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on GeoComputation,

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Abrahart, R. J., and See, L.(2000). Comparing neural network and autoregressive moving

average techniques for the provision of continuous river flow forecasts in two

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Acar, M. H. and Yılmaz, P.(1997). Effect of tetramethylthiuramdisulfide on the cationic

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Box, G. E. P., and Jenkins, J. M. (1976).Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control.

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Burke, W.F. and Uğurtaş, G.(1974). Seismic interpretation of Thrace basin, TPAO internal

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Burlando, P., Rosso, R., Cadavid, L. G., and Salas, J. D.(1993).Forecasting of Short-term

Rainfall Using ARMA Models. J Hydrol. Vol. 144, no. 1-4, pp. 193-211.

Deci, E. L., and Ryan, R. M. (1991). An motivational approach to self: Integration in

personality. In R. Dienstbier (Ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Vol.38.

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IOC-UNESCO. (1981). International bathymetric chart of the Mediterranean, Scale

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LePichon, X. (1997).Personal communication.

McCaffrey, R. and Abers, G. (1988). SYN3: A program for inversion of teleseismic body

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Moore, C. (1991). Mass Spectrometry. In Encyclopedia of chemical technology (4th ed.) (Vol.

15, pp. 1071-1094). New York, NY: Wiley.

Nelson, M.R.(1988). Constraints on the seismic velocity structure of the crust and upper

mantle beneath the eastern Tien Shan, Central Asia, PhD Thesis, MIT,

Cambridge, MA.

References are listed alphabetically according to surname of author.

1 line spacing is set in this section.


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Roberts. S. and Jackson, J.A.(1991). Active normal faulting in central Greece: An overview,

in The Geometry of Normal Faults, Spec. Publ. Geol. Soc. Lond., 56, p. 125-

142, Eds. Roberts, A.M., Yielding, G. and Freeman, B., Blackwell Scientific

Publications,Oxford.

Sisaky, A., Golab, F. and Myer, B.(1989). Rust resistant potatoes, United Kingdom Patent,

No: 2394783 dated 23.1.1989.

Simpson, B. (Producer) (2004). The corporation [DVD]. Canada: Big Picture Media

Corporation.

TS-40561(1985). Çelik yapıların plastik teoriye göre hesap kuralları, Türk Standartları

Enstitüsü, Ankara.

Wegener, D. T., Kerr, N. L., Fleming, M. A., and Petty, R. E. (2000). Flexiblecorrections of

juror judgments: Implications for jury instructions.Psychology, Public Policy, &

Law, 6, 629-654.

Wolchik, S. A., West, S. G., Sandler, I. N., Tein, J., Coatsworth, D., Lengua, L.,et al. (2000). An experimental evaluation of theory-based mother and mother-child

programs for children of divorce. Journal of Consultingand Clinical Psychology,

68, 843-856.

Zuckerman, M., and Kieffer, S. C. (in pres). Race differences in face-ism: Does

facialprominence imply dominance? Journal of Personality and

SocialPsychology.

Harper, E. B. (2007). The role of terrestrial habitat in the population dynamics and

conservation of pond-breeding amphibians (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved

from http://edt.missouri.edu/

Star trek planet classifications. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Date retrieved: 07.06.2010, adress:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_planet_classifications

Url-1 <http://www.mohid.com>, date retrieved 29.06.2006.

Url-2 <http://www.elet.polimi.it/>,date retrieved 10.01.2007.

Vanden, G., Knapp, S., and Doe, J. (2001). Role of referenceelements in the selection of

resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5,

117-123. Date retrieved: 13.07.2010, adress:http://jbr.org/articles.html

References retrieved via internet should be listed at the end.

If an author is not specified for an online reference, the full link and the date of access to the

webpage must be specified.


No dates

available.

Please

delete

this note

before

printing.

30

[1] Abrahart, R. J., and See, L.(1998). Neural Network vs. ARMA Modelling: Constructing

Benchmark Case Studies of River Flow Prediction. In GeoComputation ’98.

Proceedings of the Third International Conference on GeoComputation,

University of Bristol, United Kingdom, 17–19 September (CD-ROM).

[2] IOC-UNESCO(1981). International bathymetric chart of the Mediterranean, Scale

1:1,000,000, 10 sheets, Ministry of Defence, Leningrad.

While listing references in numeric order, the order of appearance is

taken into account.

1 line spacing must be set in this section.


31

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Maps

32

APPENDIX A

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e)

(f)

Figure A.1 : Regional maps: (a)Precipitation. (b)Flow. (c)Evapotranspiration …

While captioning multi figures, each figure must be numbered with letters and described in the

caption (if each figure is cited individually in main text body). In case the general caption is

sufficient, numbering with letters is not required in appendices.


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“APPENDICES”, but must not be indicated in Table of

Contents.


33

Table A.1 : Example table in appendix.





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