A new and effective method to enhance the burn rate of composite solid propellants

In this paper, a new technique to add catalyst to a composite propellant has been studied. The new technique involves coating the catalyst (copper chromite) on the surface of ammonium per-chlorate to obtain Catalyst Coated Ammonium Perchlorate. Studies were also conducted to find out the weight fraction of the catalyst to be added to ammonium per-chlorate in order to achieve high burn rates for pellets. It was noticed that around 10 % copper chromite gave a high pellet burn rate of 30 mm/s at 70 bar. When this catalyst coated AP was used in the composite propellant, the burn rates obtained were around 40 m/s at 70 bar. The burn rate pressure index was 0.4, similar to the value obtained with a non-catalyzed propellant.