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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.78, No.2 (2017)

Research paper

Basic properties of hydroxyl ammonium nitrate (HAN) based monopropellant for thrusters
Nobuyuki Azuma, Yosui Niboshi, Tomoharu Matsumura, Keiichi Hori, Toshiyuki Katsumi, Keigo Hatai, Yuta Sugiyama and Yoshio Nakayama
p.31-36

Abstract

Basic properties such as toxicity, thermal decomposition temperature, burning rate, and detonability for hydroxyl ammonium nitrate (HAN)/ ammonium nitrate (AN)/ methanol/water mixture solutions are discussed in the paper based on experimental data and qualitative evaluation. From toxicity evaluation, it is expected that HAN based monopropellants have potential as a "Green" propellants, which means we can treat them without self-contained atmospheric protective ensemble (SCAPE) suits. Thermal decomposition temperatures of HAN/AN/methanol/water mixture solutions with various mixture ratios have also been evaluated. Burning rate measurements of combustion waves under pressurized conditions have been taken for many HAN/AN/methanol/water mixture propellants in order to understand the burning rate and process. Then, the contribution of each component of the mixture has become clear. Finally, we found that stoichiometric solution (SHP163) has a low burning rate over a wide range of pressures. From the large scale gap test (LSGT), we found that SHP163 has low sensitivity compared to other high energetic materials.

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Keywords

hydroxyl ammonium nitrate, basic properties, thermal decomposition temperature, burning rate, large scale gap test

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