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Science and Technology of Energetic Materials

Vol.71, No.4 (2010)

Research paper

Combustion mechanism of mixtures of guanidine nitrate, ammonium nitrate, and basic copper nitrate
Yusuke Wada, Keiichi Hori, and Mitsuru Arai
p.83-87

Abstract

With the aim of developing ammonium nitrate (AN) for conventional use as a new oxidizer for gas-generating agents in automobile airbag systems, the combustion characteristics of model gas-generating agents consisting of guanidine nitrate (GN), basic copper nitrate (BCN), and AN were investigated. Based on the results of strand burner tests, four conclusions were obtained : (1) the presence of BCN allows ignition of GN/AN mixtures, which do not ignite without BCN, and sustained combustion at lower pressure (about1MPa) ; (2) the nature of the combustion residues from the GN/AN/BCN mixtures varied depending on the combustion conditions and the mixing ratio of the sample mixture ; (3) the value of the pressure exponent n was smaller (0.41-0.45) in mixtures with a high AN content or when the test was conducted under low pressure (<5MPa), but larger (0.67-0.77) in mixtures with a low AN content or when the test was conducted under high pressure (>5MPa) ; (4) the combustion wave could be divided into four regions based on the temperature and phase of the mixture. Based on these results, the model suggested for the mechanism of combustion was one in which diffusion combustion and homogeneous combustion co-exist.

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Keywords

ammonium nitrate, combustion, linear burn rate.

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