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Determination of propellant formulation by ballistic requirement is an important area of research in recent times. In this study, a theoretical method for the design of gun propellant formulation using primary data of ingredients and necessary thermochemical properties of the resultant propellant was established. The employed method is based on a mathematical model of thermochemical properties of the propellant by optimizing the heat of explosion of the propellant using the fmincon tool in MATLAB. A graphical user interface (GUI) based code was generated and developed for the formulation design of solid gun propellants. The designed code was verified by available data in the literature. Such code will be useful to the researchers working in the area of high energy materials for the design of unknown propellant compositions. Further, it can be extended to redesign the existing propellant formulation in order to enhance the ballistic performance.

The state-6f-the-art in gun projec~ile technology has been used for the aerodynamic stabilisation. This approach is acceptable for guided and controlled rockets but the free-flight rockets suffer from unacceptable dispersjon. Sabot projectiles with both spin and fms developed during the last decade need careful analysis. In this study, the second method of Liapunov has been used to develop stability criterion for a projectile to be designed with small fins and is made to spin in the flight. This criterion is useful for the designer.

For a spinning projectile, the initial stability condition is 2 = 1+ (4 K 3 / K 2 2 ) > 0. In the present study, this condition has been modified for the malalignments arising due to pressure gradient and damping moment for an FSAPDS projectile. The equations of motion are established for the first phase of motion. A mathematical model for the first phase of motion has been developed. The effect of perturbation on the trajectory and stability of motion are discussed. It is proved that if 3 K (a parameter appearing due to perturbation) (-K 2 2 2 /4 ), the initial stability of motion will breakdown.