Influence of Various Flame Temperatures of the Gun Propellant on the Effectiveness of the Erosion Inhibitor and Relevant Mechanisms

Abstract

The development of high energy gun propellants faces significant challenges in terms of erosion, partly due to the inadequate effectiveness of erosion inhibitors. In this paper, the influence of quite different flame temperature of five gun-propellants on erosion-reducing efficiency of four representative inhibitors materials (talc/TiO 2 / PDMS/ Paraffin) were studied in vented erosion vessel tester. From aspects of morphologies and element compositions of erode steel samples, as well as the pressure and heat generated by propellant burning, the relevant erosion-reducing processes and mechanisms were discussed. The results indicated that erosion inhibitors should be appropriately selected according to the type of gun propellant. The erosion of gun propellants having extremely high flame temperature of 3810 K were hardly reduced using talc, TiO 2 , and PDMS inhibitors, which can generate numerous solid particles aggravating the melt-wipe process. While paraffin exhibits a uniquely positive erosion-reducing efficiency for the gun propellant having a flame temperature of 3810 K, that was attributed to the mitigated melt-wipe process. The inference was further supported by the high-volume cooling gas, resulting from the higher burning pressure of propellants loading with paraffin and excellent heat absorption capacity of paraffin tested with propellants having higher propellant flame temperature. The obtained results indicated that the factors of flame temperature of gun propellants should be taken into the design and composition optimization of an effective inhibitor. This work could provide potential reference for the development of future novel inhibitors, which serves as high energy gun propellants.